Lapod Diary: Part 1

Lapod Diary: Part 1

Lapod is a small village in Rajasthan, about 15 kilometers away from Rani. Located in a desert climate, the village does not have any prime water body in or around itself. The village is bounded by a wheat farm, a dry lake and forest on one side and houses on the other. A ring road completes the boundary of the village. It has a community kitchen, some inns a little away, three schools and a village chowk which is the most active place here. The infrastructure is very basic: There is no special transport system except a single bus that stops at the chowk once a day. People otherwise use tractors to move within the village and nearby villages. The nearest railway station is Rani from where everyday necessities are sought out and the nearest city is Jodhpur which is about 3 hours away.

The local language spoken here is Marwari. The village comprises of Hindus and Jains, however shows no signs of a big or prominent Hindu or Jain temple. There are smaller private temples scattered over the village. They never really catch your attention. They are not spectacular.

Consisting of not more than 500 people, Lapod has a typical hierarchical setup of an Indian village. There are distinct communities that do different jobs and command distinct powers. The primary occupation in the village is agriculture. I did not really observe any allied by product craft activities of agriculture in the village. The village has its own set of tailors, masons, blacksmith and carpenters. Most people have cows or buffaloes (sometimes sheep) within their own houses which supply them with the basic stock of milk and related products all round the year. Butter milk is a daily preparation and all guests are greeted heartily with a bowl of salted refreshing buttermilk during the day. The daily supply of vegetables is brought by a local vendor who brings some basic stuff on a hand cart every day. They have electricity but only for some part of the day. Houses are minimal. They do not consume much resource. Many houses do have television and people watch tv serials regularly. Electricity, more than televisions, I feel is a luxury. They exploit electricity by switching on most appliances when they have power. Whether required or not, perhaps it’s only to acknowledge the presence of an electrical appliance in the house. Inspite of this, the village is quite humble.
The ethnographic cross section of this village will reveal a set of narratives which echo the difficulties of the village. One wonders how to locate oneself in its problematic. There are several issues one can list:

1. The problem of water: The most pressing problem of the village is the absence of sweet water. There are wells in the village, really deep ones, which only give out salty water. Often, people have to drink only hard water that is extracted from the ground using tube-wells. Apart from the 3 rainy months, there is no sweet water across the year. Villagers complain how the hard water makes their food tasteless, damages their body and  erodes their utensils. This hard water is said to have excess quantity of a certain unrequired mineral that shall lead the human body stoop over age. The villagers have tried to convince the District collector to get a source of sweet water to the village, but their requests have not been met by far.
About 10–12 kilometers away runs a canal that supplies sweet water to other villages.  There is a possibility that a secondary canal line can be drawn to bring in water to Lapod village that can fill up the village lake and replenish the wells of the village. However, the district magistrate explains that it has been difficult for them to divert water here because of the topography of the land that prevents the natural water flow of water towards the village.

2. The scene of education also seems to be critical. We visited two schools here - one which is till 8th standard and the other which continues from 8th to 10th. The schools do not have sufficient teachers and the available teachers have additional responsibilities by the government, such as making surveys and collecting demographic information of the village. It seems that the government sees teachers as the ‘educated’ people of the village and entrusts them with a lot of work that sometimes leaves them with no time for any additional initiatives for the school. They are burdened by physical tasks which interfere their academic interests...
The schools do not have any libraries or information network. The teachers have knowledge, but not adequate infrastructure. The teachers, in their capacities try, but I wonder if they have original thinking capacities.

We found that the school we went to had an extremely pessimistic principal who thought he had tried enough only to fail himself in bringing up the level of the students. Students, as everywhere, are enthusiastic. We looked hopes in them, as we shared a drawing session along. However, there have been a lot of people from the village who have moved to cities like Mumbai, Mangalore, Hyderabad, etc., and made big money. They have also managed to civilize themselves of city culture and get out of age old binding customs. Some earning heads of the families in the village continue to work in the cities, who frequently visit back Lapod where their families stay.

3. Gender divide is a very sensitive issue of the village. Women are not allowed to come out in the open, they are not allowed to speak freely, behave freely and their education is also stunted. The purdah system is still followed and most women can still be seen in ghoonghats. This dominance is to a level where school girls shy away even from speaking their own names. They are extremely quiet, but when we tried talking to them, we realized that they did want to open up. Their desires were suppressed and their lives were controlled by the society.

Boys were naughty, and very interesting. They participated enthusiastically. A teacher from another school staying in Lapod told us about how he finished his BA, then MA in Sanskrit, whose concern was to make students aware, through us, how they could use their education. There lies a great gap in making students realize what potential careers are available to them after their education.

The village is quintessential for the fact that it has its own village simpleton, an all rounder who can arrange for all things at any time of the day, a contractor, a ‘wise’ sarpanch, a few people who have been exposed to the city, naughty kids and shy women. Even architecturally, there is only one single node – the chowk where all important activities happen. The chowk is bounded by two general stores, the village panchayat space, a supposed library (politically named) and a group of houses.

This was a general view of Lapod and there may be a lot more stories to tell. However, I shall put them up with more relevant drawings and photos, and our intervention in the village in subsequent posts when the documentation of the village by our students will be complete. This write up was produced only as a reflection into my own critique of students' writeups that they produced as a part of their document over the study tour. I hope I have kept the adjectives to a limit and been able to report the village factually. The participants of this tour must respond here.

Structure of Image Display

image: Anuj Daga

Above are 4 ways in which we primarily arrange photographs.

A. Random > unorganized > memories > Wedding cards
B. Semi unorganized > unsure matter > related/unrelated > multiple content
C. Organized > Tiled > Structured > Institutionalized
D. Organized > Compositional > Highlight > Major / minor

The sets A to D are ways in which photographs are displayed or composed for different purposes. It appears that display of images has gone a certain kind of institutionalization by the various disciplines of visual communication. This institutionalization sometimes talks of class and taste. I made these 4 typologies only to make myself aware of the architectural bias that I have and that I enforce on photographic layouts. Often, our aesthetic judgements are codified through subconscious pedagogical tools and we end up evaluating everything through this constructed academic lens.

The schisms between academic training and existing ways in which people negotiate aesthetic for themselves gives makes me conscious of my own construct. the more and more this reveals to me, the more I try to neutralize myself. But this neutralization is questionable and I worry if this shall lead to some kind of a-cultural manifest.

However, the idea groups formed above meanwhile are interesting, since they allow me to read how intangible ideas manifest into image composition (which further translate into tangible realities). It gives a framework for evaluation of displays and how ideas may get miscommunicated if they cross boundaries. On the other hand, one can use this framework consciously to create newer meanings.

The Pritzker 2012

Wang Shu, the Chinese architect is the latest Pritzker laureate. Last year the Pritzker went to SANAA. It was the year when the committee was also considering Charles Correa and B V Doshi. The Prtizker committee was here to review their work. To look at a history of events, the economic slump also struck about two years ago. We all must agree that Asia did emerge as a stable economy as compared to other developed western counterparts.

The clear focus of the entire world on Asian countries in the recent times is very visible. But to talk of India, it began perhaps in the '90s. India was introduced to the world through the indroduction of the liberal policies. One could perceive it as a land of infinite people, lakhs of consumers. The chain of recognitions is interesting: In 1994, Aishwarya Rai wins the Miss World Pageant, and in the same year, Sushmita Sen wins the Miss Universe Title. In subsequent years, Diana Hayden, Yukta Mookhey, Priyanka Chopra, Lara Dutta - all of them win. India suddenly becomes popular. In the midst, there was also a Chinese Miss World. They market all beauty products through which the West re-enters India. Of late, A R Rahman wins Grammy and Oscar. Not to demean any of the talents or capabilities that south eastern Asian region has. But all such validation distantly seems capitalistic.

If such focus brings in opportunity, why not! On a critical reflection, one also feels that it is difficult to change India in totality. Rather, our cultures drive others to change a lot more. The huge mass of people that we have definitely works towards our benefit.

But what does it mean for us to accept an award from a country of the West; what does it mean to accept validation of a developing country from a developed country? What kind of hegemony are we being subjected to? All are questions that we ought to detail out. We always wait for such recognition from greatly progressed countries (Oscars, Pritzkers, RIBA Gold Medals, Grammys, Olympics etc). Countries which have essentially plundered a lot of natural resource from our own lands and thrive on it today. That is not to accuse them, but to make us aware and conscious of our own potential.

But these are such random questions and thoughts. I am sure there is some larger mechanism that is driving the attention to Asian subcontinent. I wonder if we must be scared or happy...

Problematising Academy of Architecture

I am writing this post through an understanding of Prasad Shetty's paper (the title of which I forget) on the mishandling of the city of Mumbai. Shetty argues (hints?) that the existence of multiple agencies, each which have their own interests and procedures of working in the city layer themselves upon each other, entangling them into a messy condition. Further, the non communication or the mis-communication between these agencies worsens the ways in which gaps are enlarged between the desired and the delivered product. Also, aspirations of different agencies are different and driven through a variety of forces, which are ultimately controlled or subjected through an altogether separate governing body which comprehends, schedules, funds and disseminates them, creating larger distortion.

Wondering of the condition of Academy of Architecture, I began thinking of it as sets of people (which could be analogical to the agencies above). Talking of condition, the question is why doesn't Academy function as it should or why is it not able to produce the kind of output it can / is capable of. One can locate / try to locate the problem at two levels - the scale of the institution as a set of functioning teams an the other at the level of the individual within these teams (if we may begin to call them so - teams of individuals - or sets of individuals). 

To begin with finding issues with the teams, one sees that the academy does not really have a vision - a vision for its students, for its intellectual future. This leads to different sets of people forming their own micro visions which may not necessarily be converging, although which may overlap. I would specifically like to point out a few distinct sets that exist meanwhile:

• the management (the funding team/team who has financial control/the fuel of the institute),
• the permanent faculty team (the intellectual team/team which drives the institute/the engines of the institute), 
• the visiting faculty team (the wheels of the institute), 
• the non teaching administrative staff (the lubricants of the system), and finally 
• the students (of course the consumers of the institute). 

One can talk about all these sets in great detail, only to come to a solution that all these sets have different imaginations that lead into different directions. To talk about the complexity of the project of the Academy, one could brief it as thus (the description below is fuzzy, but it shall take a long thesis to give descriptive details of each set):

The students come with an extremely glorified image of the institute - an image which to a large extent may remain true, but muddled when one sees the Academy having complexities of space, infrastructure, people, etc. However, as students get consumed in the course, they realize the problems with the course itself. Through their own limited imagination(s), they try to problematize the academic trauma, which always ends up in pointing out the resource crisis. The visiting teaching staff have their own agendas and come from different schools of thought. Old, new, young, open, conservative, philosophical, professional, academic, theoretical, technical - all kinds of teachers do all kinds of things trying to reach at a common goal, which seldom is achieved. Within their subjects they have their own visions and aspirations. Some crave for newness, others to maintain minimum required standards. What else shall one expect of mass education?

The permanent staff comprises of a range of people whose objectives are misplaced. Some look at the institution  as a place of work, some as a place to spend time in, others look at it as a place to educate, teach and learn. The least common denominator for such cross overs is to abide by the University syllabus. On the extreme end, the heads envision a large academic change, where they are unable to locate Academy in the larger picture, and further unable to locate a position for the student in the academic sphere. Meanwhile they struggle between revising curriculums, revising faculty attitudes, student attitudes, course structures and all possible things related to architecture education. 

Lastly, the non teaching staff have their own dynamic politics with the management, faculty and students. The largeness institution that increases the presence of this set in number, makes it a powerful body which creates micro-politics of information-dissemination between students, faculty and perhaps management. Taking advantage of the lack of resources, scrutiny and loose system, they manipulate things in their own ways. The management is the supreme - which decides the fate of every thing that exists on the premises. It's agenda is to make Academy a mega institution which sets the cycle of making money and introducing new courses. the management, as it appears, consists of capitalistic, short sighted individuals who have not been able to formulate a vision beyond the banyan tree. 

These different imaginations produce a lot of friction when various sets interact inevitably with each other. Where does an academic locate oneself in such a web - one questions. Further, what possible future shall we imagine of this institution? What future does one foresee of oneself with this institution - an institution which shall take perhaps 50 more years to find the right people and system to resolve its web of complexities? Rohan Shivkumar always says that every Institution goes through this phase of deterioration, giving the example of JJ College of Architecture, which today almost rots in the ideologies of archaic individuals; the physical space also speaks of it - the large BMC garbage can that welcomes you to an old grey building...


Academy meanwhile plans to just facelift itself. It's high time it gave itself booster injections and some internal nourishment so that it grows. Or else, I just proposed to one of my colleagues: the Banyan must be stripped of its leaves - it needs new ones.

Spatial Structure of Poetry

(above image from the blogpost  "A story in waiting" on dagagiri dated Nov. 29, 2008)

The trickling water
From the air conditioner pipe
A sparrow gulps down.

(an attempt at Haiku, Anuj Daga)

***

Poetry essentially consists of fractured statements. The empty space between the word-constructions allow for new grammars to configure. It is the suspended grammar that perhaps makes space for new.imagination to take place. The emptiness sometimes brings two stranger words / ideas close together allowing us to.see different dimensions of existing worlds.

If consecutive words of a dictionary were to be read as a sentence, they would give us a great way to look at the landscape of words and meanings. Since if we consider that the dictionary is the modernist way of word family structures, consecutive words in a dictionary are neighbours belonging to a same family - in terms of physical characteristics, the alphabets (genes) they are constructed out of; the pronunciations of syllables (body parts), etc. However, their ages may be different with regard to their etymologies and they may have different meanings, functions and behaviours.

Such a landscape of words may become an extremely interesting investigation. Poetry is thus a landscape of words, creating new meanings and relies on the readers' potential to be able to make sense if such landscape for the interpretation of the real existing world. If architecture was poetry, it could possibly be very postmodern...bringing together different ideas and symbols together. But then there is rhythm, rhyme and spatial experience too at play. This would mean finding meaning into the empty spaces, pauses or fractures between words of a poetry.