Anagha Speaks

On Sunday, I attended a lecture by renowed theatre and film personality Girish Karnad. He was speaking on the subject of 'Colonial Influences on Art forms of India' as a part of a programme organized in the memory of Master composer and musician Bhaskar Chandavarkar on Sunday 25 July 2010 in Pune.As an Architect-Planner, I was thrilled to hear Girish Karnad make references to the formation of cities in India by the British, which in turn was a major turning point for all visual and performing arts in India. He brought out the fact that before the three British cities namely, Bombay, Madras and Calcutta, were established, the Indian cities like Pune, Lucknow, Kolhapur and many others were more contiguous with its hinterlands. So while these urban pockets were primarily 'urban' in character, the lifestyles of people and economic wealth was closely linked and similar to those in the rural fringes and the hinterlands. When the three British cities were established, these we...

Recently, I was in Stockholm, Sweden to attend an academic seminar at The Royal University of Fine Arts, Department of Architecture. And in a typical European way, Stockholm was a great city experience - pedestrian friendly streets, lots of cycling tracks, the efficient & connected Metro network and of course very few people to enjoy all this, which made it even more fun for us Indians who are often faced with unending lines and bulging crowds. But, more than these urban amenities which have been written about everywhere, what struck me was the fettish of the malls and particularly, the small shops to close at 5 pm on weekdays and at 4 pm (would you believe it!) on weekends. So just to clarify your unasked questions, yes, the shops and all shopping related services (malls, streetside stalls etc) operate typically only between the "conservative office work hours" of 10 am to 5 pm. "How is that possible?" was my first question to our hosts when much to our frustra...

Since the Climate Change negotiations at Copenhagen in December 2009 and the subsequent promises by India to reduce its carbon footprint, it looks like the Indian government seems to be keenly following it up through actions being initiated at the state level. In Maharashtra, the building and construction sector is slated to become one of the sectors which has been asked to pull up its "green" socks! In a state level meet in February 2010 at Mumbai, it was announced that the Government of Maharashtra may look at making Green Buildings mandatory in the state. It means that the local municipal bodies or the building development sanctioning authorities may have to look at modified Development Control Rules, which necessarily follow prescriptions of a Green Building Rating System. Today, in India there are a multitude of Green Building Rating Systems that are being voluntarily adopted by project developers. USGBC's LEED, LEED India, IGBC Green Homes, Eco Housing and TERI GRIH...

About two weeks back, a collaborative workshop was conducted between the students of M.Arch Environmental Architecture, Dr B N College of Architecture and post graduate students of Dept of Architecture, Royal University of Fine Arts, Sweden. The idea was to brainstorm on Sustainability Planning measures that can be undertaken for a pilot study area in Pune. The area selected was the J M Road and Narayan Peth stretch on either side of the river Mutha, capturing the commercial newer face of Pune at J M Road and the old, heritage laden character of Pune at Narayan Peth. The experience was amazing! The exchange of ideas between students of the two countries was great to observe. While Indian students tended to be more realistic and grounded while thinking of proposals, Swedish students opened up a whole basket of options and opportunities for the area. The mix of the two was the outcome, thereby bringing many new and exciting dimensions to Sustainability planning for the pilot area in Pune...

Last week, I had a chance to visit and stay in Gurgaon, a new face of suburbia in India. I was appalled at the chaos that is Gurgoan. I had heard about the glitz and glamour of the city. The NH8 that connects Gurgaon to Delhi is lined with tall glass facade buildings, showing prominent corporate brands on their faces. The NH8 itself is a multiple lane freeway, where cars speed to and fro between Delhi and Gurgaon, carrying in them elite business class of India, churning wealth and pouring money into the country's economy. While this is happening at one end, where the private sector is complacent in its own wealth, the roads and the urban infrastructure is terrible. The minute you step out of your own glass building and stand on the road, you see a high speed vehicle access but no place to walk! Footpaths are not only non existent, its extremely unsafe to walk along the road sides at dusk. The dusty landscape of this region spills on to the new roads, so the road sides are sand fill...

Since the past two days I have been interacting with people talking about the Copenhagen Conference to be held in December 2009. Its quite interesting, I thought, that the media has made the jargon accessible and I find words like Climate Change and even Kyoto Protocol being used everywhere. After hearing these words being mouthed by some most improbable people, I was motivated enough to look up the Copenhagen Conference. And here I am sharing a few snippets of information that I managed to garner. Here goes.... What is it that the world is looking forward to from the Copenhagen Conference? Though, quite ambitious in itself, this conference 'merely' aims to bring clarity on the action towards Climate Change that the major economies of the world will take up. This is what the UN Exec Secretary of (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Mr Yvo de Boer aims to achieve at the least. He speaks about bringing clarity on four essentials for collective Interna...

A few days back, I and my students had a chance to interact with a Nuclear Physicist. The pertinent question that all of us had on our minds and came out in our discussions was Would Nuclear Power mean a boon or a curse for India? Nuclear Power is amazing! In a nutshell, it takes just a little radioactive substance to be 'processed' in a Nuclear Power reactor and the whole substance with its looooong half life, takes its own sweet time to divide itself into smaller and smaller particles, producing large amounts of heat and thereby power for India. Sounds simple, isn't it? However its not so! The underlying political, administrative and technical processes finally will define how the nuclear power gets generatedand used. The N-Deal that was publicized by the media and politically negotiated by our Prime Minister simply states that we can now import Nuclear fuel for power generation in our country. The technical negotiations will now begin to fire up existing nuclear reactors...