Nihara's house

I suddenly happened to go to Nihara's house on Wednesday. She shifted to this new place after marriage due to some personal reasons with her new family. The house was cozy simple space - the kitchen separated with a curtain, cut short by a bathroom, which was filled with buckets of water! They had a single cupboard, a single diwan, refrigerator and a television. What was the most fascinating thing was the cooking gas stove, which she could easily carry across the curtained partition of the kitchen into the living space and cook food along with the guest (or her partner otherwise). I felt that was  nice. In our conventional homes where kitchen becomes almost an isolated space with no connection with the rest of the house, here, the kitchen was brought in the living.

Since Swapnil met with an accident, he came home instead of attending his site visit. He then showed me a gift that he prepared for Nihara for her birthday (love marriages I say!). It was the backdrop of the television space (the photo frame, and the frame for the frames). The house is rented space, so there can be no permanent alterations. So all the objects are about (atleast one inch) away from the wall. The TV, diwan, cupboard, fridge, poofie...everything. Even a small aquarium, which has about 5 fishes. They feed them from time to time. I wondered if people actually become so lonely! Or is it just the fascination?

It was nice and cozy, still free...I could feel the freedom. Homes have become so institutionalized that they have become like museums. Why can they be a bit more relaxed. Like this one. I wonder how it fits with the other parameters of family, work, lifestyle... where each category has an individual aspiration. Does Nihara live with aspiration? i could not really discuss that with her. But "making one's home" is definitely an aspiration of the family. How does it cope up such expectation within a rented space - where life is lived an inch away from the walls? I wonder. Perhaps then, house starts becoming a collection of objects. And these objects seem alien, though fulfil the aspiration of a complete house.

We spoke about things, which were a kind of continuation to the five years of architecture. And this is what is always different in talking with Nihara, Madhavi ... the freshness of talk, which is always leading towards newer directions in life. I dont know if i am making sense over here, but these are abstract thoughts which i keep questioning...of what would friends talk in different phases of their life, what would the scenario be with different constraints with living...of what are the pleasure giving things later, how does the idea of these experiences change...? Unlike with my other groups of friends, who always end up consummating all discussion in a nostalgic past, talks with Nihara's company is a continuation of where we stopped last...with the flavour of same old jokes, old memories, but seen in new light.