American Nightmares

Another one of my favorite subject ARCHITECTURE - actually my life line from where I administer the intravenous fluid to survive this physical world.
I am working here in the US for the past 5 years in a small office that deals with Residential Projects. I opted to shift to a smaller office from a big one - to come in touch with the REAL PEOPLE - WITH REAL DREAMS (obviously based on thier income) and PROBLEMS (created becoause they dream bigger than they can eschew).
I think to be a good architect you have to be socially sensitive and design to exhilerate the spirit.
It has been a very interesting journey - I have met people from all walks of life -people from all different nations - religions - aspirations -dreams - apprehensions.
But all these people have common goal of attaining the "American Dream" - their Home.
But it is sad that I am unable to push the boundaries in this contractor-mortgage dominated field of practice. Any Tom-Dick-Harry who can weild his weapons of mass production (construction tools) can become a contractor.
Their lack of sensitivity backed by the ever hanging cloud of mortgage and loan payments - trickle down on bastardizing the home designs.
I have designed houses where the bathrooms for a certain class of people is a bedroom for the other where a family of two three share that room. But the windows and the configuration and the materials and the look of the houses is almost the same.
It is very surprising - a country like US - priding itself for individualistic growth - the individual has accepted this form of architecture.
I also beleive the social problems in this country are because of the way these houses are - lacking sufficient daylight - smelly, creaky and cramped - (most because of the absurd zoning laws) - people tend to avoid being home or are just simply stressed once they are there.
I simply wonder sometimes and ask is this really THE AMERICAN DREAM or NIGHTMARE

Calvin and Hobbes

I am a big fan of Calvin and Hobbes and admire Bill Watterson for his wonderful comic strip. I have the entire collection of his 10 years work and everytime I read it I loose myself into a phase of life I wish I never came out off....childhood.
The mischievous way in which he questions and lives life reflects a state of mind which is in constant influx of data - analysing it - rejecting it and poseing a new question - that really makes you think of many facets of life that we take for granted.
Childhood is a time when we are innocent (most of us are) and we live life as a adventourous journey rather than a daily chore.
Why is it then we give up this wonderful feeling of being a child, why is maturity that only brings a lot of pressure and sadness a journey that one is forced to partake rather than live a life of free spirit.
Dont get me wrong here as critics will question that as we grow older we need to be more stable- I dont deny that but like my friend Calvin - I just feel like asking - if everyone out there has an issue with the way their life is going- isnt there a better way to maybe try living our lives.
I may or may not suceed - but I will not regret trying it - it makes the journey adventourous just like my Childhood.

If interested you can follow this strip @ http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/

Indifference

I saw a French Movie yesterday - "Romance". There was a very interesting scenario.
The girl who is in love - says that she is miserable because she is either in love or hating her partner. The only way out of this misery is to be "indifferent" towards the other person.

It got me thinking of how true this is in all phases of life not just love. We are always questioning why a certain thing happened - good or bad - this shows our love or hatred for the situation. And all our future actions or worries or enjoyment are based on this one thing that is already history.
Instead can we become indifferent - step back for once and see how things were before - not in the future - can we become that person - with whom this episode never occured - so that there is no love or hatred - just indifference.
It is difficult to comprehend - even for myself what I am asking - but maybe the key to lot of world problems lies in this little aspect.
Imagine countries went back in time and reinvigorated past friendships rather than solving current problems one after the other - as a retaliation to others actions.
Or life before this advent of cars - it is not impossible to revert back to it. This way solving global warming will not be necessary.
Well I may sound absurd and be dreaming of Utopia - but hey guess what like Einstein puts it

If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it. ~Albert Einstein

One mistake is all it takes

I am sometimes sad for my self and also sometimes amazed. I question a lot - and there are sometimes no answers as the questions asked are never thought about or are not allowed to be thought about.
We lead our entire lives safely comforting everyone who is involved or connected with us - at all levels - family, profession, education. We want to prove our worth and also get appreciation for what its worth.
We become comfortable with life and its daily routines so much so that we mechanize ourselves. Lead a robotic life who has brains - cognitive and intellectual powers but only to be used within this safety zone or net.
For once in my life - I was aware of myself - I questioned - I fumbled.
The foundation shattered.
Now there is no one to prove to and no one to appreciate.
One mistake is all it takes...........

Lot has changed in my life recently.

The last year has been like a tsunami for my soul. I underwent a personal battle with all different kinds of feelings. Life is a funny race - we are put into it since we are born
- the patterns of life
- eat drink sleep poop stage
- read write understand stage
- read write more and comprehend stage
- then specialized read write to get a stamp of approval that one has acheived a mastery of a certain subject stage
- then show off those skills at work
- collect and accumalate and settle with a family stage.........
the race continous and we are not allowed to stop or restrospect - WHY WHY all this......

God Warriors - A CNN Special - My view

Past three days from Tuesday to Thursday CNN aired a special by Christian Amanpour : http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/gods.warriors/.
It was an intersting program to witness as it opened my eyes to the reasons of struggle of millions of people around the world based on the fanatic following of a particular religion. The program talked about the Jews, Muslims and Christians. The point of criticism here is that the program was too focused on certain countries that the United States has personal interest in.

The world is currently divided by imaginary boundaries that have country names as tags. Protection and respect of the "country" is taught to be the primary function of every human for that particular country. Even then there are innumerable wars across these imaginary lines as people dont agree on certain issues, or there are hidden agendas to procure energy, labor, food etc etc.

Beyond that now countries with one common tag - namely similar religion are teaming up against other countries grouped under a different religion. So the teams have reduced as the players have merged.

One thing though people are forgetting is that they are still physically bounded by the EARTH. We talk about GREEN LIVING - but not about ONE LIVING.

It seems every religion is waiting for a messiah to emerge and make the world peaceful. Instead of waiting for the messiah - can each of us help the next person and help make the world better - rather than killing so many in the pretext of someone else doing the job to save us.

Religion has moved from its spiritual existence to that of a political agenda. Power struggle to control the world based on converting people to follow a certain way of life is ridiculous.

I come from India - where according to me religion is a national time pass. If not for religion most of the billion people would not know what to do in their daily existence.

My question to every person from every religion is what are you REALLY seeking. Will being in a lonely group that has survived after all this madness make you HAPPY. What guarantee is there that there is a MESSIAH and he/she will come. What guarantee is there that after you survive this religios strife you will not divide again to make smaller group who share personal interests.

Wake up and relaize that if you do beleive that there is GOD - and you really want to make him happy - you have to be first happy within yourself - not hate your neighbour who chose to pray in a different format then yours. Realize that the final goal of each of us is the same - and instead of fighting amongst each other -let us help each other to acheive this common goal.

Introduce my self to ME

This is my first post and first attempt to blog and speak UP to the unknown readers out there. My interests lies with how people from different parts of the world evolve.
There are innumerable factors governing ones development - parents, siblings, institutions, religious establishements, governance and so on and so forth. These factors imbibe in us a sense of boundaries within which our mind and body functions and reacts and cultivates. This is what makes us grounded and sure.
Besides this we have our dreams and nightmares - dreams unsettle if we pursue them or neglect them and most nightmares are unsettling.
It is fascinating that even though all the previously mentioned factors determine the way we lead our lives - there are other factors that make us look and accept beyond. This whole revolution of computers around the world has transcended all the other factors and many people are "worshipping" it as a self sustaining life force. The reactions to the world are now virtual and not limited to the physical space that we were born into.
This is phase where my mind and body is in a constant upheaval, there is a constant thirst to learn new things - as even a lapse of few months will make me and my skills obsolete and at the same time there is a constant satisfaction of having learnt a new idea. But this is shortlived and now we dont or we are forced not to enjoy the fruits of our labor. We cant sit back, relax and say that it, now I have mastered it.
Do you think that this influx of constant choices will or has psychological impact on our daily lives.