Mind your language please!

POWER OF THE WORD

seeing darkness

it was late night.
a deafening thunder and a blinding lightening.
power went off and there is pitch darkness everywhere.
i screamed in joy.
"why??" some one asked from some where in the dark.
what a question??
why? because now i can see the pure darkness!
the darkest of the dark. only in that darkest of the dark, i can see the rain better.
pure darkness?? darkness will show the rain better.
yes. how can one see the darkness with lights? how can you search silence with talks?
you can only see the darkness with no-lights.
when you go with darkness, it will show itself to you.
what an ammazing black !
inetially it is all pitch dark.
hold on for a while, give her time to dress up, and then mysteriously she emerges - revealing one by one her different shades of black.
first you see the vast sky in dark grey.
then, against this vast gray, graphically dotted by the lines of rain, are the huge black shapes of trees, moving wildly like possessed devils with flowing hair.
and then you will see the dead lamp posts standing like children frozen with fear.
focus your gaze further and you will see the main gate of your house closer to you in middle gray .
then slowly emerge the walls of your parapet and the handrails of stairs in light gray.
finally the wall closest to will appear in thee lightest gray.
the depths of darkness they produce together is unequal to anything you have ever seen.
the rhythmic sound of the rain falling through the leaves of the coconut tree on to my roof top provide such a musical accompanyment which beats thousand tanpuras.

and suddenly.....
there is electrifying lightening.
in that fraction of a second, the whole scene at once transforms as if lit by thousand suns, a totally different magical experience!!
your senses are ignited.
the heart pounding thunder follows.
you will be hit by the hair raising chill and the fresh aroma of the earth, just like a beautiful young woman rushing naked out of the bath room.
now i know why earth is always termed as woman , not man.
it is an unforgettable multisensory experience!!
lights would have been such an intrusion in this romance.
and you ask me 'why'?
........ a thud.
i jump, startled.
two sparks of eyes. and a black mass. the cat!!
huh!
i close my eyes and immeddiately i become attuned, like the radio tuner, to distant sounds far away- the clanking in the kitchen, the dog bark on the street and the drowning of the traffic far away.
(to be continued by you.....)

Sparsh

saw sparsh. after long time.
yes. sparsh speaks.
Sparsh speaks more eloquently than words.
i know sai paranjapey as colleague board member at NID.
she would be delighted to know that a new age youth is sensitive to the subtleties of her old forgotten sparsh.
Not everybody likes sparsh. I do.
Last night I was watching ‘nottinghill’ and interestingly, I find lot of similarities to ‘sparsh’at a very deeper level. only the contexts differ. The stories are different but the concerns are the same.

Ironical it may seem, but to me, sparsh is not about the physical touch.
It is not about widow..
it is not about blindness either.
I think, sparsh is about fear.
the fear of entering into a relationship.
the fear of love.
The fear of belonging.
the fear of loosing ones individuality in life. And most importantly,
the fear of loosing ones self- dignity, which is more than life.

the best thing about the film is the way that fear is shown.

i feel that the film has an overall delicacy which only a woman can make me feel. a woman director only can make such film.
look at the way the development of feeling for each other (shabana and shah) is shown: over amjad ali khan's wonderful sarod notes,(the right sound for love);
and the quiet way she expresses her love to him.
remember the scene where shah accidentally touches her dead husbands photo and realises her marital situation. it is depicted so sightlessly, so soundlessly and so briefly, all in a fraction of a second.
that is really cinematic brilliance.

another scene which is worth remembering is this. when shah bursts with anger, shabana does not ask him to cool down. she gently and soothingly comments that how much pain he must be holding inside him. When some one close to me gets angry, that is what exactly I feel.
the film is about love. but the love is shown through not only the main characters but also through the other minor characters too.
the children of the school love shabana too and one of the boys offers his thumb to her. its a very touching moment personally to me because it really happened with a student of mine (except that she is a girl of 26). receiving love is an art and unfortunately most of us are incapable of it.
the little boy paplu almost died because shabana did not bother for his love towards her. her insensitivity hurt him so badly.
there is no greater pain than rejected love. i know people who have died because of such insensitivity.
the duel fight between the two boys to win shabanas love is no way lesser than the classic duels where two suiters fight a duel till death. the most meaningful touch is paplu fighting with closed eyes because his opponent is blind.that is fairness. that is the law in classic duel. and he does it without being told by any one.what heroism in such a little kid!it puts the grown-ups to shame.

the best thing about sparsh is that though it is dealing with such an emotional subject as love, yet it does not make it soapy, sentimental chewing gum. there is maturity in the love shown in the film.
“sacrifice, seva, ‘mein kuch bhi karunga thumhare liye’ “ is all childish rubbish. there should be individuality and equal respect to each other. a true relationship is really ‘give and take’, and not the slave and master relationship. how many people understand this ? for the most Indian men, it is undigestable.

in one scene when shah heatedly proclaims that he can do anything entirely by himself and does not need anybody, shabana jokingly tells him " no, you cannot tie your neck tie" the scene is shown in a light vain but it has serious implications. to me it conveys that ‘ you may be capable of doing many things but its always a form of great security and pleasure that somebody else does it for you, without necessarily making you dependent on her/him.

The last scene tells it all, with the dialogue-“tum sach muuch andhey ho..” true. most of us are blind about others love. It is our incapacity, our disability, our terrible fear to reach and touch the other. The man needed that verbal slap to come to his senses. In ‘nottinghill’ it happens another way.
the film is most emphatic about one thing " kisi ko kami ko bar bar yad math dilao". pitying itself is bad, it pains like a wound. Mocking,which we sometimes do insensitively, is pouring chilli powder and salt on it.

i wish more people will see sparsh and get what it says in their head as well as in their heart.

why should you not be angry, sir?

preface: philosopher j.krishnamurti was once asked by a gentleman, "sir, i often get very angry with my wife.please tell me how can i stop getting angry?"
krishnamurti thundered back. "tell me, why should you not get angry ,sir?"

********************************************************
a parable :
......................................................

two young people met on a wonderful morning in a great
city.

she was exquisitely beautiful, fair, with large bright
eyes, long flowing hair, a mellifluous voice and an
unmatched grace and charm.

he was amazingly healthy, slim, with a handsome face,
broad forehead, a well read mind and an unmatched
maturity and manner.

roses have thorns.
mangoes have seeds.
peacocks cant fly.
mona lisa's smile is sickly.
there is no perfection in gods creation,they say.
she had canine teeth.
he had white hair.

the young couples meeting soon developed into a sweet
relationship and they decided to get married.

there was a yogi meditating in an ashram on the
outskirts of the city on a hill. the yogi was crazy. but
the young couple had great reverence for the yogi and
therefore sought his permission and blessings for
their marriage.
they both visited the yogi..

the yogi, on knowing their wish, asked them to meet
him individually and answer one question put by him.

"what do you think of his white hair?" he asked the
girl.
"that is no problem sir, he had agreed to dye it
black, -for me." she said assuredly.
"what do you think of her canine teeth?" he asked the
boy.
"that is no problem sir, she had agreed to remove them
surgically,-for me." he said confidently.

the yogi then addressed them both.
"go away you imbeciles! how dare you think of a
marriage which ought to be enduring and blissful bond.
you are not even true friends yet. i will hit you if
you waste any more of my time."
he raised his hand and threw his stick angrily at
them.

frightened and disappointed, the young couple went
away.

nevertheless, after about an year, they visited the
yogi again.
the yogi put the same questions individually.

"his white hair does not bother me sir. i accept him
as he is. he need not dye his hair." the girl replied
sincerely.
"her canine teeth does not bother me sir. i accept her
as she is. she need not remove her teeth." the boy
replied truthfully.

the yogi then addressed them both.
"go away you fools! marriage is not a magic wand but
an enduring and blissful bond. you are nothing more
than mere friends now. that is not enough. i will hit
you if you waste any more of my time."
he raised his hand and threw his stick angrily at
them.

frightened and disappointed, the young couple went
away.

nevertheless, after about an year, they visited the
yogi again.
the yogi put the same questions individually.

"i adore his silvery white hair sir. it makes his face
so unique ,giving the look of a wise man with a halo.
his best feature is his white hair." the girl said
with a sparkle in her eyes.
"i adore her canine teeth sir. they make her smile so
unique, giving the look of nature's bounty. her best
feature is her canine teeth." the boy said with a
shine in his face.

the yogi then addressed them both.
"come my children. you are now really and truly in
love with each other. your marriage will be blissful
and enduring. i shall bless you with all my spiritual
power and conduct your wedding personally."
he raised his hand. immediately the young girl ducked
and the young boy stepped back.

the unique beauty of rose is its thorns.
the unique beauty of mango is its seed.
the unique beauty of peacock is its non-flying.
the unique beauty of mona lisa is her sickly smile.
what is wrongly called as imperfection is in fact the
beauty spot of gods creation.
a black rose is not an odd rose but a unique rose, a dried leaf is not an ugly leaf but a unique beauty of colour and texture, a wrinkle is simply as beautiful as the dimple, only if we take off our coloured glasses and see.

the yogi raised his hand and said "dont be afraid. i am
not throwing my stick at you this time. i am only
blessing."
"sir, please scold us in your usual feigned anger to
shake us out of our wits. we consider that your scolding is our true
blessing." the young couple said in joyful unison.
and added with a twinkle in their eyes, "the best thing about you sir, is your anger."
the yogi laughed divinely.
a hundred rainbows chimed sweetly in the hearts of everybody in the valley.
*********************************************************************************

post-face:real love is not merely accepting but admiring even those aspects which appear negative to others. besides, there is as much beauty in the dried old leaves as in the fresh young leaves, as much beauty in the pinched assymetric pot as in the smooth symmetric pot,if only we remove our coloured glasses.

Frozen Time

those who feel with me that there is silent music will readily agree that photography is nothing but a moment frozen in time. besides, a photograph is not just what you see with eyes. you actually see with your mind and heart. you bring all your experience evoked by that image. therefore, two people, you and me, perceive two different images and experiences from the same image.
i see the photographer behind every photograph like i hear the author speaking to me through the pages when i read a book.
i have chosen these two visuals not only to share with you my aesthetic pleasure but also to challenge you to find out what they are. the art of provocation is my way of dialogue.

Sustainability

" MOST PEOPLE RUNAWAY FROM YOU BECAUSE DEEP DOWN THEY WANT TO BE CHASED.
MOST PEOPLE BLAME YOU BECAUSE DEEP DOWN THEY KNOW THEY ARE WRONG."



a while ago , one of my graduates sent a blog where he lamented about sustainability, alarming ecological degradation and what kind of foot prints we are leaving for our future generations.
i normally a silent listener but this time i felt like telling him some thing. he was dear student of mine. here is what i said.
i invite comments:

keep the search on , mohan.

there are no easy answers. a lot is written about it though.
the good thing is that some of us are thinking about such issues.
thinking only leads to action. to proper action. a lot of worlds ills are due to action without thinking. [no, i am not trying to promote my 'thinking design ' book]

one cannot change the world overnight but one can change the world by starting the change with one self. let the action begin whatever small way in whatever way we live, the way we conduct our profession and so on.
you will not be recognized, your name will not appear on the times cover page and you might even be laughed at, but you did change the world and left little foot prints which only you know they were there.
is that not enough?

good luck

CREPUSPULO/ SAAYAMSANDHYA /TWILIGHT

precisely a fortnight before my last birthday, the person who gave me that birth day, lay dying in my own arms.
in that roaring silence, both our hearts were heavy as we perfectly understood what is happening and communicated the uncommunicable.
sitting next to her, watcing the evening light turning into a shadow, literally and metaphorically, my thoughts were neither of the sweet memories of her love
wetting my eyes nor bitter memories of regret burning my soul.

my thoughts lingered gingerly on the delicate web of natures' first and foremost relation ; the mother-child relation.

on that frozen moment of time, i was just a child, she was just a mother. nothing else existed.
the moment was exactly the same as when i was born.
when the sun rises and when the sun sets , arent' the moments almost the same?
and it is the same truth for every one.
no matter how big a child becomes, a king or a rogue, a queen or a queer , he/she is loved as dearly and always remains as "mother of X"
conversly, whether i am born to an empress in a palace or a slut in a slum, she will remain my mother, i love her, i inherit her genes, grow under her, share her
reputation , good or evil and always remain as "son of X".
there is no escape. it is my fate.
i can change my friends easily, job easily ,even my name easily but how can i change my mother? like how can i change my date of birth?
i can adopt a child but i cannot adopt an own-mother [kanna thalli].
i cannot escape from my mothers reputation and she from mine. it is unblical. even the great adi shankaraacharya who was detatched from all worldly connections had to come to his mother at the time of her death.

i never stayed long with my mother.i was constantly away from her - for studies, for work etc.
but we both deeply felt that we were more attached to each other than other siblings and relations. love does not depend on the length of time spent together.
with some people you may spend a life time yet no love, with some others you may spend a shortwhile yet love enough to last a lifetime.
in paulo coehlo's book BRIDA, a married woman meets a wise stranger at a temple and spends only an afternoon with him talking. yet that moment touches her life.she reveres him and considers him as her real husband a life-partner.

i never obeyed my mother.
submission is not love. submission is the worst form of cowardice on the part of person who submits, and it is worst form of ugly exploitation on the part of the
person who demands.
mother never demanded it from me too.
she is illiterate, 'thumb chaap wali' but how highly educated! how many PhD mothers have such gyan?
she was a widow since i learnt 'a, aa , e. ee... but till her death i never found her cow down before anybody, however big. how could she expect that from me,
her first child?
i went against her wishes frequently.
i flew abroad, took no dowry, married out of caste, stayed out of culture, studied and taught some thing which she or anyone else never understood.
i deeply respected her concern for my future, born out of her love. she respected my taking decision for myself even if it is against her will. she only puts her points strongly but will not insist i follow. thus she makes me more responsible for my actions.
everytime i went against her will, i will spend hours persuading her.
she trusted and let me.
to love is natural and easy. to trust is very tough.
perhaps my not having a father from childhood necessiated me to take decisions from my childhood and the results increased her confidence in me.
in the end, swallowing her pride she says "if balaram feels strongly that way, it must be fine." this sentence is good enough for me to give goose-pimples
and make damn sure i dont disappoint her.

i 'belonged to her' and she to me.
i am 'her' son.
if that kind of thing is called possession, i like to be possessed , tenderly.
hug me but never crush me, stroke me but never choke me, order me for you have a right over me, but let me do what i , after great consideration, not in hot impulse nor with stubborn ego, decide to do against your will, out of love for me.
this unsaid quote was understood by both of us.

no mother wants her childs tears. nor any child wants to give pain to the one who bore all pain to give life and nurture.
[.........to be continued]

Form Follows People

 

“Nothing is beautiful except man alone: On this piece of naivety rests all aesthetics. It is the first truth of aesthetics. Let us immediately add it’s second. Nothing is ugly except the degenerating man – the domain of aesthetic judgment is therewith defined”. Friedrich Nietzsche

I wish to explore here some of my views on the relationship between designing
And people, a relationship between the creative human action and the sole
object of such human action. My idea is to bring focus on humanism which so
often tends to get fuzzy in the glare of the more tangible outcomes of economy,
visibility and the ecstasy of the creation itself.
People, quite contrary to the convenient belief, are not a uniform,
homogeneous, standard entities. They come in a complex variety of shapes,
sizes, colors, textures and backgrounds.

1. Ending as the Beginning
The ending and beginning are important in any piece of creative work. Be it a story; a song; a dance or a design. The beginning only evokes and sets a tone but the ending sums up and draws conclusion. The end is what we take home. The way in which Indians end their performing arts reflects their attitude and marks the Indian identity as different from others.
Films from other lands end with “the end” but the tradition of Indian films is to end with “Shubham”. The classical dance, drama and music performances of India end with “Mangalam” or “Swasti”, the words which mean wishing all well. According to Indian tradition, well being of people is the ultimate goal of any human action. Design is one such human action which plays key role in shaping people’s mind and improving the quality of our environment.

2. People’s needs give identity:
The globalized today is no more sellers market but buyers market. There can be no doubt any more on how design is a powerful tool in increasing business, enhancing sales and thus affecting the whole economy of a country. There are enough cases to prove this point. The Coca-cola bottle, the apple i-pod and the Volks-wagon Beetle are legendary examples which caught the imagination of the people and made iconic business success. Design had played a vital role in not only influencing the prevailing markets but also in creating new markets.
When we use terms like markets, sales, industry, business, targets, etc there is a danger of making them sound as cold abstract entities. Markets are not abstract. Markets mean people; who are live and who contain intelligence, emotions, psychological make-ups and socio-cultural roots. Their patterns of thinking vary according to their cultures and change time to time.
A successful design is the one which is sensitive to these cultural variations and contemporary needs of the specific groups of people. The design which focuses on the needs of a specific group of people and culture automatically gets an identity. Indian needs honestly addressed, will naturally give design the Indian identity. Bollywood [Hindi] films are such examples.

3. Real Challenge and Fortune at B.O.P + S.O.P.
Designers are paid by the client or the industry but they work for a target group. The targets are people. Designers have to find out the real needs of people, understand the constraints, and come up with creative solutions. The real focus therefore is not the industry but the people whom the design is meant to benefit. In fact, it is the people who ultimately pay for designs. The designer’s responsibility is not only to bring profits to industry but essentially to improve the well being of the specific people. Profits are necessary but that should not be the sole motivation. This focus and this realization are very important. On some occasions, particularly in the majority world, most people are not able to pay for design service. They are at the bottom of the pyramid. They may not be aware of design or may not be able to voice their needs. But their needs are urgent and crucial.
It is important social responsibility for designers working in these countries to cater to their needs. The real challenge to creativity lies in finding innovative design solutions which are low cost/no cost to people. A doctor cannot neglect a sick child because she is not aware of the doctor, nor asked for help. It is the doctor’s duty to reach out to such people and give treatment which does not necessitate costly medicines, or costly diet and which is effective in spite of the user’s poor, unhygienic surroundings. There lies the real challenge.
According to Bonsiepe, “In the field of design humanism means to focus on the excluded, the discriminated, and economically less favored groups as they are called in economic jargon, which amounts to the majority of population of this planet”.
A nations progress is measured by the way it takes care of it’s under privileged which are the weakest links in the chain. This is not always philanthropic.
Business Guru C. K. Prahlad argued that the B.O.P. (Bottom of the Pyramid) makes great business sense due to its advantage of size. This business advantage is not recognized yet. I would like to add another huge category called S.O.P (Side of the pyramid), which represents the often neglected people with special needs. These are the elderly, the disabled, the anomalous, the pregnant and the XL/Xs. B.O.P. + S.O.P together make a huge untapped fortune for business. India has the world’s largest number of blind people and its huge elderly population of nearly 10% of total population is increasing. The main stream design usually overlooks these people and their needs. Global business is realizing the potential of rural markets but it is not yet done so with the S.O.P

4. People Foster Innovation
Users are not mute receivers of design. Often there are many levels of users. Good design process utilizes these many levels of users as catalysts of innovation. Take the case of Oxygenator design. The beneficiary is patient, but the users are – heart surgeons, medical assistants, nurses and maintenance staff. Many ideas came up in our interactions with them. Major innovation of combining the oxygenator and the craniotomy reservoir had come up in our intense discussions with Dr. Valiathan, the chief cardiac surgeon. It won national meritorious invention award.

5. Form Function Debate
Design is often considered as form giving activity (Form-Gebung). This form giving is materialized within the conditions of function, technology, Telesis and .socio-cultural contexts. If we look at the last many years of social history of Design, we witness various phrases popularized by renowned designers, each one emphasizing one of the above conditions. “Form follows function; Form follows fun; Form follows fashion, Form follows fusion, Form follows production” and so on. I am uncomfortable with all these phrases as I view this as the six blind man and elephant syndrome. Each of the phrases is valid but they make greater sense only when put together as a whole.
In a nut shell, Design is a multidisciplinary activity which originates by innovation, realized by production and utilized by the people. Design exists within a context in relation with content and matching technology. Its core purpose is to serve people in the best way. So if at all we need to have a phase it should be, “Form follows People” with all their diverse preferences and awesome differences.

6. Colonization of the Mind
Technology made long strides in the past few decades and India embraced it in its own way, blending past and future. Technological and cultural coexistence is a way of life in India. Here the bullock cart and the space ship coexist. Cartier Bresson’s photo of a space rocket being taken to its launching station on bicycle exemplifies this.
Globalization and revolutionary improvements in communications have positively affected design and brought foreign companies and huge incomes into India. There is outsourcing boom in the urban Indian. India is poised to be the world’s design outsourcing hub, while China is poised to be the world’s manufacturing hub. While BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) is a boon to populated countries such as India and China, the majority world (not the derogatory term developing world), extreme caution is necessary to understand clearly and critically what kind of design service Indians are giving.
Most work such as usability research; market surveys; graphic assistance, etc may be part of Design process but these are repetitive non-creative tasks. A craftsman who is not allowed to be innovative is reduced to a skilled laborer. Same is the case with designers who, irrespective of big pay; are being used for merely repetitive non creative work. This will lead to economic colonization which is detrimental to healthy growth. Unless India’s huge population excels by using its creative power, it will remain a mere sweat shop for others, a dumping ground for human ecological degradation.

7. Should Design reflect or reform society?

Design is brought into being only in response to a peoples need – perceived or projected; present or future. The true indicators of merit of a design are neither popularity nor commercial success nor longevity in the market place. These are the intensity of purpose and the universality which transcend the boundaries of culture, space and physique.
An eternal debate about films is this. Should they reflect society by giving what the masses want and be successful at box office; or should they influence the society by educating people through an attractive medium like film and be meaningful. This dilemma applies to design profession too.
Objects and messages influence people’s behavior and designers create those objects and messages. [One sees Indians spitting on the dirty road side but not in the spotless metro trains].
Zvonimir Radic says that “As a result of freedom in its quantity and space, the industrial Form has an enormously intense and decisive influence on the consciousness of our man, thus presenting the most powerful social factor in the form giving of his habits, life motivation, and philosophy”.
Design has the great power to change how people think and behave. With great power goes great responsibility. Should this power be used to control, should designing be politically subversive or should it serve the interests of the people most honestly? Should it serve the interests of the Designer (i.e. Monumentality) of the client (money mentality) or of the people out there, whom you don’t see (man mentality)?
Designers must realize that this great responsibility is the meaningful use of design power for the good of the society, in molding it in different forms- persuading, provoking and motivating- towards long term good of the future.

8. Craft is by the people for the people
The term mass production in India should be defined not as production in mass by the machine but production by the masses in mass. Craft is a living tradition in India and a major exporter. This is a very important production sector which is largest in the world. Craft is by the people for the people. Indian design is yet to make major impact with craft design on the world map.

9. User research
People are termed as users and their importance is increasingly realized by contemporary design profession. The new areas of design such as interaction design, interface design, human factors design, human computer interface and experience design are all manifestations of this trend.
User Research has become a major component in design process and many design schools are adjusting their program to include significant component of user research methodology in their curriculum. Design studios are incorporating user research as major component in the design process.
But the subject of UR remains confusing and disorganized. Most UR is wasted because the particular method employed is not appropriate to the question that needs to be answered or the results of UR not adequately integrated into design thinking.
Observation is the key method of user research in understanding people. Researchers are staying with, shopping with and traveling with the users for getting better grip of their real needs.
User participation is invaluable in design process. Design profession paid lip service to participatory design and it is yet to become essential ingredient in professional practice. More than two decades ago I proposed “Barefoot Designer” concept to serve Bharat, the rural India [the villagers will be trained in design in design camps and sent back to village to serve people there].

In time I hope we will overcome the practical hurdles and make these ideas into reality. For, making an idea into reality is the design profession.
It is said that a work of art can change the individual and through the individual,
the whole society.

I consider good design is a work of art which is working for people and ‘ designer is both artist and problem solver’.

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