I am an Architect. Or AM I?

'The following is inspired by the speeches given by Mr. Tapan Mozumdar, Project director, ITC  and Architect and urban designer Kavitha Selvaraj,Director, CRN Architects, Bangalore at World of Facades annual conference at ITC Gardenia Bengaluru.' To many people it might feel boring to be in a place for long. Recently, people have been asking me about continuing my job. Career wise I think one should experience being in a place for long, unless it becomes meaningless. Because when things start getting exciting for you, like you get your own business card, some perks, people start recognizing you ,you know you belong there. Every firsts become your favourite and you reminisce it for the rest of your life. This was my first invitation to a conference. I have been to conferences in 5 stars before on behalf of my bosses, but this one was special. It had 'To Ar. Antara Basu  ' written on it. Experiences become  even more memorable when you get answers to questio...

"It's more or less like how an actor prepares himself for a role, lives the life of her character, to understand it better, absorb the character completely within herself, before playing the part. Very briefly, if you are designing a casino, you need to understand the gambler. If you are designing the mansion of a millionaire you need to experience that kind of lifestyle first ,if you are designing a hospital, you need to understand a patient, only then can you do justice to your profession in real sense." During  my college, I could broadly classify the students into a few categories:- Category -1: People who have accepted what they are, where they are from, with no will to grow out of it. They have succumbed to their caste/ Family /colour . They will build buildings, earn some money and live. Category 2: Don't know what they are doing and why they doing. They feel stuck and as soon as they are out of college ,they do some other course or simply switch th...

Most of us see dreams, but do nothing about it. Most of us want to change the course of their life, yet do nothing about it. I still remember the day I was whining to Atika, a dear friend of mine, "Bohot kaam hai,kaise khatam hoga?! " To which she replied upfront, "Kaam karne se khatam hota hai, rone se nahi" .That statement although very simple, has helped me finish things which I start, since then. Or even start doing things which I always want to. Back in Lucknow, as days passed, it was getting more and more suffocating. Scared of the future and where I was heading to. I had no interest in teaching, not at least without gaining any experience in the field. I wanted to start a firm someday, but how? In a city where girls are not even sent to site visits, how was I supposed to understand the real world of architecture, just sitting behind the computer and doing exactly  what I was asked to. In a place where I was underestimated, my professional pace was get...