My Story

Being the eldest in the family I consider myself responsible! My childhood is a collection of beautiful memories. Complete with picnics and chocolates and fights with my younger siblings. I used to stay with my grandparents. They doted me with their attention and love. I was literally the center of their universe. My grandmother was one patient woman who had all the time in this world to satisfy the crazy whims of a child. Looking back I applaud her for all the gentleness she showed towards we children. After all these years I still find myself visiting my past to seek her warmth of love. Love and kindness are truly timeless.

When I was in school I loved to draw and paint. My parents had given me several colored pencils and chalks. I loved to draw because I could then color my drawings. Colors were the main attraction in a drawing for me. I used to draw the pretty pictures of green mountains with bright orange and crimson sun rising exactly between then. A bright blue river emerged from the valley. There used to be a brown boat in the river with its white sail completely inflated in the winds. For some reason I do not ever remember showing a person rowing the boat, it was always empty. There used to be a brick house with a sloping roof and a chimney emitting gray smoke on the banks of that blue river.

My grandparents were very encouraging and as I grew up I began drawing with fluency. I won several prizes at school for good drawing skills and writing skills and eventually I developed a liking for arts and crafts. My parents and grandparents also inculcated in me the love of reading. For every birthday or every festive occasion in the family I received a good book as a present. I received pocket money to buy books of my choice. I received autobiographies. I received books on history. I received poetry collections and so on. I used to look forward to all such occasions. I have a good collection of books and dream of owning a roomful of shelved books someday. I can spend hours in a library or get lost in the collection of books at the bookstores. Non-fiction books have always been my favorite. Reading helped me to develop good writing skills.

By the time I finished my school, I was looking for a profession where I could use my love of art and science combined. A field, which could give me the satisfaction of creation by using my hands and my mind. Architecture was that perfect profession where I found a perfect blend of arts and science. I perhaps would have become a genetic engineer if not an architect because I also like zoology and botany. However Architecture is my first love, my passion, and my life. I simply love architecture and all its allied fields such as planning, interior design, landscaping etc. After completing architecture I further wanted to understand the subject in greater depth and I decided to pursue a masters in planning with special emphasis of housing. I am happy about this decision because planning helped me widen my horizons of thought process concerning architecture. It was during those three years of my post graduation that I re-discovered my hobby for photography. I am saying I re-discovered because it was then that I began using photography as a powerful tool to record and present my intricate observations of urban design. I traveled extensively during my post graduation in several parts of India in the attempt to explore India and also better understand the lifestyle of people from various regions of the country. In my opinion an architect and planner must be able to understand the lifestyle of people for whom they design. These were very fulfilling journeys for me. These were those sweet carefree years of life when one has no responsibilities, and everything around you appears very promising and extremely beautiful. When you have the belief that you can do possibly anything that you want, that you can change the world. I still believe that I can do anything that I lay my hands on, only that I have more responsibilities to fulfill now and have a developed a more rational thinking than I had then. But even then I was the eldest in the family, remember and much more responsible than my younger siblings!