beginings

time to start planning again. its been about 1 month of blank space now. well i did want some free time, but perhaps it should not spin out of control.

its time to start something new. what i really want is to work on project basis, where i only need to work on ONE exciting project. a project that needs me to do some extensive research, research that really means something.. research that brings some new insights to forefront. and then some eally exciting design work. don't know if i want to be in delhi for this or not.

need to start looking.

music

a few days ago i went for a small music concert...
they did all kinds of music, the singers were very obviously enjoying themselves. the beat was fun, and i strangely could not keep the tears out of my eyes. Instead of simpy enjoying a good concert, i felt left out. Something i had not let myself think about for so long, just lunged at me from the stage...

where has all the music in my life gone? if i dared to be honest, wouldn't i still love to sing... wouldn't i love to part of this group that was creating all of that...

ever since i lost my voice i just locked the whole world of music and stayed away from it... but what should i do? i miss it so much..

and since i have opened this crazy pandora's box.... out come the same old questions...there are so many things i want to do, so many things that i could become briliant at, if i gave it its due time... but why do i just never stick to ANY one of my fancies for long enough? its almost as if while i begin to become good at one thing, a crazy fear siezes me that i'm loosing out on everything else... i move on, and pick something else... and the cycle repeats...

is this the way it is always going to be?

and back from kashmir...

got back from srinagar a few days ago. feels strange to have so little to do! And i wasn't such a small cog in the whole task after all.... did manage to make some use of my skills in the end! Now all those forms are back, and as simple as they were, there are still scores of mistakes, can't even imagine what would have happened if they had not been simplified...

But i'm not happy about the way things are moving... or rather that they are not moving... time is slowly spilling into winter, and we still are not spelling out stratigies to be there at a time when the most help will be required. In all actuality our team has done exactly what we said other organisations would do..... pack up and leave in a few months. the whole point was to stay through the winter, and build up stratigies, and training amterial till feb end.... don't seem to get even a whiff of that....

and then there is the pessimism that is this a fight worth fighting.... at the end what are we really asking for? it is a natural disaster... it is a time people need to to build themselves back... is it really worth it to fight on small points?

wish i had more time.... wish i did not have to choose... wish i did not have to leave....

in Srinagar!!

Been a loooong time since i wrote here.

lots has happened, like i finished my project in chennai.... came to delhi to have a good long month of relaxation... in the meanwhile an earthquake stuck Kashmir.... an now here i am in Kashmir trying to help in setting up a relief and rehabilitation coordination centre!!

its been only 3 to 4 days here, but its been terribly interesting. meeting young activists on a daily basis, trying to figure out how to simplify complex survey forms so that it will be possible to fill them at some point!! seeking an office getting set up from scratch.... seeing people taking HUGE resonsibilities.... mobolising people..... quite a task.

And even though i'm a terribly small cog in this whole business, it feels good to be a part of it anyway... wish i could figure out a slightly better way to make use of my own skills for this cause..

perhaps i will get a few ideas in time to come.... hope that won' be too late...!

metaphors...

just just got a nice idea...

again relating to humor in product design.
its about metaphors.
understanding and creating metaphors is perhaps one of the most creative prosess of creative thinking... metaphors are abstract associations... here one completely different situation/ object/ animal, is related to another absurd situation.... and somehow very astute conclusions are made.

very often in most languages... ( in this i might be wrong...) metaphors are seemingly funny when one first hears them.. perhaps because of the absurd connection they strive towards... but some crazy truth in them hits very hard... that perhaps could even be called high quality wit...

a lot of design is about finding the right metophors... sometimes for functional reasons, - so that people can make connections even when the object / graphic image is new to them..... a lot of form abstraction too is heavily dependant on metaphors....

And finally coming to humor....( again!) ...This perhaps could be the 'highest' form of humor in product design.... abstact associations, which are metaphorical in nature, which add new meaning and a unique functionality to a product....!!

just the seed of the idea... will need to flesh it out too!!

Phases

Its strange how one picks up pace and suddenly loses it... As the deadline approaches, one has to hold on to the tension and work... but then suddenly something strange has happened... the deadline is closer than ever before... but I seem to want to do everything besides work... the closer the its comes the calmer I'm becoming... or is it cause I'm giving up?

just quickly quickly jotting down some interesting ideas amma came up with... So while trying to find that seed, a starting point into my argument about indian asthetics in product design, she pointed out some interesting associations...
1. about design for timelessless - like a sari is flexible, and meant to passed down from generation to gernation, kitchen utensiles are meant to be passed down from generation to generation
2. about dance, and the inherant feeling of balanced poses, ballet versus, bharatnatyam
3. about about indian ideas and crafts tending to try to understnad the language of the material and obey, rather than the western concept of conquest, and make the material do something would rather not do!
4. indian classical music is introspective, while western is almost like a conquest..
5. Notions of cleanliness, and how they differ form the individual and the surroundings..

So some words like 'introspective' 'flexible' 'durable' ..

Makes sense?

frazzelling weekend!

Not used to dealing with sick people... it makes me nervous, don't know how to be stern, and responsible... so when peri ma fell really sick, and was delirious, refused to eat and take the medicine, i simply went besserk...

learning from saturday:
1. taking people to the hospital is not something that one only does when someone is dying, its something you can do for smaller reasons too!
2. when old people say, "don't tell my family how sick i am" don't always honour the wish... cause the family would never forgive you if something went seriously wrong, and you had simply wasted time honouring a wish... also when the family finds out from you and come to look after the person... they hardly hold it against you... always lovely to know how loved you are !!

yup thats it!

musty weather

lovely start to the day...

walked to my bus stop in what can be called perfect weather... in that shadowless lovely light.. and a little wiff of a drizzle...

finding fuel for the papers.... just that i wish there was some better way of finding interesting product images than going through google image searches, and other image search engines.... really whetre can i find images of products that experiment with either a 'sexual' form language... or products that suggest taboo humor? even finiding articles on the net seems to be a bleak option...

just the first day

hmmmm..
its the end of the day, and no idea as such to jot down.. but there will be many to come! hope my idea for the paper get some fuel through this..