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.

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.

Here's to you.

If I started to give you anecdotes about the way technology has handicapped us every single day, I probably would have enough content for the rest of the year.

But alas! That is not how this project works.

I am pretty sure that over the course of over 300 blogs, it would have come up quite a few times that generating a blog every single day is not easy. What ends up happening, more often than not, is that the writer of the blogs goes around asking everyone in office if they have any ideas or suggestions and will most definitely receive variations of the same threat:
"I swear, if you ask me this question one more time..!"

Alas, desperate times call for desperate measures and those are exactly what these incessant questions count as. But some times, these encounters can give rise to some pretty interesting, amusing or even perfectly mundane blogs.

I would've never thought that I'd ever write about Bougainvillea or Cab rides or even, more recently, scrubbing the floors. So here's a shout out to the crazy stories each member of this office comes up with.

And here's to you looking forward to the answers that come because we keep bugging others with the same question,
Always.

Namitha.

Immobile.

The initial plan today was to write about how I found it really amusing that the capacity of a home safe is measured in litres. But then I realised that it was merely because cubic metres are often expressed as litres and it ruined the whole fancy and imaginative explanation I was concocting in my mind.

So then, I was sitting here, out of ideas when it struck me that I should write about the link between mobile technology and the site life merely because of how weird it felt when my phone was dead the entire day.

First things first, nothing happens without a whatsapp group. So, obviously, the multiple office groups need to be checked various times during the day for everything from communication between the site and the office to material procurement or even deliberation on drawings. If your whatsapp is off, chances are that you have no idea what the others are up to.

Next, the probability of you carrying camera equipment when you’re out of office, either on site or in the workshop, are particularly low so, obviously, collection of photographic evidence pertaining to work, site conditions and even selected fittings and fixtures (when you’re shopping with the clients) is out of question.

Thirdly, god forbid you do not get an auto or a bus, there is no way you or anyone else can get you back to office by booking a vehicle.

All these, of course, are apart from the fact that you cannot call or message or even research something if the client or workers ask you for input on something you don’t have a great grip on.

I was thanking my stars that I was with Leena and didn’t really need to use the phone but that isn’t the point. The point is that we are all so dependent on our mobiles that even 8 hours of work without them seems like a long shot.

But, here’s to my phone finally having enough charge for me to use the hotspot to upload this blog.

Adios,
Namitha.

Some Wednesdays, We Scrub the Floors.

I was doing my regular mind mapping, idea hunting exercise to find quality content for the blog and as fate would have it, it came in the form of Rithik and Arjun walking into the garage and telling me about the start of their day. It turns out that they began their lazy morning with an activity that shouldn’t really be surprising, considering that today is the day after Christmas. But of course, it needs to be noted that what led to this said activity had nothing to do with Christmas.

It turns out that some of the previous work that had happened on site had left the beautiful ceramic floor tiles used in the house pretty dirty. On noticing that, along with a lack of workers on site early in the morning, someone decided to take things into their own hands and this is exactly why, when our boys turned up on site, they were met with the image of a man, who on close inspection, turned out to be the owner, scrubbing the bathroom floors with all his might. 

Now, imagine this situation:

You turn up on site because you’re building someone’s house and you see the said someone going full force and cleaning. What do you do?

Let’s be honest, you don’t really have a choice. You discuss what other work needs to be done and start scrubbing the floors with him. And if you’re lucky, as these guys seem to have been, there will soon be pumped up music and a constant banter filling the air as other people slowly join you and start, well, scrubbing the rest of the areas.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the image of all of these guys calling dibs on different spots and cleaning till the tiles shined.

I guess if any of us at office ever need to do some floor cleaning, we now know who the experts are!

See you tomorrow!
Namitha

Are we there yet?

We talked too long to ourselves amongst ourselves while the majority stopped listening and progressed further. 

Architecture, Buildings - to me, seem tired. We've talked about them so much that we have nothing to emphasise on anymore. Why don't we talk about a painting, direction styles in various movies, graphics or literally anything else. 

Have we glorified Architecture to a point where we are driven by Intellectual, academic and conceptual theories? 

Maybe the task of making Architecture more accessible can be achieved not only by opening itself to other disciplines but also to itself and its end users. The more the people around you start to think about the place they inhabit, the better they'll care about Architecture. 

With the current crop, There's a fresh outlook for innate collaboration with various disciplinaries. Our sustenance is formed by having an extroverted approach to experts in various fields; learning and integrating their processes and workflow to express the best aspects of the collaboration.  

Since Architecture has sprung beyond its disciplinary boundaries, it opens up the possibility of practicing or processing in a way that does not depend on the articulate architectural way. 

Addressing reality and fighting for issues like Global warming, waste, urbanisation, overpopulation to name a few, would call for the Architects of the future to the fore. This is essentially the need of the century. Architecture and Architects are going to be driven by social issues which might shape the world for a better place than what it is today. 

They may be hypotheticals, but they pose a question on how to expand and think Architecture.

-Utsav Shah

Pleasant Learnings at Site

Since the time I've been working at Sandarbh, I have noticed how we are so dependent on technology. This, has been even more apparent during my time at the site.

Tradesmen make up a large part of transforming what we envision as architects to become a reality.

They are harnessing technology by completing the information loop by reporting to the organisation about every task carried out on a daily basis. Efficient Communication through phones and internet mediums between staff have enhanced the quality and skill set on a whole new level. In the same aspect, faster decisions and updates communicated through these methods have made the process as transparent and fast as possible. This kind of communication is what runs the organisation in a smooth and responsible manner.

Yesterday, one of the workers approached me with a beaming look on his face. He sprung out his brand new phone, asking me to create an account to set up his phone.
I was quite happy to see that the technological shift has been taken up by everyone.
It was a very interesting lunch break for me, which made me put my lunch aside and help him set up his phone gladly.


This made me think how the whole dynamics have changed. A few years back internet and seamless connectivity was a wishful luxury. Today the idea of being connected has become a very integral part of everyone's lives. People are ready to work  harder to get that little bit more on  luxury. Makes me think though, in a broader scheme of things, the return on investment through these processes have proved to be far more beneficial.