Fitting into the Venn Diagram of Shopping.

In a venn diagram of shopping enthusiasts and non-fans, there is a small intersection of people who don’t mind shopping for others. As a designer, it is almost necessary to fall into that category (even if you do so begrudgingly); because there are days where you spend all your time hauling yourself and your client across the town on various, undecided modes of transportation from one shop to the next- picking, sorting, rejecting and finalizing all the different elements that come together to form a cohesive, tangible space.

If the thought of that drains you, just imagine the lethargy you will be faced with when you factor in the notorious Bangalore traffic, the subsequent pollution, dust and a constant cacophony of noises. But let me take a step back to tell you that it wasn’t bad at all. Bangalore decided to be nice to us by maintaining a pleasant temperament in terms of both weather and traffic; and our client helped us a great deal by being precise, practical and to be very honest, tirelessly sprightly. Within 7 hours, we had built a comprehensive itinerary of everything from granite to geysers, along with a fair idea of the menu we spent quite some time perusing during lunch.

It would be quite deceptive to say that there were no snags at all and that we were left as energetic at the end as we were at the beginning of this day-long quest for home-building materials; but it would be equally false to declare that it was as tiring and arduous as we anticipated it to be. In the end, I guess, it should suffice to say that my first shopping trip as a part of this office was quite the success, especially since it ended with some crunchy, cheesy fries!

Until tomorrow,
Namitha.

Square One

Real life first days don’t start with melodious background scores in a magical land surrounded by luscious greenery and friends you’ve known for ages. Instead, they often begin with bedheads, infuriating alarm clocks, ridiculously long car rides and a numbing pain in your head telling you that picking up a call from your best friend in the middle of the night might not have been the best idea when you already haven’t slept the previous couple of days.

But that’s okay. I’ve learnt today that even the most initially unsettling first days can often take a sharp turn for the better; especially when greeted by two beautiful dogs and a little girl who kindly informed me that she  prefers to be called strong over cute and says that she’d rather eat chocolates than ‘actual breakfast’. They get even better when you are told, to your face, that you’re not expected to know a whole lot. In fact, you’re expected to know nothing so that you can skip the part when you try to play it cool and impress the people around you and instead, get to put all that energy into working and learning things the right way rather than going through the whole tedious process of unlearning. And the icing on the cake is, sometimes, the fact that people around you don’t always comply with the socially accepted laws of normalcy, hierarchy or even, for that matter, personal boundaries.

The sarcasm, the eye rolls and even the nit-picking and the leg-pulling that I’ve seen around me today seems to be the basis of a camaraderie that forms the fabric of this office- a place that could be well on its way to creating a new word that combines casual and professionalism ( like athleisure, but unrelated to clothing).

I had an inkling on the day I got my first mail that I would like this place, today confirmed those feelings and hopefully, the next few months here will only add to it.

Signing off for the first time,
Namitha