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design is evolving. we may not totally approve of what it is evolving into but it is evolving... i was going down university road.(for those in pune know what i am talking about and those outside just read on....) there is a series of fly overs that help you 'fly' for about 6 odd kilometers without a single traffic crossing on the way (which earlier took us around 45 minutes to cross on a good day which were far and too few...) so plying down (aimlessly again... :)!!!) this road you see these new urban 'complexes' as we call them when the only thing complex about them is the fact that how did some being.. having the audacity of calling himself intelligent life form allow for these things to be built. they are visually polluting, maniacally loud, monstrous blemishes on an otherwise serene road (or as it used to be..) and the worst part it that as far as their impressions go all they leave in your mind is a bad after taste. i go down that road each and every day and even then all i can remember is red building, bad design, LOUD, .. never the actual building.. or the things that are there inside it, the point of the loud design was attraction towards the function within .. its lost in the sheer volume of the shout! ... form follows function is all lost in the last reincarnation and now it is the loudest wins...! do people consider the mpact that these buildings have on people that pass by it? isnt it time we also considered the impact of visual pollution? glass facades facing the sun shining on a road? neon lit advertisements, attractive signboards, and a whole lot of other commercial proclamations that if they did their job well.. can cause death or at-least serious disfigurations and not to mention the actual intention of these ads - mangling self esteems. [i try my best to deviate from here and i shall continue the advertisement industry's presence and modus operation... those who know already know.. for those who didnt .. coming soon! ] can we build guidelines for these as well? but then it wont remain a democracy.. design guidelines is as oxymoronic as it gets the only way out is that everyone has to realize .. loud isnt necessary clear.. you could be the quietest and still shout it out... purpose driven design is the best way to move forth... but then who am i to tell . i can only show you what i think is the door.. we all have our own doors to find and walk through....!
things only a road trip can teach:
in no specific order than that in my head....
you are insignificant. the world is larger than you thought.
the only person who really needs you is you.
you are replaceable
your problems start only if you stop.
money is no good when it is your spirit or back that needs mending.
the difference between how far your mind will wander and how close will you get physically to that point is how old you really are.
credit cards are useless.
mobile phones are really only so good.
your only true asset is your health.
addictions only slow you down.
the sun burns, the rain is cold. winds can be both.
distance is just a number.
crazy is good.
speed is overrated.
travel is not.
life is what happens to you now.
roads will have obstacles,
good roads end. so do bad ones.
your hair is dead cells. but what holds it there is definitely not.
looks arent important.
looking is.
its not where you are going. it is that you are going that is the real high.
an MP3 player is my best friend and closest companion.
people are friendly. terrain sometimes is not.
the only real pictures are the one you take with your eyes and store in your head.
photographs dont do justice to memories.
company is over rated.
silence is not.
smiling is an action not a reaction.
a clean bike tells no tales.
dirty jeans speaks a thousand words.
in no specific order than that in my head....
you are insignificant. the world is larger than you thought.
the only person who really needs you is you.
you are replaceable
your problems start only if you stop.
money is no good when it is your spirit or back that needs mending.
the difference between how far your mind will wander and how close will you get physically to that point is how old you really are.
credit cards are useless.
mobile phones are really only so good.
your only true asset is your health.
addictions only slow you down.
the sun burns, the rain is cold. winds can be both.
distance is just a number.
crazy is good.
speed is overrated.
travel is not.
life is what happens to you now.
roads will have obstacles,
good roads end. so do bad ones.
your hair is dead cells. but what holds it there is definitely not.
looks arent important.
looking is.
its not where you are going. it is that you are going that is the real high.
an MP3 player is my best friend and closest companion.
people are friendly. terrain sometimes is not.
the only real pictures are the one you take with your eyes and store in your head.
photographs dont do justice to memories.
company is over rated.
silence is not.
smiling is an action not a reaction.
a clean bike tells no tales.
dirty jeans speaks a thousand words.
there is this award conducted every year to commemorate badly designed products. they may be houses, products, packages, services, anythign that has come into existence can contend for this award. its the ignoble of design, or the mock oscars (dont recall what they are called.)
here is my nomination for the awards.
whiskey. 180ml units. tetra pack. who thought of that? logically addressing the given problem. you need a way to transport alcohol. that is cheap to manufacture. easy to transport. easy to store. stackable. attractive to look at as individual units and as multiple unit packs. (a six pack of beer.... ) and the genius came up with a tetrapack! idiot! ever thought of the consequences? ever thought that all u need to get these cartons oodling juice is a blunt object.. thats all.. nothing more.. no bottle openers, no corkscrews.. not that these wont work.. but u dont need them.. a simple pen, a key, a nail, a piece of rock, anything would do...!in a country where we have our fare share of riots and social misbehavior i think the genius should be give the award hands down!
that brings us to the bigger issue t hand,.. how did he arrive upon this solution(????????) what was the process of design? is he some capitalist fruit cake sitting in his office sipping off a vodka and juice when he chances a glance upon the carton of juice kept there and says .. (stoned voice..) u know what we could do.. sell whiskey in tetra packs.. cheap to pack, easy to smuggle into places, easy to transport and safety.. who gives a ****!
Or is it a underpaid designer fresh on design but not on practicality who says .. dude.. labels are so passe.. we need a new way to present our goods.. then he says.. what say to tetra packs.. and the rest of the room says... dude.. that is soooo coool man.. lets drink to this!
i dont know.. and frankly i dont care.. but the conclusion sucks.. on levels beyond reason.. and how is it that it doesnt bother the government that we make fuel to burn that much more accessible! plus the possibility of contamination! the chances of leakage and the possibility of it becoming more readily duplicable by bootleggers.. all this doesnt bother the government who sits in their ivory towers deciding which city to rename next, which industry to target for tax extortion for adding security detail to their fat over fed under intelligent wives!
i am not telling all of them suck.. but if u arent a part of the solution u are definitely a part of the problem.
here is my nomination for the awards.
whiskey. 180ml units. tetra pack. who thought of that? logically addressing the given problem. you need a way to transport alcohol. that is cheap to manufacture. easy to transport. easy to store. stackable. attractive to look at as individual units and as multiple unit packs. (a six pack of beer.... ) and the genius came up with a tetrapack! idiot! ever thought of the consequences? ever thought that all u need to get these cartons oodling juice is a blunt object.. thats all.. nothing more.. no bottle openers, no corkscrews.. not that these wont work.. but u dont need them.. a simple pen, a key, a nail, a piece of rock, anything would do...!in a country where we have our fare share of riots and social misbehavior i think the genius should be give the award hands down!
that brings us to the bigger issue t hand,.. how did he arrive upon this solution(????????) what was the process of design? is he some capitalist fruit cake sitting in his office sipping off a vodka and juice when he chances a glance upon the carton of juice kept there and says .. (stoned voice..) u know what we could do.. sell whiskey in tetra packs.. cheap to pack, easy to smuggle into places, easy to transport and safety.. who gives a ****!
Or is it a underpaid designer fresh on design but not on practicality who says .. dude.. labels are so passe.. we need a new way to present our goods.. then he says.. what say to tetra packs.. and the rest of the room says... dude.. that is soooo coool man.. lets drink to this!
i dont know.. and frankly i dont care.. but the conclusion sucks.. on levels beyond reason.. and how is it that it doesnt bother the government that we make fuel to burn that much more accessible! plus the possibility of contamination! the chances of leakage and the possibility of it becoming more readily duplicable by bootleggers.. all this doesnt bother the government who sits in their ivory towers deciding which city to rename next, which industry to target for tax extortion for adding security detail to their fat over fed under intelligent wives!
i am not telling all of them suck.. but if u arent a part of the solution u are definitely a part of the problem.
it was sometime yesterday afternoon, while aimlessly cruising through the city... again (does any one see a pattern here?) that it dawned on me. that the more complex we make life the lesser chances of survival we have (similar circumstances similar findings.. read on and you shall see the difference in area of extinction!). the simpler we keep things the better chances it has of being sent into the next generation and the generation after. we make our peace with the fact that life will be complex. but it neednt be, its gotta be simpler. we fight for complexities. we werent satisfied wen we made the wheel we needed the bicycle, then the bike then the car then ships the planes then the jets then the supersonics then space,then mars and then beyond until there is nowhere to go. same with design. we started with simple layouts single color sending out the same feeling as if we were witnessing the event. then came in the complex printing the softwares the paper styles and things went complex. they started mocking reality instead of expressing it. it became more a prowess of the technology than of the intended art. art was no longer a medium of expression it was the expression of the medium. messages lost, purpose redefined. architecture also.. it was no longer about the space. it was about the technology used. it was first the decorative styles, then the metal framework, then titanium claddings, the curves, the shapes, the scale , size, color, everything.. it all became about how you build and not what you built. something incredible happened with it... art turned profitable, we could have people making a living as artists, it isn't a luxury of the privileged few, design is no longer a hobby, it is a profession, as architects, movie makers, graphic artists, painters, fabric designers, we have all moved out of our cocoon and gone on to a more profitable state, now we have design houses, corporate owned studios, a more business structured architectural practices where we can get our work done.. butt! wait a minute..... it just got complicated again!... now it is a business dominated enterprise.. creation over creativity... we design because our client requires design, but we design like the client wants us to design and not what the design needs. we may build/colour/design things in a certain way that is most profitable for the designer, by minimized time and effort spent, you get it right for the client the first time... innovation is difficult, specialization necessary and we lost the essence of design somewhere on the way... but what goes around come around.. and now the times a changing again... now is the age of design becoming profitable again.. but this time is isnt client driven, it is designer driven.. the designer is the king, he dictates the rules, the laws and everything involved. and like Kelly Osbourne's tattoo proudly proclaims ... 'this too shall pass!' and god know into what..! we shall rise from the ashes of the past to be burnt again...
last week through aimless wanderings through the streets of bangalore... it dawned on me.. we have plotted our own course for extinction. technology isnt helping us live better.. it is only making discomfort more prominent. earlier if you were ill you ignored it, if you went more ill you rested and if you went more sick you died. simple. now if you fall ill you medicate, then operate and then artificially respire. there is no healing only curing. we drank water from pools, ponds and rivers. now there is purified water, distilled mineral water, water purifiers that distill water with UV light and make it 'potable'. the flip side you dont get your dose of bacteria, immunology 101 daily dose of a little miscreant makes you more tolerant to the element. there are now pills that you can take for everything. and we still struggle to cure common cold. have we really made progress. have we really gone beyond where we were. we havent been able to domesticate a single animal since we moved on from caves. we still are struggling with the idea of prolonging life. but nature has escalated. it moved on. it doesn't strike with common cold and malaria any more. we now die of dignified diseases cancer, AIDS, STDs, and then it laughs at us b throwing in an epidemic or two. bird flu, mad cow, dengue, and what have you. then the natural calamities. the tsunami. the volcanoes, the earthquakes and what do we have against them? nothing.. absolutely nothing. we are still the nasty kid trying to take on the gods thinking that just because it can walk it can out run. and nature is the placid adult toying with us and laughing at our naivety. nature isnt the enemy, it is the watchful adult with the ghost stories to keep you in line. and you better stay that way.. cos these ghosts are for real. and they are deadly. live simple. dont toy what you dont understand, try to understand what you dont. live simple and die when you should.. attempts at longitivity is short-lived...!! think about it...!
the sport itself has taken a nasty turn here. its hero worship. i know a guy who every week goes to the temple and prays for them with the whole offering and hoopla done. there are others who resign over this game, there are fights, riots, everything a good healthy sport has asa extra baggage this one has, but in confusing measures. but heres the confusion. we hero worship, but not the team, we worship the player. its xyz today, then someday he starts to fray, we worship the next guy and then xyz gets back his thunder by playing better the lights are again on him. its difficult for a fan of the game to look at the team as a whole. then there is the whole patriotic thing you cant cheer for someone else when your country is playing. even if all the players are in through some stupid selectors family connections. yes. the players needn't be good just connected. its odd when you look at sports and you see games being played. dark games, there is politics, like a well rounded soap opera. then there is the match fixing issue. you dont know wether the team you have been praying for, fighting for, resigned your job so that you could watch them play for, may not even be playing for you. they play for the highest bidder, legal or otherwise. have money will play your way. so its rather difficult for a fan of the sport to continue loving the sport because it is not a sport of physical prowess any more. it is the game of the mind.
i set out on trying to understand the origins of the sport from circumstantial evidence. it seems to have originated from england, spread to all british territories and no further. i dont know any other country other than the commonwealth ones to play this game. as far as the origins go it is more of an afternoon leisure activity like golf, or croquet. have some tea, eat a sandwich, play with the men that kinda thing. the only sport not to breed competition but to subdued it. like scrabble it doesn't matter who one. just that you played it. i dont know of any other sport that could have been so un-spoilable. and then they go ahead and spoil it. they made it competitive, they made players stars, and the team a summation of individuals and not the other way around. it goes from a team sport to a single player supported by others in rotation. this was never meant to be as fast paced a game as it has turned into. but then we arent supposed to fly, fight or marry for money...who are we to judge!!!
i set out on trying to understand the origins of the sport from circumstantial evidence. it seems to have originated from england, spread to all british territories and no further. i dont know any other country other than the commonwealth ones to play this game. as far as the origins go it is more of an afternoon leisure activity like golf, or croquet. have some tea, eat a sandwich, play with the men that kinda thing. the only sport not to breed competition but to subdued it. like scrabble it doesn't matter who one. just that you played it. i dont know of any other sport that could have been so un-spoilable. and then they go ahead and spoil it. they made it competitive, they made players stars, and the team a summation of individuals and not the other way around. it goes from a team sport to a single player supported by others in rotation. this was never meant to be as fast paced a game as it has turned into. but then we arent supposed to fly, fight or marry for money...who are we to judge!!!
we won the worlds first T20 world cup. congrats to the indian cricket team. this post isnt about the win itself. i dont care about the sport, i care even less about the team, and a little lesser than that about the fact that wether they won by chance or choice. i mean u won it .. cool congrats moving on...! that kinda thing.but what i do care is the garbage that they generate that makes it difficult us to break the cliches. the post in on the way they took the winning of the cup. first the pre final match with australia, absolute no respect for the game, team or country, behaving like a bunch of Neanderthals on the field isnt sporting spirit. ok so u get a fine the next day, but the damage is not monetary its the, indians are barbaric on the field thing that bothers me, every time you sledge on the ground there is a bunch of people that could matter making an opinion of that which you represent. my country. patriotism isnt shouting at the top of your voice with a bleeding heart and the country flag. its to act in a way that you belong to civilization. agreed the win was surprising. but the behavior was unforgivable. when you win a game you dont look like you didnt expect to win.. you gotta conduct yourself like you have been winning all your life and you dont know life otherwise. not the way things went down there. we looked like a bunch of oppressed teenagers after their first chat with a female. excited and stupid.
ok lets say we forgive their sins of conduct and appreciate their win even so . we as a nation behaved ridiculously. we ran an entire newspaper edition celebrating their win. we had articles with interviews of the german who sat next to the capt. on his flight back..! why? dont we have anything else happening in this so called great nation of ours? we won a series .. fine move on.. gets some rest, and get to practice in the morning. you interview their parents, wives, children neighbors, the gardner, the watchman.. and how far will this go? dont people in this country have better things to do than read dirt?
ok lets say we forgive the media also for this. i mean they are feeding us garbage cos we ask them for it. but can we forgive ourselves? the same sport, nearly the same team, was dishonorably removed from the world cup not so long ago... and when i say removed,.. we were literally thrown out by the underdogs.... ! the boys come back home heads hanging low and we have a bunch of housewives at the airport wearing full cricket gear standing under the sign that read"wanna play?". now we get them to our country, we give them gifts worth millions, a guy gets 1Cr for hitting 6 sixes in a row... and a porche, and a house in any city of his choice, plus the state govt. showering them with gifts....! how shameless are we? if you win you are everything to us if you lose we tar and feathers you and run you off our property! and this is only true for cricket.. we are a lot more tolerant otherwise.. you win the world championship anywhere else.. ok cool get back home and better yourself... unless you are piping hot and can endorse a cola.. then you are the ruler of the universe..! we have a chess genius in our hands.. and we dont bother, we have a brilliant hockey team.. we dont let the success get to their head, we have athletes running bare foot for lack of sponsorships.. that doesn't matter.. but if we win a cricket series .. hurray! whats so great about this sport? its a test of patience and not stamina. its more about timing than strategy off the field.
i am not saying that dont celebrate them, just that celebrate every victory equally. and please behave! the hockey players, the chess champs, the tennis players, the athletes work as hard as the cricketers. you may be the best at what you do, but thats only how good you are. you are not gods, certainly not mine.
ok lets say we forgive their sins of conduct and appreciate their win even so . we as a nation behaved ridiculously. we ran an entire newspaper edition celebrating their win. we had articles with interviews of the german who sat next to the capt. on his flight back..! why? dont we have anything else happening in this so called great nation of ours? we won a series .. fine move on.. gets some rest, and get to practice in the morning. you interview their parents, wives, children neighbors, the gardner, the watchman.. and how far will this go? dont people in this country have better things to do than read dirt?
ok lets say we forgive the media also for this. i mean they are feeding us garbage cos we ask them for it. but can we forgive ourselves? the same sport, nearly the same team, was dishonorably removed from the world cup not so long ago... and when i say removed,.. we were literally thrown out by the underdogs.... ! the boys come back home heads hanging low and we have a bunch of housewives at the airport wearing full cricket gear standing under the sign that read"wanna play?". now we get them to our country, we give them gifts worth millions, a guy gets 1Cr for hitting 6 sixes in a row... and a porche, and a house in any city of his choice, plus the state govt. showering them with gifts....! how shameless are we? if you win you are everything to us if you lose we tar and feathers you and run you off our property! and this is only true for cricket.. we are a lot more tolerant otherwise.. you win the world championship anywhere else.. ok cool get back home and better yourself... unless you are piping hot and can endorse a cola.. then you are the ruler of the universe..! we have a chess genius in our hands.. and we dont bother, we have a brilliant hockey team.. we dont let the success get to their head, we have athletes running bare foot for lack of sponsorships.. that doesn't matter.. but if we win a cricket series .. hurray! whats so great about this sport? its a test of patience and not stamina. its more about timing than strategy off the field.
i am not saying that dont celebrate them, just that celebrate every victory equally. and please behave! the hockey players, the chess champs, the tennis players, the athletes work as hard as the cricketers. you may be the best at what you do, but thats only how good you are. you are not gods, certainly not mine.
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