Word Huddle + Inspiration (2 tags)

Here are two tags -
Tag -1 : By Hiren
Word Huddle

My blog decided to talk to me and here is an application that it used to interact with me to indicate whats on my mind these days when I am blogging.
Here is what it spoke :

So the most prominent word is New York - the city that is currently shaping me.

I tag anyone who feels like knowing what their blog thinks about them.

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Tag 2 : By Joy

Inspiring Characters

This tag is about listing top 10 literary characters. Its been a while I have read any fictional book. My inspiration solely comes from reading about history of architecture - architects, reading about their work/theories, and experiencing their built work. So am taking liberty here and showcasing 12 projects by 6 prominent architects (2 dead and 4 still practicing) whose work I have visited over the years.

1) Le Corbusier : A Swiss born architect who is famous for his contribution to modern architecture. Most of his groundbreaking projects are in Europe. He was invited by Jawaharlal Nehru to masterplan Chandigarh (one of the only two planned cities in the world - the other being Brasilia, Brazil).

The Palace of Assembly - Chandigarh - (image source)

Shodhan House - Ahmedabad - (image source)

2) Charles Correa : I have had the honor of working with Indias most prolific architect practicing out of Bombay. He has done ground breaking work on Urban Issues and low cost shelter. He is also the chief architect for Navi Mumbai. I have visited most of his major commisions around India. Here are two of the projects that characterizes his style.

Kanchenjunga Apartment - Bombay - (image source)

Jawahar Kala Kendra - Jaipur - (image source)

3) Steven Holl : Architect practising out of New York whom I had the opportunity to meet and get a book he wrote signed by him. He is a true poet who carves out spaces and embellishes them with light, color, texture and dynamism. One of his most famous projects is Kiasma in Helsinki. Here are two of his projects in US.

Simmons Hall - MIT - (image source)

Storefront for Art and Architecture - New York - (image source)

4) Frank Gehry - Current master architect whos buildings have become big tourist attractions.Some of his most groundbreaking work include the Guggenheim Museum - Bilbao, Spain, Walt Disney Concert Hall -Los Angeles, US, Experience Music Project - Seattle, US. Here are two projects that I have visited.

State Center - MIT - (image source)

IAC Building - New York - (image source)

5) Frank Lloyd Wright : He was the most prolific architect from US for the last century who exploited materials, design and engineering like no one had done before him. Here are two of his projects that explore the strength of concrete.

The Solomon Guggenheim Museum - New York - (image source)

Falling Waters - Pennsylvania (near Pittsburgh) - (image source)

This post in no way justifies the achievements of these architects. Have provided wiki links to each of them if you are interested to learn more.

Raveena Tan Done

The title of the post just shows you how I was haunted by the conjugated word "to do" in different situations this week.

Starting as of last Saturday - my dear car - whom I have called my friend in many tags here - died - can you believe it - a day before Friendship Day. I took it to few mechanics and all they said was nothing can be DONE. (so listen to this song - its me singing to my dear car - we DID spend some real good times together ;))
So come Monday - I had to rent a car for the week. It had to be DONE in order to be mobile.
To add to the woes - this week my boss is on his annual summer vacation - being a small company - I am handling the daily rituals - and there was a long list of things to DO in my inbox.
As such weeks go - everyone has an emergency when you are alone - Murphy fucking knows when to DO YOU - I dont like to talk about work on the blog but this is to share how I amused myself this week in dire straits.
Tuesday get a frantic call from a site from a contractor - JEW HAB TO COM TO DA SITEEE IBBEDIATELY - he is spanish and thats how his english sounds...so after a little back and forth - he says - THE BUILDIN HIS GHOWING TO PHALL DOWN.... - so irritated at this point with everything and that he had not read the drawings correctly - I simply told him - DO one thing Jose (pronounced HOSEE - in spanish J sounds like H) - simply get out of the building before it falls down. (had to take care of the issues later nonetheless)
Then I am designing a house for a chinese client - the entire family is short and thin so their perspective is everything has to be small. An excerpt from one of the talks that really DID happen - on Wednesday

Mrs. Hui - I think these bedrooms that you want are very small
Is it so?
Yes from my experience - some bathrooms that I design are bigger than these bedrooms.
She got a bit taken aback. But Shin Taaan we no gonna spenda timea in ze bedroom long...you DO understand
Ok - but someday you will eventually sell this house - and then the buyer will not like these sizes.
Noooooo - (the usual long no - just like Rusell Peters mentions in his videos describing a chinese nooooo) - thisa bedroom is phor my lill daufter.
Ok so when she grows old wont she find this room small...
Again Nooooooooo - we mighta move of out by then
(what the fuck DID I just tell her two sentences ago)
So thats how it went - had too many calls from people asking "CAN YOU DO THIS FOR ME URGENTLY?" or "SEE WHAT YOU CAN DO" or "DID YOU DO IT YET?"
In between all this fun - remember I told you my car was gone - so Monday thru Thursday all evening I spent at the car dealership - test driving.
In one such incident - I took my cousin with me - he was testing this car and driving and braking and simply enjoying on a road and swerving in traffic - and all I had to tell the sales person sitting in the car - to get a kodak amazement moment was - DO YOU REALIZE THAT THIS GUY DOES NOT HAVE A LICENSE ( he is supposed to make a copy of the license before we test drive - but being new he forgot to make a copy of my cousins license - too bad I remembered that) Wish, I really wish I had a camera mounted in the car somewhere to capture his face.

Well anyways - enough crap - TGIF - have a nice weekend - I relished it and now I am almost done with this week. Will take care of the rest of the client crap and then enjoy my new car for the weekend.

IT HAS TO BE DONE RIGHT!

Friendship Day

Tommorow August 3 is Friendship Day and I have already received emails for the same. So celebrating it, I will share some interesting news/stories of some of my close friends here and in India.

First, as of next week, August 8th is the begining of the Beijing Olympics' 2008 - and one of my close friends from school Malav Shroff is going to represent India as a port stopover manager (news clipping) for the Indian sailing team. He is a former olympian at Athens 2004 in the 49'er class.

Secondly I met a very close friend whom I know from childhood, Amrish Shah, after 16 years, last week when he was traveling the States. Spent three nostalgic evenings with him remembering the good old childhood days. He being interested in Acting/Dramatics, quit school in 9th to pursue his dream. Struggled for few years with Channel V and then Star TV. He has turned producer director and is now co writing a movie for a sequels sequel - Don 3 with Farhan Akhtar.

And now something about my roommates, the first friends I made when I came to the US to study. We were six of us were sharing a house. One day we decided to go to Exhange Place along the Hudson river to get a great view of the two World Trade Center towers. This was our first visit. After the initial first five minutes of "Oh Ahh What a great View", one of the guys had a brilliant idea. He put forth a question to the rest of us.
"What will be the force and trajectory required to hurl a ball from top of WTC so that it reaches across to where we were standing on the pier in Exhange Place"
See the diagram below.

Image Courtesy Google earth plus photoshop overlays

I am not going to discuss the technical aspects of the discussion that ensued with detailed calculations, theories and assumptions. The point is that we all learnt "How to spoil a perfectly good evening trying to figure out something that is irrelevant and of no use to anyone"

This is what happens when you have three roommates who are IIT'ians and doing reasearch here, another two from BVP Pune, one doing research and the other studying management and me an architect.

But these are the friends who stood by in every difficult situation and become part of an extended family. For each of us WE were the support system through out little journey away from home studying here. So this post is dedicated to them.

Also wishing all the bloggies who visit here - as they are my new set of E-friends.

Happy Friendship Day!

Happenings

Latest story on shortceedy - New York New York - Link on the sidebar.
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A new collaborative blog Ambrosia is up and running :

( Contributors - Princess Mia, Gunj, Anindita, Vrij and Ceedy )

This is a food blog, started by a bunch of foodie bloggers to express our love for food. So anything n everything gotta do with food is what you will find here, be it recipies, restaurant reviews, facts and more. Whats unique about this blog is that the authors of this blog are from different countries and cultures so you can find lotsa variations here...So lets wine n dine....Bon Appetite!!!

Current posts :

1 - Ambrosia welcomes you - Princess Mia
2 - Costa Coffee - Gunj

I will update my side bar with updates from time to time.

Your suggestions and inputs are welcome.

Do check it out.

Thanks!!!!!
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We all are conversing in a common language - Why then the differences?

Goof Ups

It was an evening of goof up I guess.
First the last post "NY PEEK TURES" was to complement the short story
"New York New York" on my other blog shortceedy.
It has been a while since I updated and added a story - so I invite the veterans to visit it and the newbies to take a shot....give you bahumulya (invaluable) comments....

Second it has been brought to my attention by few bloggies that the last post was all bonkers in a different browser but worked well in another one.

So the Fire Folks kindly follow the advice of Vijeta Pandit in this song from the movie Love Story from 1981 when viewing the last post to view it as it was meant to be - thanks...




Sorry about the goof ups....ab main kya karoon! (What can I do Oh Guru Oh guru)