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......