My recent presentation about Landscapes: Outer and Inner gave me a chance to look back at my own life for the past 17 years and pick out my favorite projects and moments to share.
I have often wondered, what makes a story worth telling? Is it just the achievements, awards and designations ? Perhaps not. It's this rich mix of hits and misses, experiences of joy and sorrow, memories created and lessons learnt along the way that makes a story interesting. It's the way you choose to tell your story that makes all the difference.
I have often wondered, what makes a story worth telling? Is it just the achievements, awards and designations ? Perhaps not. It's this rich mix of hits and misses, experiences of joy and sorrow, memories created and lessons learnt along the way that makes a story interesting. It's the way you choose to tell your story that makes all the difference.
My journey with architecture started in the year 2000. Little did I know that architecture is not just a course, but it becomes a way of life. These 5 years are like a perfect foundation course for all things creative. Thereafter you could choose landscape design, interior design, graphic design, fashion design, photography, set design, furniture design, poetry, pottery …the possibilities are limitless. Architecture grooms us for something that I call a design-conscious living, in which every little aspect of life can be done in the most creative way. It's this seed of creativity that architecture has planted in my mind, that I am carrying as a gift through all these years of my professional and personal life.
We are all unique and everyone is born with a different skill set. Our life’s secret mission therefore is to find out what we are good at and what we enjoy doing. It's when we realize our strengths, new avenues open out for us.
We are all unique and everyone is born with a different skill set. Our life’s secret mission therefore is to find out what we are good at and what we enjoy doing. It's when we realize our strengths, new avenues open out for us.
My reason for wanting to become an architect was simple— to design houses. But what is a house without a garden! There's something magical about houses with gardens that makes architecture and landscape inseparable. One such magical garden did exist in my childhood home in Pune.
I discovered my connection with landscape, which thus finds its roots in my childhood days. The garden of my childhood home in Pune has a special place in my heart. It had a huge variety of plants and trees that, my sister , my cousins and I grew up with. We climbed trees and collected flowers and leaves. Whenever I select plants for any villa project, I close my eyes and get transported to my childhood garden to find them all there. My mother's profession of flower decorations gave me a chance to go with her and collect flowers from agriculture college. I knew the names of flowers and plant species at a young age. And it was this special bond with nature that has influenced my choice of landscape as a profession.
My dream projects thus became those houses where architecture, landscape and interiors are thought of as one.
My dream projects thus became those houses where architecture, landscape and interiors are thought of as one.
To be a sensitive landscape designer, one must truly love nature. Landscape architecture does not happen sitting inside tall glass towers. We deal with living elements and not just stone and cement. One must be willing to be on site, get their hands dirty and be in touch with nature.
I worked in India for a couple of years and then moved to Abu Dhabi in the UAE, after getting married. I am extremely grateful to my college because it's here that I found my architectural life partner, which made our journey a creative collaboration, and we learnt a lot from each other.
UAE is a melting pot of cultures. I got a chance to work with colleagues not just from the US or UK, but from Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Sudan, Syria, Jordan, Greece, Philippines, Indonesia and many other countries of which I did not know much about. When we work with people from different cultures and faiths, it makes us a sensitive designer. Because we design keeping everyone in mind. It's this cultural diversity that exposes our minds to new ways of thinking.
Living outside our home country gives us a bird’s eye view to our own lives. I still remember the first time I returned to Pune after staying for a year in Abu Dhabi, when the airplane was landing at Pune airport, I saw the curvy organic river, and the beauty in the disorderliness, the 50 shades of green and the rain clouds! My heart cried with joy!
I spent the first day taking pictures of every tree that grew upto 3 floors and above! My friends were surprised when I told them I was taking pictures of Junglee Maharaj Road, where the Albizzia trees along the street had canopies touching each other, creating this natural shade structure over the entire street! I had missed this so much! And I realised this only because I had stayed away from all this for a whole year!
And when I went back, while landing on the Abu Dhabi airport, the city looked like a uniform beige architectural model with neat roundabouts, straight roads, clover leaf junctions and the liquid curves of the desert. This landscape has its own subtle beauty. And I realised, I could have the best of both worlds! Lush Green and Minimalist Brown! Now I live in two cities at the same time.
Living outside our home country gives us a bird’s eye view to our own lives. I still remember the first time I returned to Pune after staying for a year in Abu Dhabi, when the airplane was landing at Pune airport, I saw the curvy organic river, and the beauty in the disorderliness, the 50 shades of green and the rain clouds! My heart cried with joy!
I spent the first day taking pictures of every tree that grew upto 3 floors and above! My friends were surprised when I told them I was taking pictures of Junglee Maharaj Road, where the Albizzia trees along the street had canopies touching each other, creating this natural shade structure over the entire street! I had missed this so much! And I realised this only because I had stayed away from all this for a whole year!
And when I went back, while landing on the Abu Dhabi airport, the city looked like a uniform beige architectural model with neat roundabouts, straight roads, clover leaf junctions and the liquid curves of the desert. This landscape has its own subtle beauty. And I realised, I could have the best of both worlds! Lush Green and Minimalist Brown! Now I live in two cities at the same time.
Architecture is one unique profession that allows all creative forms of expression such as photography, sketching, painting, poetry, creative writing , film making and such to coexist in harmony as they become a part of our architectural journey. When I talk about inner landscapes, for me, poetry has been the most interesting medium of expression to convey ideas and concepts with a sensitive touch. Nature has always been the source of inspiration that connects all these creative mediums. I have always found comfort in this medium as I juggled between being a landscape architect and a mother.
Balancing these two roles is indeed a difficult task. But we must celebrate both roles, without feeling guilty at any end. A woman’s career graph is slightly different than a man’s. Motherhood brings many challenges in our path. But we should not consider these challenges as a setback to our careers, but in fact celebrate these challenges as a beautiful part of womanhood.
Sometimes I have literally felt like a warrior on horseback, with the baby tied to my back, going to fight my battles each day with a sword in my hand! But then I thought of Cinderella’s story. Like her, we take the professional avatar and go each morning to work. When the clock strikes 12, (by the close of working hours) , we need to rush back to the homely mother avatar. Its only when we unplug ourselves from one role and plug ourselves into the other role that we can achieve that balance that may give us that little sliver of personal time between the two, to keep doing what we love. And then, we become like the goddess with many hands, balancing swords, paint brushes, pens and cooking pans at different times!
Balancing these two roles is indeed a difficult task. But we must celebrate both roles, without feeling guilty at any end. A woman’s career graph is slightly different than a man’s. Motherhood brings many challenges in our path. But we should not consider these challenges as a setback to our careers, but in fact celebrate these challenges as a beautiful part of womanhood.
Sometimes I have literally felt like a warrior on horseback, with the baby tied to my back, going to fight my battles each day with a sword in my hand! But then I thought of Cinderella’s story. Like her, we take the professional avatar and go each morning to work. When the clock strikes 12, (by the close of working hours) , we need to rush back to the homely mother avatar. Its only when we unplug ourselves from one role and plug ourselves into the other role that we can achieve that balance that may give us that little sliver of personal time between the two, to keep doing what we love. And then, we become like the goddess with many hands, balancing swords, paint brushes, pens and cooking pans at different times!
The number of hours at work do not define our worth, but making a difference to our workplace in our unique ways does. Quality time is not just towards children, it should be towards the office too.
Lets empower each other. My poetry book, Amaira, the little woman celebrates exactly this journey through womanhood, enjoying all the beautiful forms along the way.
So be your own sun, be your own rain!
Work on a well rounded personality. We are not just the landscape architect or the mother. We can be so many other things!
Travel, take long walks, ignite the inspiration again.
Find time to do what you love. Stay fit.
Afterall, what is success? Even if a few things are ticked off our TO DO list by the end of each year, it spells success to me!
Make To-Do Better lists!
Work on a well rounded personality. We are not just the landscape architect or the mother. We can be so many other things!
Travel, take long walks, ignite the inspiration again.
Find time to do what you love. Stay fit.
Afterall, what is success? Even if a few things are ticked off our TO DO list by the end of each year, it spells success to me!
Make To-Do Better lists!
Finally in our journey, life often gives us a choice between two paths. I have made my choice.
The beauty of a creative life is that there is no one right way. It's what you choose, becomes right for you.
Like poet Rumi has said,
The beauty of a creative life is that there is no one right way. It's what you choose, becomes right for you.
Like poet Rumi has said,
Somewhere beyond our ideas of right and wrong, there's a garden. I'll meet you there.
#alumnipresentation #landscapesouterandinner #givingbacktoalmamater #speakyourmind
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