Travelogue snow snowing
- Vol.86(3), March
- Mumbai Indian Institute of Architects 2021
- 94-99p.
96JOURNAL OF INDIAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS MARCH 1213 Am walking where there are no roads and am looking for a mirror... To ‘create’ by virtue is to give rise to something that didn’t exist before It’s not same as producing or manufacturing...one may reproduce but not recreate, recreating is a myth. And creation is always an outcome of a clean slate...of stepping into a strange space seemingly...a conscious break away from familiarity... Familiarity is a comfort zone as also a baggage of the past...it’s also very sceptical of the unknown, distrusting, fearful, cautious...it ensures survival...that’s it. What is familiar to us could be strange to someone and vice versa, it’s relative. However, it’s always a space of learning and discovery to be in a zone that is unfamiliar...because creativity arises out of that...And so as an architect, it’s a constant need to revive, refresh, re-learn and mostly start from scratch. It’s not same as Re-Inventing a wheel. Another of such journeys was taken up recently where I chose to land at Dharamshala and then hired a Royal Enfield Himalayan and ride down to a region called Khajiar that is located across Cham- ba in Himachal Pradesh. I parked my bike in a village called Pukhri there and then trekked down to a home-stay in a village by name Bh- odolli. All I did the next few days was to trek through the steep terrain, go to other villages. I met a lot of locals, enjoyed the food and hospi- tality, enjoyed the snow, snowing and the cold weather. All this while, I forgot that I was an architect and was observing the villages, how the people interacted and carried out the activities, saw the fields, valley, forest and the mountains...nothing governed my life...it was a complete break..