Master Class with Prasad Shetty

On History

Excerpt from a lecture by Prasad Shetty to first year Architecture students at the School of Environment and Architecture (SEA).

Language: English / Hinglish.

This lecture is loaded with rhetoric that has been lost in simple transcription. The stress on words, pauses, and manner of utterances by the speaker are hard to press in written text, and thus the text below must not be understood at mere level of transcription.

Some portions of this excerpt have been edited to keep sense of the conversation.

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Prasad: It is very important for you all to remember these terms in a broad chronological manner. You should know what is world history . . . what is the history of this world, what is the history of human beings?

                        You are human beings?

What is the evidence?

[that] You got 95% [marks]?

Nishi (student): The form structure

Prasad: But form structure toh woh bee hives bhi banaate hain…

             (But form structure is being made by the bees also as hives)

Nishi:     They are animals. We have an ability to think, we have a brain.

Prasad: Animals don’t think? What is the evidence? Gargi what is the evidence? (loudly) Proof kya hai ki tum insaan ho? What is the proof that you are a human being?

                        You have any proof? (softly)You have to think so much? That you are a human being?

A student murmurs: Aadhaar card

Prasad: What what? Kai-kai-kai? (what what what?)

Aadhaar card?

(laughter in class)

Prasad: No he is right, he is right, No this is right actually - this is very important.  We have so many cards – driving licence, aadhaar card, PAN Card, Ration Card, Pass port, Debit Card … thousand … voting card, visiting card... There are so many things that we have na?

That is the evidence that we are human beings?

Maitreyee’s your dog doesn’t have a visiting card? Uske pas aadhaar card hai? Why don’t you get aadhaar card for your dog? Why don't you get? Why?

Uska passport hai? (Does he have a passport?) Have you traveled with him?Usko passport lagta hai? (Does he require a passport?)  Have you traveled with him or her? Has anyone traveled with a dog or cat abroad? Usko lagta hai? Passport lagta hai?

Aditya (Student): They need a registration with the BMC [Bombay Municipal Corporation].

Prasad: BMC ka registration kya hai? Haan? BMC ka kya hai?

Students: They are given a licence.

Prasad: So pets are given or you all are given?

Student: We are given on their behalf.

Prasad: You are given that you can have a pet?

You are given so that they know that the animal is not a stray dog or a cat.

Achha, so it cannot be picked up and killed, or fed to some crocodile…

Okay

So one of the things is to kind of have an overview or have a world view so to say…

…

But as human beings you have a certain history. One of the agendas is to be familiar with that history.

                …

The second agenda is to introduce and familiarize you guys with certain concepts, terms, ideas with which you can handle your histories. You can think through you history. History itself is an idea. Writing of history is also an idea. There are many ways of writing history. . . So how do you handle your past and future? How do you handle it? How do you handle? You need to handle na? You don’t have to handle? Do you have to handle or no? You’ll are burdened – you are coming with 5000 years of history and probably you will remain for the next 5000 years, as human beings. So how do you handle it? So what is the gear that you wear, what are the gloves that you wear, what are the spects that you wear, what are the tools you need to have. How do you handle this past and the present?

Woh toh material hai! (But that is material) To go through anything, you need some tools, you need some tools for anything, to handle anything, you need some tools right? We will introduce you to certain ideas, certain concepts, approaches, by which you will be able to approach at least, how do you handle your past future and how do you kind of deal with? Nahi toh everything is about Shivaji in history… (referring to the typical schooling in social sciences in India)

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(round bracketed English translations are mine)
[square brackets, additions are mine to sharpen the spoken rhetoric]

Memory and Architecture

Mera Kuch Saamaan

Ijaazat (1987)

Music Director: RD Burman

Singer: Asha Bhosle

Lyricist: Gulzar

Mera Kuch Saamaan Tumhare Paas Pada Hai -2

Saavan Ke Kuch Bheege Bheege Din Rakhe Hain

Aur Mere Ik Khat Main Lipti Raat Padi Hai

Vo Raat Bujhaa Do, Mera Vo Saamaan Lauta Do - 2

Mera Kuch Saamaan Tumhaare Paas Pada Hai - 2

Patjhad Hai Kcuh ... Hai Na ?

Patjhad Mein Kuch Patton Ke Girne Kee Aahat

Kaanon Mein Ek Baar Pahan Ke Laut Aai Thee

Patjhad Kee Vo Saakh Abhi Tak Kaanp Rahi Hai

Vo Shaakh Gira Do, Mera Vo Saamaan Lauta Do - 2

Ek Akeli Chhataree Main Jab Aadhe Aadhe Bheeg Rahe The - 2

Aadhe Sookhe Aadhe Geele, Sukha To Main Le Aaye Thee

Geela Man Shayad Bistar Ke Paas Pada Ho Vo Bhijwa Do,

Mera Vo Saamaan Lauta Do

Ek Sau Sola Chaand Ki Raatein Ek Tumhare Kaandhe Ka Til - 2

Geeli Mehendi Ki Khushboo, Jhooth Mooth Ke Shikwe Kuchh

Jhooth Mooth Ke Wade Bhi Sab Yaad Karaa Do; Sab Bhijwa Do,

Mera Vo Saamaan Lauta Do - 2

Ek Ijaazat De Do Bas, Jab Isako Dafanaaungee

Main Bhi Vaheen So Jaungee

Main Bhi Vaheen So Jaungee

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English Translation

Some of my things (belongings), with you, are still kept,

Some damp, wet days of the monsoon lay,

And a night nestled in one of my letters...

Help me forget that night, return me my belongings.

Some autumn... isn't it?

In autumn of some leaves, the light sound of their fall,

Came back as my ears wore it at once,

Of autumn, the branch that is still shivering,

Let that branch fall, return me those of my belongings...

Under one umbrella, when we both were soaking partially,

Partially dry, partially wet – I had taken the dryness with myself,

Perhaps the wet mind that is still lying near the bed,

Send that (wetness) across, send across my belongings...

One hundred and sixteen moon nights and a mole on your shoulder,

The smell of the wet henna, and some cooked up false complaints,

Remind me all those false promises too, send them across

Return me my belongings...

Give me the permission when I shall bury all of this

And I myself will sleep there

And I myself will sleep there...

State of Mind

These days I don't like to write. Although I think of transcribing many things that I listen in discussion that people around me engage in. I keep wondering if they are just talking something much more important than what I have (if at all) got to say. I don't think I have anything to say any more.

When I ritualistically listen to the Bollywood songs on my headphone while traveling to and back from work, I pay attention to the space they create in my head, the composition, the meaning in the composition, and make evaluations in my head about their overall effect. 

I read excerpts of my masters thesis today. Inspite of my belief that there is something significant in that idea, I was disappointed in my writing. Very few have read it. I don't ask people to read it, and yet I want it to be discussed. Who will read it, critique it, help me make it more meaningful?

I am still not able to find place in this place. This place, that is the city, the home, the new school - that which I thought to be mine. Where do  I belong? And if not here, where do I go? In this spirit, I gathered courage to talk to my parents of finding a new place, failing to receive any encouragement. 

I don't connect to anyone, I am disconnected to myself. My ideas remain in my head, they bloom and burst in my own mind - because I feel they are insignificant as compared to the ideas my peers are producing. I doubt the intangibility of ideas. What do ideas really do anyway? Where have they taken me - am I not back to pavilion? 

That day I sang for the students and felt empty. My songs were empty. As if they came from a voice outside of me. They did not transform me in any way. The students yet appreciated!

What is this state of mind? Am I experience another culture shock? And I just realized that the whole post is dotted with 'dont's'. Quite opposite to what the positivist America should have done to me. Although, it will take time, may be to realign and re establish.

Escalator / Borivali

I cross over the footbridge from Borivali East to West, where the staircase that takes me up has recently been modernized into an escalator. Watching that piece of machine in a public space like the railway station of Mumbai is pure entertainment. People of all kinds in the city - young, old, infants, men, women, villagers, migrants, rich, poor are subject to this new animated object that takes them up. Every morning I see different encounters of such cross section of people with this machinic animal. Women in saris pull them high to avoid their flowing ends to get into the complicated machinery, villagers look astonished and puzzled about when to step into the moving platform, they wait for others to hold hands and give them the confidence and assurance that the machine wouldn't overpower them, or many are confused where to keep the hands once on the moving treads - finally holding the shoulders of strangers standing besides them... It is pure joy to look at such first experiences with technology. Does this not become art in public space - if one considers the pure function of art to amuse people in a way that they find their own selves?

Repetitions