Guess-Break-Validate.

It has been a heavy few days at Sandarbh. There have been lengthy discussions about everything from human resource management to project management systems that can make your head go for a toss. 

Dead in the middle of this chaos of information is each of us is trying to wrap our heads around the volume of content that has been handed to us on a platter formed by years of experience.

Like everything else in life, this too has two sides: One being the cliché that you can learn from other peoples’ mistakes and the other being the fact that there is no way to guarantee that you won’t make the same mistake, unless you’ve made it once. But the funny part isn’t the possibility of making a mistake while knowing that it is one; it is that you won’t even realize that it is the same error someone else made, just in a different context.

But that isn’t what this blog is about.

This is about the things that struck me most in the entire (almost) 2 day long conversation: My favourite one being concept of breaking things down. The idea of taking something and deconstructing it is so simple in theory that we often forget how detailed everything in life can be.

Next in line is guessing and validating. Much like academic research where you start with a hypothesis and do various experiments to either affirm or negate your theory; research and small, harmless experiments on humans can be quite eye opening, especially if you are your own test subject.

And the third most interesting thing to me, was what was happening in front of my eyes- a scene where 10-15 people were huddled around one desk, listening with rapt attention for hours. The reason this is so interesting to me is because it perfectly combines the aforementioned 2 ideas in two very different ways:

1.      The first perspective is one where Sai guessed that we would benefit from such an all-encompassing talk, broke things down to make it easier for us to digest, watched us gobble up all this information and that, in turn, validated his assumption.

2.      The second perspective is one where we guessed that what Sai had to say would help us, broke the information down in our head to digest it, and today, when we tried to work using the principles discussed, found that our initial guess was validated.

Of course, realizing that there is probably a more efficient way to work might look like a win-win situation; but it rarely is. What it means, then, is that there is a lot of unlearning to do, before you reach your optimal efficiency. But that is a conversation for another day.

So long,
Namitha.

Building Blocks

Story Time!

When I was 8 years old I decided to become an architect. Not really knowing what an architect was, but my parents said it was nice, so it must be fine. And so I played with Lego blocks, given by my mother, and made zany objects.

Skip five years, after an intense reading and repeated enactment of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s infamous Sherlock Holmes, I decided it was time India got its first consultant detective.

Skip five more years. Quantum Physicist it was.

Five years later. I will be passing out as an Architect. So it does come full circle.

I am not saying that architecture is something I fell upon. But I believe it is something I was fated upon. My point being. Sometimes life just happens. And it may be exactly what you needed. However, it may turn sour really fast if you don’t try to do anything about it.

I know, confusing. Imagine Newton. Life happened and an apple fell on his head. But instead of cursing his luck of sitting below the one apple that was going to fall he did something about the whole scenario of the apple falling on his head. And asked instead. Why did it fell down?

I studied architecture because it reminded me of my childhood aspirations. It made me feel like I was meant to be, and showed me real beauty in life.

This is my story of falling into architecture and then soon falling in love with it.

What’s yours?

Fun fact: One great architect whose mother also gave him wooden blocks to play with as a child: Frank Lloyd Wright. I think I had a good start ;)