Will you marry Britney Spears ?
Today I happened to visit Crosswords where I came across few books mainly talking about India named INDIA, HERRITAGE OF INDIA, SPIRIT OF INDIA, …, etc. Surprisingly all the books had somewhat similar kind of images. All the books were having photographs mainly of old Indian temples, ancient mosques, different forts, havelees or various photographs taken in Rajasthan. Now the question comes that how far it is logical to say “surprisingly” all the books had more or less same images. If I have to talk about spirit of India in terms of architecture we also might talk about the same things that those books talking about. But are those the “only” things where lies? If we sincerely try to answer this question, ‘unfortunately’ we have to say ‘yes’!! But why unfortunately?
The structure from India which is famous all over world for its beauty is Taj Mahal.
Structures that talk about symbolism of India are hindu and jain temples.
Place that talk about culture of India is Rajasthan.
Certainly all these things belong to India but Taj Mahal was built in 16th century, temples were constructed before that and forts were built till 17th century what has happened in past so many years?
What we have now, that truly celebrate spirit of India? Glass cladded buildings that we get to see even in HongKong, Singapore or America? Disks, pubs and night life? Or guys riding bikes on FC road wearing ‘kaantopi’ like Enrique Iglesias even in the month of May?
Where is the link? If a person from U.S.A. comes to Pune and if he says “show me something that belongs to your country”, where will you go? Can you take him to Hinjewadi to show tall glass cladded facades of all the I.T.Buildings which that person might have been seeing in his own country also since last 10 years or will you take him to disc ‘X’ or club ‘Y’, kind of places he might have been visiting since his childhood. So we might have to take him to probably ‘Shaniwaar Wada’ or caves at Karle or Bhaja. And unfortunately we also might be visiting these places for the first time.
Where we belong to?
What we had?
Where are we going?
Where is the development?
What is ‘our’ achievement?
Where is the link?
What kind of architecture we practice now?
Is there any ‘recent’ building in Pune which is truly Indian?
With this context let us look into the story of ‘short kurta’. What we had traditionally purely as Indian was a long kurta which comes right up to the knees. Now the time has changed, there is a change in lifestyle, change in society, so here is the short kurta with half sleeves. The same traditional Indian kurta modified as per modern needs. Can we understand the link? Nowadays we also get to see the skirts with ‘saree’ borders but the unfortunate part is we wear them to look like hippies !
Whom are we imitating? That’s exactly is the problem with us. We have got into the habit of imitation. What is required is sensible adaptation and evolution. Let us talk about what is evolution? A series of development based on previous stage. Can a donkey be the next evolutionary step of tiger? Similarly we shall also ask ourslves that can ‘an american’ evolve out of ‘Indian’? ……..”sher ki khaal pehen ne se lomdi sher nahi ban jaati..!!” And that’s why when we need to click the culture of India we take our cameras and go to Rajasthan. Where is this ‘marathi’ in Pune? Is there a single structure built in last few years which proudly says I am ‘marathi’?.
I sincerely hate the buildings that most of the architects design and feel proud to display the 3D rendered views of glass facades. The problem is not with the glass….problem is imitation. Where is that Indian-ness? If the user is Indian then the structure should also talk like an Indian, behave like an Indian, stand like an Indian.
I like ‘Britney Spears’. Will I marry her? Tomorrow if my wife starts wearing low waist smallest possible shorts like Britney, will I ever dare to take her to my parents? Will I ever feel proud to take her in ‘subji mandai’ or any public place for that matter in that kind of cloths? ….. What we see is attractive, sexy, provoking or may be seductive at times but shall we imitate that? Tomorrow if I have to take my girlfriend to introduce her to my parents I might ask her to wear ‘punjabi dress’ or something decent and that’s exactly where the ‘indian’ amongst us start talking ..!!
Same thing applies to buildings. We can’t stay in American structure for life long exactly the way I can’t marry Britney Spears. What’s the use if your home doesn’t talk about your country, culture, festivals, language, rituals, sanskaar? Relationship with a house is like a husband-wife relationship, like a marriage…..bond for life time ….…… so what remains is the only question ‘shall she be Britney Spears’ or an ‘Indian’ girl?
The structure from India which is famous all over world for its beauty is Taj Mahal.
Structures that talk about symbolism of India are hindu and jain temples.
Place that talk about culture of India is Rajasthan.
Certainly all these things belong to India but Taj Mahal was built in 16th century, temples were constructed before that and forts were built till 17th century what has happened in past so many years?
What we have now, that truly celebrate spirit of India? Glass cladded buildings that we get to see even in HongKong, Singapore or America? Disks, pubs and night life? Or guys riding bikes on FC road wearing ‘kaantopi’ like Enrique Iglesias even in the month of May?
Where is the link? If a person from U.S.A. comes to Pune and if he says “show me something that belongs to your country”, where will you go? Can you take him to Hinjewadi to show tall glass cladded facades of all the I.T.Buildings which that person might have been seeing in his own country also since last 10 years or will you take him to disc ‘X’ or club ‘Y’, kind of places he might have been visiting since his childhood. So we might have to take him to probably ‘Shaniwaar Wada’ or caves at Karle or Bhaja. And unfortunately we also might be visiting these places for the first time.
Where we belong to?
What we had?
Where are we going?
Where is the development?
What is ‘our’ achievement?
Where is the link?
What kind of architecture we practice now?
Is there any ‘recent’ building in Pune which is truly Indian?
With this context let us look into the story of ‘short kurta’. What we had traditionally purely as Indian was a long kurta which comes right up to the knees. Now the time has changed, there is a change in lifestyle, change in society, so here is the short kurta with half sleeves. The same traditional Indian kurta modified as per modern needs. Can we understand the link? Nowadays we also get to see the skirts with ‘saree’ borders but the unfortunate part is we wear them to look like hippies !
Whom are we imitating? That’s exactly is the problem with us. We have got into the habit of imitation. What is required is sensible adaptation and evolution. Let us talk about what is evolution? A series of development based on previous stage. Can a donkey be the next evolutionary step of tiger? Similarly we shall also ask ourslves that can ‘an american’ evolve out of ‘Indian’? ……..”sher ki khaal pehen ne se lomdi sher nahi ban jaati..!!” And that’s why when we need to click the culture of India we take our cameras and go to Rajasthan. Where is this ‘marathi’ in Pune? Is there a single structure built in last few years which proudly says I am ‘marathi’?.
I sincerely hate the buildings that most of the architects design and feel proud to display the 3D rendered views of glass facades. The problem is not with the glass….problem is imitation. Where is that Indian-ness? If the user is Indian then the structure should also talk like an Indian, behave like an Indian, stand like an Indian.
I like ‘Britney Spears’. Will I marry her? Tomorrow if my wife starts wearing low waist smallest possible shorts like Britney, will I ever dare to take her to my parents? Will I ever feel proud to take her in ‘subji mandai’ or any public place for that matter in that kind of cloths? ….. What we see is attractive, sexy, provoking or may be seductive at times but shall we imitate that? Tomorrow if I have to take my girlfriend to introduce her to my parents I might ask her to wear ‘punjabi dress’ or something decent and that’s exactly where the ‘indian’ amongst us start talking ..!!
Same thing applies to buildings. We can’t stay in American structure for life long exactly the way I can’t marry Britney Spears. What’s the use if your home doesn’t talk about your country, culture, festivals, language, rituals, sanskaar? Relationship with a house is like a husband-wife relationship, like a marriage…..bond for life time ….…… so what remains is the only question ‘shall she be Britney Spears’ or an ‘Indian’ girl?
posted by amoeba at 11:39 PM
1 Comments:
Utility, functionality , sometimes are more important than "Indianness". Talkin @ the glass faceted buildings in Hinjewadi, those were created especially with a view to produce an "Americanised" experience. No wonder an american wud feel at home there! Everything there is americanised, and that has proved to be profitable..that's why it exists.
On the other hand, we do need to worry @ the kind of dresses we wear...abandoning suits altogether in favour of dhotis-jhabbas would be a sensible thing to do!
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