Back to Bawa

We left Sri Lanka last year promising ourselves that we would be back. We had just not had enough of the wonders that Bawa had scattered across the country. We managed to visit and stay at many of his building but Kandalama is now top of the list. We havnt managed to go back yet though. But what I had not expected was to experience this in Madurai!

This site visit was decided a few days before we were to drive down and we were totally caught up with work before leaving. Though a work visit, when Sai, Ally, Ananya and I travel, we always make sure to know of the place to see and the places to have food at (this is top priority). This trip though, our research was done on the drive down and when we read about the Heritage designed by Bawa, that instantly moved to the number 1 place to see!

We drove into Madurai around lunchtime and since we were all excited and not really tired, we decided to go for a site visit that evening. Imagine our surprise when we were talking to our clients about Heritage and wanting to see it and she says that its the next door property and whats more, that the site was part of the Heritage property and was recently sold off to the public!

Highlight of the next day was walking through Heritage, the gardens, the rooms so tastefully and thoughtfully renovated. The clubhouse was beautiful. I felt like I was back in Sri Lanka walking through the corridors ending in the best vistas and peppered with courtyard with gorgeous trees. the play of light and dark was just as it should be. The big difference in Madurai was his choice of local material but the spaces and the essence which had left us in awe in Sri Lanka were all there leaving us in wonder at the genius of this man!

Bawa was on ironically one of the biggest inspirations when we started designs on this house because we were still reeling from our trip to Sri Lanka. And here we are now with the splendid Heritage as out neighbour!

Hoping that this modest residence for two very private, simple people live upto its neighbour!

Miss Beamish!

 

One of the brightest things in the studio is undoubtedly Ananya's smile. Full toothed, absolutely happy and totally infectious! You cant help but smile back and that too happily! 

You walk into the studio and if Ananya's not engrossed in her laptop, with her headphones on, working frantically to meet deadlines, you are certain to be smiling away just looking at her smile. 

Ananya is the Chief Marketing person, our ardent HR executive, the one who maintains all communications - between clients as well as between all of us. Maintaining peace and order especially in office and mostly between Sai and I as we 'discuss and debate' design ideas. So that smile of hers works like magic. 

You can feel it when you talk to her. You know there is that smile when you read her mails, you are happy and smiling like her when you go through her blogs. Her smile is her stamp and you will know it and will most likely be smiling now if you have met her, spoken to her or read er blogs. 

When Ananya got through the Teach For India program 2 months back and told us that she would want to give that a go, both Sai and I were truly happy for her and excited at her excitement. Its only when we sat back and thought about it that we realised how much we would miss her. Even now I cant imagine the studio without Ananya and her corner and that smile. 

But there is good news! Its Ananya and she can never miss out on anything so we will be graced with all of her 32 pearly whites every Saturday for sure and whenever else she is free and missing us which I am hoping is often :-) 

She would still be a part of Sandarbh. Managing all that she is involved and knowing her, a little more! 

The studio is ever transitioning for us  because of the number of interns who come in every semester. The constants for me in this has been Ananya, Harshita and Sulu. Now Harshita is not there and Ananya will not really be there. ( Sulu, ever so glad you are still there! ) 

Ananya, I am just glad right now that you are still in Bangalore and still with us! That smile of your will be something I so look forward to every weekend now! :-) 

Stay beamish always! 

Nostalgia

It's been a year since I officially became a part of the Sandarbh family, a year since the day I got my confirmation for an internship.It feels like a lifetime ago, so much has happened since and yet I remember the day in vivid detail as though it was yesterday.
It was a lazy morning for we were done with our internals but I was still freaking out trying to find an internship. In a last ditch attempt I decided to call a few firms to follow up - Sandarbh coincidentally being the first. Owing to network issues I stepped out of the house and dialled the number to be greeted with Sai's voice on the phone. The interview as one would call it was shorter and more informal than I had been prepared for. The entire team sat around the phone and asked me about myseld, my work and my life. By the end of the conversation I was offered the internship and had accepted it too. I remember being completely overwhelmed. The moment I entered the house, I told my mom I got an internship , barely believing it myself. It perhaps took the rest of the day for that bit of information to settle in.
And that was that. I was a part of Sandarbh and it's been quite a journey - there were great days, a lot of good days and some that I'd rather not recall. I miss the morning meetings around Sai's table discussing work or the evenings we all spent together just chatting away. Each person had their own place in the office, their own role, their own quirks. There's so much one could write and yet one blog doesn't seem nearly enough.
Lots has happened since I came back home too - a lot of the on-going projects were wrapped up and new projects have started (some still in the design stage while others are already progressing on site). The Sandarbh family grows day by day (quite literally) and like any family, there have been some bitter sweet good-byes too. But goodbyes aren't forever and this blog is a proof of that. Slowly many anniversaries will follow and each will bring a fresh wave of nostalgia - first day at work, first site visit, first client meeting... A lot of firsts that I couldn't have even imagined. And maybe this is the first of many more blogs to come, many more memories to share, many more experiences to write about...

-Mannat 

Thank You For the Music ....

Its been a little over a year and half but it feel like Harshita has been at Sandarbh forever. So when she told us a few months back that she wants to take a break from work and leave, it took us all a little time to get used to. In fact, it didnt seem real to me at all though shes been counting backward since the last 2 months.

Its been more than a week now and its finally hitting me. Harshita is not here. 

Its a very conspicuous absence. I turn around as I always do to say something and Harshita is not there twiddling with her hair with one hand and typing away on her laptop with another. There is noone to laugh out loud with and exchange looks with when Sai says something incredulous. There is noone to intimidate and rattle the interns (and all others) with the most cut and dry statements. To top all this off, its quiet in the office now. 

Harshita and her legendary playlists are what we have been working to the tune of for the longest time now and suddenly there is no music and we dont know what to play! The Marshall must be wondering what has happened and is probably hoping that his keeper is back soon to manage him. She made me download the app to make sure that each song is played with the right bass and trebles but we have hardly been playing music and I havnt opened the app yet even!! (I will Harshita, I promise!!) 

Its not just the Marshall ..... its all of us echoing the same thoughts ..... We miss you already Harshita and its hardly 10 days! 

Take your long break, travel (dont plan it so much though), do nothing ... just laze with no thoughts, bake away (and try and send us some if you can), make more super playlists (and name them as imaginatively) and come back. I cant imagine so many things without you as part of it! Going out will never be the same .... Gigs will never be the same .... sigh! 

I'll stop because I can go on with this. Suddenly 1.5 years is quite a long long time. So many good times and amazing memories. 

Take care dude and all the very best for everything you want to do. We miss you .... keep coming back and we will build more happy times!! :-) 

A Virtual Reality Kind of Day

We had a very interesting day at work yesterday. A two hour experience of actually walking through some demo projects and some of our own projects!

As usual, we at Sandarbh approached it as we do everything else. As Arjun put it - " I could do everything that I wouldnt have been able to do in a real life project ". In his case this meant to croucg down on the floor and look under the chairs and jump into a pool from the first floor!

It was a game for Inesh ( as is most things I think!!). He walked, turned in all directions, jumped, bend, dodged attacks from the building blocks and smiled happily throughout!

Everyone was in office during the presentation tried out the Virtual Reality experience. The ones who were out at sites or absent, totally missed it all! All of us started out skeptically but then moved to being happy and exuberent! Laughing, joking and making sure we didnt bump into each other while everyone around was egging you on!

The best part I think was our reactions when we walked through one of our projects. The experience was awesome! We realised that not just will this be a great presentation tool, it will be a better design tool! We could see and feel what it was to walk through something we had designed before it was done. In many cases, we probably had not visualised it as we were when we walked through the spaces.

All in all, it was a fantastic presentation. Darren and Jessica were full of information but fun and the product, very very interesting and innovative. It started conversations in the studio about design and the pros and cons.
Another good morning at Sandarbh .... :-)

Furry Friends in other Workspaces.

We like kittens almost as much as dogs.

As I grew up, it became very clear to me that people were either dog people or cat people. But then, in college, I was surrounded by friends who had cats in their homes and over a course of 4 years, I may have developed a soft corner for them.

Turns out, most people in the office are the same.

This was proven when a litter of kittens was found in our workshop and the first reaction my colleagues at the workshop had, was to inform us about them through a series of images capturing these wide-eyed babies nestled in their arms; and the subsequent reaction Sai had was to make sure that someone informed the workers at the workshop to take care of them.

I have no doubts about the fact the daily workshop visits that we happily undertake to ensure the progress of the carpentry work because of the opportunity they provide us to work and learn at the same time, will now become even more invigorating.

As an office that has no lack of animal interaction within the working space, it is no surprise, I guess, that our extended workspace would also find some furry four-legged friends.

Looking forward to keeping you updated.

As always,
Namitha.

MS Word is my Best Friend

MS Word is my best friend.

This week began with words and has continued to be about them.

What started off as a short assignment to draft one mail, went on to stretch over half my day;
Followed by the editing of another mail;
Followed by another one-
The next day.

Even for someone who loves words, this is a bit much.

However, the only reason this sequence of similar, simultaneous activities didn’t get to me was because

MS word is my best friend.

It stores in its memory all of my words,
Allowing me to cut, copy and paste relevant sentences from one place to another.
This is important.

Ask Ananya and she will vouch for it.

It allows me to remember the way we reacted to one person, and rectify and make things better with another.
This is even more so.

Sai will tell you about this.

It allows me to write bland, barely baked blogs so that I can come back at a later date and befriend them again.
Like I did today.

I’d left this piece at ‘MS Word is my best friend’ on Monday, but only today, when I can’t  think of any new ideas do I really appreciate the way technology has swept us away.

Someone else in office might say
That Excel is their best friend.
For how else will you estimate for every single detail?

Or maybe Sketchup is their bestfriend.
For how will you pull all your walls, place your windows and see how the light enters the space;
How will you know if the design is perfect,
In its 3 dimensional way?

Or maybe, you are Rithik.
Your questions range from 2B or not 2B
To which angles you’ll see,
When sketched in 2D.

We all have our best friend.
The one that aids the way we work In this space;
Holds your gaze; and says,
What do you want to work on today?

- Namitha

Sandarbh and I

Its been a good two months of me in Sandarbh today. Starting off the blog saga, I am going to be talking about my favorites here.

To begin with, Atom, everybody's favourite in the office. He is our little child who is always ready and up for a play. His surprise sniffs while everybody is busy working or him getting pampered by all in turns makes work less stressful around us.

While Atom wants to be grab a chair along with us, lunches are my next favorite here. All of us sit done around the table, with the funniest to the strangest conversations, making the whole team crack down to laughter.

The latest tradition of Dobble after lunch makes a good buffer before we head back to work for the day.

And not to forget, the impulsive Saturday outings XD

While these are my favouries until now, Im looking forward to my further journey at Sandarbh.

- Sonali. 

River of Gold

Have you watched the movie Desolation of Smaug?

Have you noticed the way the river of gold flows through a system of channels- never stopping, never ending- till it reaches a point where the entire floor is flooded and the gold eventually solidifies to create a scarily beautiful reflective surface?

This is how Sandarbh is now trying to work.

Before you shake your head, let me explain:

Sandarbh, as an office, has been undergoing a lot of changes over the last month or so and all of us here, obviously, are a part of it:

What we initially went through could be drawn as a direct parallel to the way solid gold was melted in the movie at burning temperatures to give rise to a more mouldable, more vulnerable version of itself.

After that, we began the process of finding the right niche for each member of the office. This was when each person’s abilities were put through the grind to find the right balance between what they liked and what they were good at. Some people hit this sweet spot instantly but some found it harder to make sense of the internal chaos.

The former set of people then moved into their respective roles and began accumulating the drive to move forward on the path they’ve chosen- almost like the gold being tipped into its designated channel after being transported across the halls and through as many spaces as required to reach its destination.

What will come next is the culmination of all these tiny streams, overflowing and spilling over into the realm of collaboration to create one smooth outer surface, the intricacies of which are only visible to those within but the beauty of which, is accessible to every onlooker.

And that, from my understanding, is where we’d like to be.

Is it time consuming, energy sapping and tough on everyone? Yes.
Is it worth it? Most Probably.
Will we succeed?
That, only time will tell.

But I’m pretty sure that this process of optimization, communication, and identification of the gaps in the system is well on its way to make us a much more cohesive office space.

Looking forward to the next few months,
Namitha

Keeping Busy

Being busy has never really been an issue for any of us at Sandarbh. But this year has been one of the most productive that I can remember in some time. The architects, interns and everyone at sites have been busy, busy, busy. We're constantly learning, we're doing, we're creating and the environment is electric!

A walk into the studio gets you sucked into a world of sketches and designs, excel sheets and calculations, sketches and autocadd. Its fun! I don't think any other batch of our interns or architects have learned so much and so intensely in so little time.

We, of course, take our breaks very seriously. These days, that comes in the form of lunch mostly. At about 1, we all break from what we are working on to set up and sit down together for our dabba. Starting from the taste of lunch that day to politics, work, experiences at site, Atom and Cocoa, family and our general lives, we talk and talk .... and we laugh and laugh. We extend these sessions a little with a game or two of dobble (it will be tough to beat most of the girls at Sandarbh at Dobble - we get mega competitive!!), many of us go for walks with Atom and the rest try to get Cocoa to step out of the gate for 5 minutes at least!!

We get back to work with vigour but mostly with dreams of afternoon siestas and corner house (which we do order often enough!).
As tough and tiring as its been, I don't think any of us are really complaining. It feels good this kind of busy so here's to more busy times at work - let me correct that .... here's to more productive but fun days at work :-)  

Space.

You will always find it:

Space.

Meandering
Like veins under the skin;
Joining the various limbs
In a system of interconnected pathways-
Binding.

Sustaining Life.

This is how Atom and Coco make paths for themselves, ensuring that they are in the centre of all activity.

While the probability of you walking into our office and seeing at least a handful of people surrounding Sai’s desk is high, the probability of you seeing little incisions and elongated corridors stretching between the seats chosen by the people that form this organisation, irrespective of whether or not we’re in a meeting are even higher.

They sprawl on the floor: snoozing, nibbling, yawning or even walking around, sometimes constantly fishing for attention. And that’s one of the things that binds us as an office- this shared love for these sweet creatures and the energy that we draw from them, the quick breaks we take to laugh at their sleep poses and of course, the annoyance we feign when they’re being too needy.

The space they’ve barged into and hollowed out for themselves seems pretty permanent- evident in the literal and figurative sense; in the space we spend our entire day in and in the crevices of each of our minds.

Gushing about them to whoever I meet is almost a predictable part of my routine and so obviously, you, my reader, will not be spared.

Hoping you don’t mind it,
Namitha.

Keeping It Short.

What do I write in the blogs? When do I write the blogs?

These two questions have been a part of the daily internal dialogues running in my mind right from the time I joined the firm. The only difference between then and now is that the question of ‘when’ has taken precedence over ‘what’.

There seems to be a constantly growing list of interesting conversations that occur in office that could be converted into quality content for the blog but there also seems to be an increasingly diminishing ability to maintain focus beyond the time when assigned work gets completed. Is it the stress of the changes that we’re making or the fact that gradually, everyone is becoming more accountable and responsive w.r.t the roles they play in the office, I’m not sure yet. Either way, as I’ve mentioned time and again, the general level of productivity at the end of the day seems higher than it used to be.

As with everything else, I hope time will allow us to find our groove and get back to having time for things beyond designated tasks, activities and deadlines. 

Keeping things short for probably the first time,
Namitha.

Gradual Destruction and Constant Upliftment.

It has been about 3 days since our little experiments pertaining to the systemization of the office structure have begun and the mood in the office has shifted. The past few days have seemed like high tension, high stakes days for most people. There is no denying that by the end of the day we are so mentally obsolete that I, for one, don’t know whether to feel exhilarated or just exhausted.

This shift in atmosphere is not something anyone can ignore or even leave unnoticed. We did what we, as an office, always do- had a conversation that involved everyone that was in the office at that moment. The end result of this was the decision to start splitting roles and delegating work to establish the next step in this organisational process.

The good thing about this, if we are able to achieve it, is that eventually all the pending work would be done once and for all and from that point onward, there will only be a sustainable amount of work each person has to do. The flip side in my head, however, is that this isn’t an easy exercise to do as the outcomes are far too varied and probably even extreme:

One outcome could be that each of us, being unsure of how much the other person will be able to complete, will end up delegating the bare minimum. The other way would be that we just pass on everything that we can’t do leading to an extreme testing of the patience and work capacity of the last person on the hierarchical ladder.
Either of these methods would set us up for spectacular failure.

The only positive solution to this activity would be to follow a balanced approach that relies on gradual change of systems rather than a sudden upheaval of habits that have been inculcated over a long period of time. 

How we reach this balance is a whole ‘nother story altogether- One that I will share with you, as and when we progress forward.

Stick around, it seems like it is going to be a bumpy but crazy ride!
Namitha.

Baby Steps.

The office is alive.

That’s the only way to describe the past few days. After discussions upon discussion and talks upon talks, it finally feels like we’re going somewhere with our work.

Don’t get me wrong. We never stopped working, but we’ve only started working, very recently, with gusto. Almost all the deliberations we have nowadays are based on one word: consequence.

You’d think that there is only so much you can talk about consequences but you’d be sadly mistaken. Spend one day in our office and you’ll see various reasons to identify and link activities with corresponding consequences- not just in terms of immediate good or bad but also in terms of the manifold systems that revolve around that one word.

Another thing we’ve been touching upon is the fact that our organisation doesn’t end at the rung of interns or at the rung of people who supervise the site. Rather, our office and all that it stands for and believes in needs to reach the level of workers who ensure that all the office work is translated into something tangible.

These are, obviously, not ideas, ideals or concepts that can be introduced and implemented in one day and slowly, but surely, there is a shift in the way we view our work and as of now, the shift is one that moves us towards a better version of what we currently are.

As always,
I’ll keep you updated about the implications of these baby steps.

So long,
Namitha.

Non-Christmas Christmas Hullabaloo

After a month of celebrations, January is usually considered to be a downer of a month; what with the entire year ahead of you (am I the only one who feels better towards the end of the year?) and almost no grand festivals in the near future.  However, today was a day everyone in office was excited about. Turns out that between the public holidays and breaks taken by people in the office, we’d ended up never having the pre-christmas gift exchange last year and obviously, playing Christmas santa is an activity that cannot be ignored.

After 2 date changes and a lot of hullabaloo, we finally celebrated Christmas in office today and when I say celebrate, I mean the entire shindig with a make-do Christmas tree, borrowed lights, Christmas songs on the speaker and a bucket of gifts.

Now I expected us to start playing the game towards the end of the day because I really didn’t have much faith in the probability of anyone getting back into the groove of working afterwards. However, I was perfectly pleasantly surprised when (surprise!) it took everyone about 15 minutes to switch gears and go back to whatever was on the agenda  for the day and all this…wait for it..without any cribbing or whining!

I don’t want to believe it but it turns out that all of us, actually enjoy working! That, I feel, is quite a revelation (at least for me) and a happy one, at that.

Hoping to maintaining this positivity throughout the year!

Namitha.

Never Ending Questions.

Somewhere in the third week of working here, I started typing questions that I needed to figure out the answers to. These could be anything- from ‘what on earth is masala in the context of site work?’ and ‘what should I write in the blog today?’ to ‘does this drawing have to be completed first or that one?’ or even ‘where do I add this in the grand scheme of pending work?’

Initially, I thought that this would just end up becoming one of those random documents scattered in my drive that contain bits and pieces of text that I will accidentally stumble across a few weeks from then. How wrong I was.

Every time one question gets answered, it seems like two more pop up- making it impossible for me to stay on top of it, let alone forget about it. And this is why soon enough, this note got the title- "never ending questions".

You'd think that this random snippet from my life has not a lot to do with office but that's not true. It is testimony to the fact that if you just look around this chaos that is slowly (very slowly) starting to get sorted out, you'll always find something new to do or figure out. It is also an indication of the way we work, the hands on experience of being thrown into the deep end and the type of environment we work in where questions are encouraged and answers don't always need to be found on Google.

I think it'd be quite interesting to see how each of the new people react to this space. Maybe, soon enough, I'll write about their experiences.

Hope you stick around!

Namitha.

5 Minutes.

‘Atom is the reason I can’t work.’

Someone said this is the garage the other day and all of us automatically had a smirk on our faces. Almost everyone who has worked here has probably thought this at least one time.

If you’ve met Atom, you know what I’m talking about.

It can be the sad droopy eyes he looks at you with every time he wants your attention (which is all the time, by the way), the way he makes these noises when he’s trying to communicate with you or even the fact that he is the friendliest great dane you will ever meet; something about this gentle giant will draw you to him.

Of course, all isn’t always good. He can be over enthusiastic while running around, can knock you ever if you’re in his way and worst of all can stamp your feet or semi-crush your shoulders with his paws. But all in all, if atom wants attention, chances are that he’ll get it- if not from you, then someone else.

While this might occasionally disrupt your focus or even annoy you once in a blue moon; the fact that such an energetic and quirky creature is around you automatically makes you feel more at ease, usually irrespective of how stressed you are.

Sharing an office with Atom and Coco has shown me the reason dogs are often chosen as therapy animals- they don't need to try very hard to help you calm down; you just spend 5 minutes with them and that's almost all you need.

Thank you, boys.

See you soon,
Namitha.

Direction is so much more important than speed. Most are heading fast nowhere. 

Scene 1: 

While in college, we were constantly told by our professors about practical exposure. How visiting a few construction sites, observing and interacting with the workers or engineers at site would really help us empirically. The processes taking place right in front of us will be imprinted in our minds. 

Scene 2: 

Cut to working at Sandarbh. On a daily basis we are working from sites, interacting with our tradesmen understanding the processes. Giving us a better insight to understand how we execute our designs. 

In college, We were never told how important managing  project, people and materials are in keeping a project well on track. Learning about processes that go well beyond drawings and softwares. To understand scale and proportion, the materials and their touch right in front of you. 

The direction we are heading towards, as an Organisation,as an individual is quite an exciting one. The educational experience at Sandarbh up until now has been an Unreal Plot twist. 

Pushing the Envelope

It has been a month!

Wait.
It has only been a month?!

This first month at Sandarbh has been quite something. But it also feels like a blur. We’ve had good days and bad days and days that are so mentally exhausting that you don’t know whether it’s good or bad.

We’ve had sites that have flourished and sites where we couldn’t go the extra mile; work that got completed and files and lists that kept piling up; times where everyone was in sync and times where you didn’t even know what the person next to you was doing. But most importantly, we had people who kept pushing forward, with Sai at the helm of this movement.

As I said earlier, this month has been a month of momentum building- towards achieving even higher quality in terms of work, an even more conducive work environment and an even more holistic work life than we have. This is an ongoing journey where everyone is starting to make conscious efforts to reach the same the goal. A goal that we will achieve and hopefully even push the envelope on this year. 

In the previous blog Leena spoke about what an incredible ride 2018 has been for Sandarbh and I’m writing in hope that 2019 will be even better.

Have a great year ahead!
Namitha.