Have you?

Have you sowed the seeds of a dream?

Nurturing it unconsciously

 in the back of your mind

of the things that make you happy?

A dream to create things

to drench yourself into its making,

losing count of the happenings

in the breaking; and the re-shaping.

Have you got smitten by beauty?

The beauty of experiencing an emotion

An emotion happy or sad

Every subtlety it has,

every nuance that goes into its moulding

deeply feeling every bit of it cropping

Have you dared to dream of a free, yet dedicated life?

A life that’s young and untamed

but with a purpose to spread love

to make your loved ones happy

and yourself.

Do you also have a strong desire?

A never-ending  fire

To Acquire

Stir up your soul

Now is the time.

A working person's nightmare.

Hello all!
This piece is based on personal experience, which taught me a lesson that I might have forgotten.

I sprang out of the bed that day, alarmed
that it was 8:32 am already
Half an hour late I was for waking up
and I had to get ready
I calculated how much time I was left with, quickly
It wasn't good news for me
IF I wanted to make it to work at 9:30, I had 13 minutes only.
I did my morning chores hastily,
as many as I could,
and left to find an auto swiftly.
On my way to the metro station,
I felt no strokes of loo but a pleasantly breezy weather, surprisingly.
I was a little sleepy, a bit grumpy, but yet happy
that I was at least gonna be on time, finally.
But destiny had planned something else for me.
While I was stepping out of the auto,
I felt a vibration in my phone.
I heard a continuous ring, which was familiar,
but it was not my ringtone.
As I pulled it out from my pocket,
as clumsily as I normally do,
I saw my 8 am alarm going off
asking me whether to "discard" it or put it "on snooze".
Suddenly I felt I was the protagonist
of a working person's nightmare,
that just came true !
Well guess what,
so I was, too!
Did I reach my workplace an hour early that day?
Yes, I did.
The time I'd have 'used' in sleeping
and then getting ready calmly
I was at work, yawning,
amazed by my stupidity!
But now I have learnt my lesson,
I check the time twice before leaving home.
I think I can say that
the sight of the 8 am alarm still haunts me!

Shades.

Pencil on Paper

 As they got lost into their thoughts so pure, their true colors started to emerge.

Oil pastels on paper

The safest place to be!

Contr-a-diction.

It's been a long time since I posted something! So, here I am, back with a post about a project that I took up during my post-graduation. Two good years since then and now, I am sharing it! Well, maybe because the whole idea intrigues me, still. :)

The theme of the project was the emotion of "Contradiction", which was derived from a research done on the space of pedestrian subways and later, taken ahead to be further developed into a tangible product.

Here are some points to give you a gist of the research paper. 

“Pedestrian Subway- A Questionable Space”

• Pedestrian subways were incorporated in the 1960’s by the traffic management to stop people from crossing at road level, valuing motorists’ time more than safety of women and the convenience of elderly and laden pedestrians [Loucaitou- Sideris, Anastasia.2009].
• Research showed that people, especially women were and still are comparatively more fearful in using subways because of numerous reasons like it's closed and dark, stays empty, is an underground space, the environment is crime inviting [Reiter, Zoe.2006].
• Hence, even if the actual crime rate is not high in subways, there is fear due to likeliness of occurrence of crime [Loucaitou- Sideris, Anastasia and Fink Camille.2008].

The aim of the research was to prove a hypothesis, which in my case was that pedestrian subways, which were built in order to facilitate road crossing i.e. curbing fear; actually became a reason for fear in people’s mind. This led to picking up the attribute of "contradictory nature" of subways. 

The essence of contradiction present in emotions, materials, functionality, gave rise to the idea of developing a product which would give a similar sense of contradiction.

·     

Mood board on the theme Contradiction.

Then followed the idea churning for the tangible products. After all the brainstorming, the selection and dismissal process, the final product was a complex having a theme based restaurant, hukkah lounge and coffee house - all three in the same space, making it an experiential design inspired from a subway.

Here are some snapshots of the complex made on 3Ds Max:

Top view of the complex.

Hukkah lounge - Theme rock 

Theme of rebellion 

Restaurant on theme Sufi.

Feeling of space, soothing Sufi music, openness. 

Coffee house on theme Fusion.

Soft interiors, music, low seating.

The transition from one space i.e. from the subway like entrance (closed and uncomfortable) to a Sufi restaurant (serene) to a hukkah lounge (rebellion) to Fusion cafe (love and tenderness) makes the user experience contradictory feelings because of the different ambiance offered by the spaces. 

I also came up with a model of the final product using various materials like sun-board, thermocol sheet etc. Take a sneak peek.

Top view of model

Graffiti in the transitory space

Ways leading to entrance of the Restaurant, lounge and cafe

Graffiti and cobbled pavement

Hukkah lounge

Sufi restaurant

Fusion cafe

 Thus, with the combination of different themes/ materials/ music/ interiors/ ambiance and hence, feelings that vary with the space, I have tried to incorporate the attribute of contradiction within the complex altogether. 

That way you look at it!

Like a billion stars twinkling in a dusky sky enveloping

 the crescent of the moon

the water trickled down the glass, one rainy evening

reminding me that it's just about perspective.

Sometimes you see the twinkle,

sometimes, the trickle

The Beauty of Yearning!

The Desire.

With a desire in my heart to touch the sky,

to taste that feeling of soaring high,

I took a long leap.. 

encountering a new stance 

Since then, the mystic has had its own way 

to lend me a hand..

:)

The Water Bearer.

I asked her for a drop of water

when she showered rains upon me.
A wish sprouted inside of me,
She had incepted a dream
 the dream to be like her..

That's how she lit my path

She, the water bearer..

When we wove the newspaper..

Seeing all the junk newspapers stacked up in our flat, me and my roomie (a batch mate from NIFT) thought it would be cool to make them into something useful (inspired by our Sustainable Systems module..). We had a few evenings (two to be precise.. let us just ignore the number of hours, though :P) to spare and more than a hundred newspaper sheets rolled out into warps and wefts, some references, bit of brainstorming and need (which is the mother of "invention" :P :P).

The warps & wefts

In process..

And here's our first ever crafted piece of furniture..

End product!!! :D

Our own paper table.

"Pop" it up !

 The process of "beating" has been followed strictly while weaving, but, time and usage would be the real judge, I guess. But, we are lovin' it. :D
P.S.: More crafted pieces to be followed! Till then, RE-(duce, use, cycle, new, cover and spect!) :)