The sun was about to set. I was walking in Beverly Hills and looking around to get some nice views of golden light falling on the Hollywood sign. All the popular culture I consumed all these years, was mostly made here. It was pretty underwhelming I must say. I walked over and across the famous stars in the Walk of Fame, most of the names were unfamiliar to me except for Jennifer Aniston Jennifer Lopez and Drake. As I walked further, The smooth and shiny granite flooring soon turned to the usual poured concrete one; a very typical feature of the American sidewalks. Having a more sustainable set of ideas I once wondered about the magnanimity of the concrete used in the sidewalks. Anyway, I was walking across that path, with Hollywood sign peeping from some vistas on my left. The sun was orange juxtaposing along with the yellow traffic lights and tall palm trees in the background. That was California for me. An image created by popular culture and much less, GTA San Andreas,
Workers working late night in Kathmandu Today, on World architecture day when everyone is celebrating the contribution of architects, I would like you to also think a bit about the workers, masons and artisans without whom Architecture will just be limited to plans, elevations and sections. They are the unsung heroes, the under celebrated warriors and the silent guardians of any Building which is constructed. They are the backbone of any project but still get less or no credit at all. Architects and workers complete each other. This reminds me of a song which I learnt when during a month in a worker's protest last year. Its called 'Hathoon ke kaam' sung by the famous activist couple, Vinay and Charul. The song is about Beautiful hands of workers that have created wonders which are now idle. There is a beautiful paragraph which says: "Mitti ki khudai ki, Bhatti ko jalaya re, Eetoon ko pakaya re, Bangla Banaya re, Sansad ka har ek khamba maine h