My association with Michael Graves was, predominantly
that of a fan, follower, admirer and probably a bit of Eklavya,
the mythical student character and young tribal prince from
the epic Mahabharatam.
I was introduced to his style of architecture probably in my
college days at SPA, New Delhi. It was many years later, in
2000, that I started following him. It was due to a visit by
Ar. Satish Grover, known for his books on the history of
architecture, to one of my projects in Visakhapatnam. It was
a small spiritual centre on top of a hill, overlooking the Bay
of Bengal. After inspecting the project thoroughly, as a very
strict guru would do, assessing to see whether his student
had really learnt well, he told me two things, which in many
ways, established some of the core principles of my practice.
The first being that I was, so early on in one’s career, indeed
very lucky to have got a break to do such a project in a
small city like Visakhapatnam away from the big metropolis
of Delhi, where competition for a young architect was so
tough. Second, that my style of sketching and architecture
was so much like Michael Graves and that I should check his
works out. It was the second observation that really caught
my attention.