In Gratitude_Sample

IN GRATITUDE Neelkanth Chhaya

An offering by Akarmaa

Volume I

On Education

Foreword by

Nicholas Ray

Transcribed lectures and conversations of Prof. Neelkanth Chhaya In Gratitude Vol - 1, On Education

First Edition: January 2025 Design and Layout: Thiagarajan R Illustration of Prof. Chhaya: Prakash Kamal Art work: Rekha Chhaya Copy Editor: Jayashree C ISBN : 978 93 95560 63 4 Price : 750/Publisher: Thannaram - Akarmaa, Puliyanur Village, Singarapettai, Krishnagiri District - 635 307 +91 8270222007 | cuckoochildren@gmail.com Supported by: Dr. Ramakrishna Prasad Pinnamaneni Printers: Jothy Enterprises, Chennai Copyleft “Knowledge should explode and can never be managed” - Prof. Chhaya.

The book is published with the intention to reach as many seekers as possible. However, we would be glad to know how you consciously and sensitively plan to use the content of this book. akarmaafoundation@gmail.com Prayer for children with epilepsy

Dedicated to

All fellow students…

Humility Personified

Prof. Chhaya was born in Nairobi in a family of five brothers and sisters. His father was insistent that they must know Gujarati and they must know the stories of our lore. Therefore, at home, they either had to speak in Gujarati, Swahili or English, forbidding a mixture of languages. They used to come to India on what was called “home leave” of one and a half months during the colonial period. Later he came to India to study architecture at CEPT, Ahmedabad, from 1969 to 1975. After graduation, he worked with Prof. Anant Raje for a short while and then returned to Nairobi, where he worked in a private firm from 1976 to 1984 and later served as a lecturer at the University of Nairobi.

He settled in India in 1984 and started practicing in partnership with Kallol Joshi at Vadodara. On winning a competition for the Centre for Environment Education, Ahmedabad, Chhaya, and Kallol Joshi, moved to Ahmedabad and resumed practice under ‘Mandala Design Services’. The practice was joined

by Sohan Nilkanth in 1990. The three partners practiced together till 2000.

A few of the prominent designs by Neelkanth Chhaya along with his partners include: Private Residence in the Kenya highlands, near Nairobi (1982-1984) Centre for Environment Education, Ahmedabad (1987-1992) Post Earthquake Reconstruction of Vavania village, Gujarat (2001-2002) Housing for Ismaili Community at Kompally, Hyderabad (2004) Khamir Crafts Resource Centre, Kukma, Kutch (2004-2008) Exclusive Resort Hotel at Darjeeling (2006-2007) Chhaya Weekend House, Alloa, near Ahmedabad (2008-2018) Their designs received national and international awards and recognition from organisations such as the Spectrum Foundation Award (2002), the Indian National Trust for Art, Culture, and Heritage (INTACH) (1991), and the National Competition for the Karnawati Sports and Recreation Club, Ahmedabad (1990), among many others. Since 2001, he has been practising independently. His practice has won several national competitions and

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awards. He is also the inaugural recipient of the ‘Balkrishna Doshi Guru Ratna Award 2023’. His practice has emphasised adapting built form to physical and social contexts. He is deeply interested in the cultural factors that affect architecture, especially in societies of rapid change. His projects have won major national awards, and he has also won several architectural competitions. He is passionate about traditional and artisanal knowledge in the built environment.

His teaching experience in higher education includes the Institute of Environmental Design at Vallabh Vidyanagar and Visiting Professor at the Master’s Programme for Architects from Developing Nations, Otaniemi Technical University, Helsinki, before joining the School of Architecture at CEPT as a faculty member in 1987 and retired as the Dean in 2013. He has been an Adjunct Faculty at Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, since 2015, and holds the UNESCO Chair in Heritage, Sustainability and Livelihoods at Srishti. He has served on Academic Councils and Boards of Studies at several institutions.

He was the coordinator of the Gandhi Heritage Sites documentation project and co-authored the book Gandhi’s Places published in 2024. He has served in numerous national committees and boards, including as a Member of the Senate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar and a Member of the Building and Works Committee of the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar. He was elected as the Chairman of the Governing Board of the Hunnarshala Foundation in 2015. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Hunnarshala Foundation and Khamir Craft Resource Center, which empowers traditional knowledge and sustainable practices.

He has been a member of the jury of several national and international competitions, including the Patliputra Museum and Nalanda University competitions. He has actively and centrally participated in national and international lectures, workshops, exhibitions, and conferences. In addition to the innumerable lectures and conversations in India, he has also been the Keynote Speaker at the Annual Conference of the Association of Architectural Educators in the U.K. at the University of Sheffield (2014), Invited Speaker at Umea School of Architecture, Umea, Sweden (2013), Invited Speaker at Aarhus School of Architecture, Aarhus, Denmark (2013), and the Invited Speaker and Panelist at the International Architectural Education Summits at Tokyo (2009), Madrid & Segovia (2011) and Berlin (2013) and many others.

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Preface

Corporatised Education or Adventurous Learning November 2023

All living beings learn continually. In order to respond to their environment, in order to find food, in order to live, continual learning is necessary. For humans, this activity of learning might be supported by prior learnings that have been encoded in language, customs, the arts, the techniques and methods of crafts – all learnt in the process of growing up from dependent babyhood to self-supporting adulthood.

In human lives, the activity of learning consists of both firsthand, embodied, personal responsiveness as well as received learning from parents, community and culture. The first requires acute and intense engagement in the ongoing phenomena of the learner’s context, the second requires a steady commitment to attentive enculturation in the practices that prevail in the learner’s culture.

All societies find ways to enculture their members. That is, they work out customary methods to transmit both the norms and values as well as the methods and techniques of survival that they have accrued over time.

The methods of enculturation might be person-to-person, generation-togeneration, and may take the form of initiation rites at various life stages or specific formats of association between those who need to learn and those who have learnt. Such ways of knowledge creation and transmission are often integrated into social norms and do not necessarily have specialised personnel conducting them. All members are supposedly part of the enculturation process.

In contrast, learning that tries to build the capacity to intensely engage in bodily and mental responsiveness to the ongoing challenges of the environment has often depended upon play - that unstructured and openended exploration and experimentation that seems to be necessary for

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creative response. The processes of play, artistic creation, and exploratory as well as experimental investigation all depend on an adventurous outlook necessary for responding to previously unprecedented situations.

At some point, cultures began to organise the process of learning and instituted methodical teaching procedures. At first, this systematisation was informal. Those who wanted to learn approached those who had mastered some knowledge. The process of learning was conducted in small groups, face-to-face, and no qualifications were offered. Sometimes, a craft or knowledge discipline organised itself into a guild-like social group, setting up its own standards and levels of competence.

It is only in much recent times that ‘education’ was systematically organised at national and international levels, with definite and distinct curricula and sequences of learning, methods of judging competence through periodic examinations – in short a coordinated system of training and educating ‘manpower’. A complete governmental and corporate bureaucracy had to be built to run such a machine of production and quality control.

From the learning process, the scene now moved to creation of certifiable products. All the paraphernalia of the industrial and post-industrial age naturally came into play – a distinct managerial approach, standardisation, mass production, market orientation, specialisation and diversification, advertising and branding – all these features became active in the consumer economy of ‘education’.

Enculturation and play as exploration were both thought to be less important than education.

As information grows exponentially, and the tools, skills and nomenclatures of all practices change incessantly, it becomes increasingly difficult to define disciplinary knowledge. The drive to create expertise is no longer valid as expertise itself is continuously made obsolete. The modernist outlook on the learning space is thus challenged.

This perhaps is the greatest opportunity available to us. If we do not know for sure what the problem is, we cannot focus on finding the solution. If disciplines are losing their boundaries, we cannot hope to educate to create ‘relevant’ expertise.

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It might now be important, possible and even utterly necessary that learning ought to activate the ability to intensely respond to the dynamic conditions of our existence. The market does not understand this new situation, and it will be the responsibility of learning places to create atmospheres of adventurous, free, embodied and playful exploration.

Prof. Neelkanth Chhaya

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To the Reader

This book has been the foundational idea of a group of young enthusiastic fellows at Akarmaa Foundation and compiles a series of transcribed audio interviews, podcasts, and lectures of Prof. Neelkanth Chhaya, with an aim to allow his voice, thoughts, perspectives, and insights to reach a wider audience. One of the main reasons for this book to have taken shape is that the profound impact Prof. Chhaya has had on both education and architecture deserves to be immortalised in more ways than one. These conversations, recorded over the span of a little over a decade, delve into the topics of education, architecture, politics, humanities, etc., with social commentary and cultural frames of reference.

The audio recordings have been sourced from varied organisations, institutions, and podcast channels, as given due credits in the book. We are grateful to the original producers and interviewers for granting us permission to publish their material in book form. The book also includes articles that enrich and add more depth to the topics of discussion. This compilation aims to not only preserve Prof. Chhaya’s insights but also hopes to inspire critical thinking and thoughtful discussions on the topics covered.

The audio recordings of each interview, podcast, and lecture have been transcribed as faithfully as possible, with only minor edits and modifications made for better clarity and readability. Where necessary, the transcribers have omitted most of the non-verbal cues, fillers, and pauses, but the essence of Prof. Chhaya’s words and meanings have been carefully preserved. However, the non-verbal cue of laughter has been included wherever it contributes to the core of the discussion. It is also important to acknowledge that his compulsive and dynamic presence cannot be translated into print, but the nuances of his words have been captured meticulously. Where necessary, additional information and explanations have been provided for readers to understand certain terminologies and cultural references. Translations from vernacular languages, specifically Hindi and Gujarati, to English have also been provided to ensure contextual understanding. The translations have been carried out with the intention to not only convey the literal meaning but

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also to preserve the emotions and expressions conveyed in the vernacular languages.

Throughout the recordings of the interviews, podcasts, and lectures, Prof.

Chhaya deals with multiple topics under different contexts and lenses.

Despite the vast range of themes, common threads emerge, offering a comprehensive view of Prof. Chhaya as a person and a thinker. The arrangement of chapters was undertaken following a step-by-step approach identifying these common threads to convey a larger context and to ensure ease of understanding for the readers. Although the chapters can be read independently, we recommend that the chapters are read in the sequence, paying attention to the progression of Prof. Chhaya’s thoughts and ideas as the book unfolds.

This journey has been a rewarding experience, both personally and professionally. As I worked with a team of fastidious transcribers and proofreaders, weaving together Prof. Chhaya’s words involved a lot of discussions, shared views, and even arguments, which resulted in creating an impactful compilation. This process has also been a learning experience as we deeply reflected on Prof. Chhaya’s words, thoughts, and experiences.

I hope this book resonates with you as much as it did with us, as we look forward to sharing more of his insights in the future.

We invite you to read this book with an open mind and embrace the candidness and profoundness that define Prof. Chhaya’s perspectives. This book is not just a transcription, but a window to the voice that has introduced, defined, and shaped several discussions in the world of education and architecture today.

We also request the readers to contact us if you want any of Prof. Chhaya’s audios or videos to be transcribed and we shall include them in further publications. We kindly ask for your understanding in case there are areas that require further refinement, as we continue to strive for the highest quality in presenting Prof. Chhaya’s work.

Jayashree C Copy Editor

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Behind the Pages

All that you can control is the efforts you put in. The team at Akarmaa has displayed meticulous and dedicated efforts towards compiling this book.

The convergence of intentions and efforts has been magical. We have been immensely blessed to witness and be part of a process of ‘being and becoming’ through consistent practice everyday, for nearly five hundred days. Each one of us has imbibed the master’s ways in our own manner. We offer gratitude in abundance to the friends who have taken time to transcribe and to repeatedly proofread the text. Acknowledgement for the solidarity in alphabetical order: Aadhirai T • Akshaya Ramakrishnan • Anjali Bhoj • Anjana Shekar • Anuj Desai • Arunima Shankar • Chinmayee Mokshagundam • Chinmayi Mali• Deep Kanaiya • Dharshini T • Divya Keerthana • Harshil Parekh • Jayashree C • Kairav AK • Kausik Srestaluri • Kaushik Kumar • Khyati Vinod • Lavanya Anbazhagan • Lokesh MM • Manikanth Reddy • Manpur Badrinath • Mugdha Pargunde • Parikshith Athinagaram • Rakesh Doraswamy • Sahasradhara P • Sivaraj K • Swathy P • Shaik Zubair • Soundarya Arumugam • Srinithi R • Thiagarajan R • Urvi Manani • Vidhya Shri K

Arunima Shankar Akarmaa

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Journey Through the Book Connecting the Dots

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Humility Personified

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Foreword

14

Preface

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To the Reader

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Behind the Pages

23

On Standardisation

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On Paradigms

42

On Institution

56

On Values

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On Moving Beyond

102

On Angularities

114

On Learning

140

On Process

160

On Systems

174

On Choices

194

Credits

204

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Conversation with Kedar Nimkar

On Standardisation Transcribed by: Akshaya Ramakrishnan

Kedar Nimkar (KN): I wouldn’t call this a conversation because I’m going to be a mediator, ask questions, and document your thoughts and ideas on the premise of standardisation. We can take it in the context of architecture, art or even culture in a larger context and see where the synthesis occurs.

Typically, many articles or podcasts are designed around the advantages or disadvantages, but I am trying to do both to arrive at the synthesis.

Shall we start by asking your thoughts on standardisation? Where do you see it happening at large? Do you see it happening just in design or also in architecture? When you look at the city being homogenised with the landscapes looking the same, you might think about standardisation.

However, you can also choose to abstract standardisation as a concept.

Prof. Neelkanth Chhaya (NC): We must differentiate between standardisation and monotony. Monotony comes with excessive repetition of exactly the same form, irrespective of either context or use or preferences and so on. Standardisation should really be looked at somewhat differently from monotony. Standardisation, even in nature, uses a kind of method of not having to reinvent the wheel every time.

For example, atoms or cells are a kind of standardised element. In nature, you find that every tree of the same species uses the same formal principle

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but varies according to context. So, a tree growing in sunlight coming from one direction will tend to start growing towards that direction and won’t grow straight up. So, standardisation is a method of reducing unnecessary labour. That’s one way of looking at standardisation.

Human cultures, too, standardised things very early on. The Indus Valley cultures were famous for having standardised brick dimensions, so they were the same throughout. The bricks were of the exact dimensions, kind, weights and measures. So, they could do many things across that very large civilisation. It gave them the capacity to make exchanges and make many tasks easier. Standardisation was something that was used even before that, perhaps. If you look at the way the stone implements were made, there were two or three kinds, which then became the main kind. Now, that was a standardisation without ‘sameness’. It kept in mind the function, the material, and the method of working and found the easiest techniques.

Those processes were continued and then standardised. So, there can either be a standardisation of process or standardisation of product. However, with the coming of mechanised production, standardisation took a different turn.

The early mechanical production worked the best when large numbers of the same products were to be made. It was economical to devise techniques, processes and machines that made the same kind of product. It was not

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He had some favourite authors, and I will quote very freely from them, especially Dag Hammarskjöld, who was the Secretary General of the United Nations during the peak of the Cold War and died in an air crash over Congo.

He wrote a thin book called Markings, which was his favourite. He opened it in the most strained of times. That was his source of strength, and what Hammarskjöld wrote almost could describe Varkey at times.

Here is a passage from Hammarskjöld’s book, “To be nothing in the selfeffacement of humility, yet for the sake of the task, to embody its whole weight and importance in your bearing as the one who has been called to undertake it. To give to people works, poetry, art, and what the self can contribute, and to take simply and freely what belongs to it by reason of its identity. Praise and blame, the winds of success and adversity blow over such a life without leaving a trace or upsetting its balance”. My friends will agree that this is Varkey. No praise, no blame, disappear into the background, but do. It might sound as if he is a grave and very serious kind of a person, but he had an impish sense of humour, a very wild sense of humour at times, sometimes a very ribald and dirty sense of humour. He as very fond of limericks. So, in the studio, he would come and pin up a limerick every day.

This was what he pinned up one day: “There was an old man of Madras”. Now, think of what would come next (laughs).

There was an old man of Madras Who rode on a cream-coloured ass; But the length of its ears, so promoted his fears, that it killed that old man of Madras.

So, this was what he would pin up before midnight. After midnight, at about two o’clock, he would come and pin up, in that wonderful handwriting of his, the dirty version. I dare not speak of it here. I’m sure a lot of you know it otherwise it’s available on the net. You can look it up. “There was an old man of Madras”. And it was quite okay for us to give back whatever he was giving us. So, one of my friends, Sohan, who is in the audience, wrote a limerick for Varkey.

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A clear-headed man was Varkey; nothing in his head was murky, but his mind was no good when it came to any food, he couldn’t tell his chicken from his turkey (laughs).

That, too, is an apt description of the man. After our studio, he would trundle his bicycle along to Liberty, which was the only place where tea was available after midnight. On the way, he would be spouting T. S. Eliot’s poetry loudly, at the top of his voice. On the way back would come the limericks, well into the night. So, here is a man of such parts, and when we talk together about the world today, we must remember that the world is not just an unhappy place.

It’s a place of so many happenings. It’s a place of terrible things happening and it’s a place of great joy and great potentiality.

So, Varkey believed in the possibility of goodness in humans. Humans could be good as Shakespeare said, “What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason!”. This is Varkey again, reading. He was a theatre man.

What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason!

How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel!

In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!

So, that was one image of the man. Varkey had that image, as is the case with wonderful human beings. They can be so good, compassionate, courageous, and capable of doing what is needed. He also had another line from T. S. Eliot – “Humankind cannot bear very much reality”, and he could see both sides of this. He could see that this was a complex creature and that the human capacity for altruism, justice, and ethical inner compass was the teacher’s true métier; that the teacher helped the student to bring out that inner compass, to unravel, to take away all those curtains and make the student capable and free to see which way to go. I don’t know, I was thinking while writing this, ‘Is this too serious?’ Then I realised why the students took so much trouble and effort to organise the Kurula Varkey Design Forum. Why? It’s not entertainment, it’s not an escape, it will not bring them fame, and their names are not even written on any of the posters. The people behind this, so many of them, are anonymous. So, it won’t give them fame. It won’t

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(Go out and stand there outside the door. They did it in your school, right?)

But if you are a young person growing up, being inside the house is one meaning and being outside is another meaning. It will be different for boys, and it will be different for girls. For boys, being outside might mean, ‘I don’t have to worry. I can do whatever I want. I am a free bird now. I have grown up.

I can do what I like’. For girls, it might be, ‘I am thrown out, or I am being very adventurous’. Badhi chhokrio chhokrio chalo apde bahar jaiye, henn! Koi ne kehshu nai (All the girls, let’s go outside together. We will not tell anyone). So, in and out. Deep and surface.

If I take other words about space, structured and random, which is better?

Structured is better or random is better? Tamne shu lage che? Emm ekdum gothvelu structured ane spontaneous, free, kayu saru? Specially, to mare ramvu hoy to ema evu ek ground hoy jema doda dod kari shaku, freely… pan pachhi jo (What do you think? Like perfectly arranged, structured or spontaneous and free, which one is better? Especially if I want to play and there is a ground where I can run freely, but after this you see) If I want to play cricket, I need to structure it, I need a pitch. There are two ends and a boundary if I have to play football or any other game. There is value to structure in formal games. There is value to freedom and randomness in free play. So, is free better or is structured better? I don’t know. It will depend on the institution. What is the institution that you are answering to, the institution of play or the institution of competence with rules?

Then, closed and opened. It’s a closed society; you can only be a member if you’re invited. It’s open to all. So, closed and open also have meaning. Dark and light. It was dark or it was full of light. Which one is better? Again, it will depend on the institution. There was a mysterious darkness in which that one lamp spread a glow; that is one thing. The other thing is that there was so much light that everything was visible. There was nothing which was more important or less, could be like that. So, opaque and transparent. All of these characteristics of space are ways in which you create the rules of an institution. Now, you go back and look at your own house and see where all these rules are operating. It will be very interesting for you.

Then, there are rules for time. So, before and after – which is better? That which happened before aato sadiyo pela apde tya thayu che e saru? Ke aapde navi sadima joyu e nathi evi vastu thashe (this happened centuries back, is it good? Or in the new era, what is not there will happen). So, which is better? So, depending on the institution. Nobody will say, in relation to family,

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that it is an experiment in forming relations for reproduction. Nobody will say that. They will be scared to say that, even if they want to do that. But they will say, in the tradition of human families, ours is one more, and we live forever now through this family. The characteristics of time are useful for creating institutional expressions: before and after, past and future. For certain things, the past is valuable; for certain things, the future is valuable. Old and new. Aa atit nu apdi pase heritage che, hen (This is something from the past with us, which is heritage, hmm). It is something of a future, and it is futuristic. So, what kind of Rajkot do you want? Do you want a Rajkot of heritage, or do you want a Rajkot of the future? These are the questions which will be bothering all Rajkot people.

The next one is slow and fast. It’s moving too fast, and we would like to do it slowly. We cook and eat slowly, and the other one says, “No, in a day, I want so many things. I want fast food straight away. I want to eat it like this, and then I want to get out and do a hundred things in a day. I have to put up so many Instagram photos all the time”. So, fast or slow. Patterned or random.

Time which is patterned, time which is random. Patterned etle kevu ke aam savare uthya pachhi aam… pachhi aam… aam pachhi falanu… pachhi aam… aam… dar mahine aavi rite ek var aam kariye. Dar agyarase ame ektanu kariye etc etc… that is patterned type vs. free evu kai nai amare evu kai nai, mane je hu savare uthu tyare man thay e hu karish, tame kach kach na karo chhodi do (Pattern means like in the morning, we wake up then this, then that, and then that. Every month we do that. Every month, on the eleventh day of the lunar calendar, we eat only one meal a day, etc. etc. This is patterned type vs free; it means there is nothing like that to me. When I wake up, I do what I feel like doing. Don’t irritate me, let me be free).

So, both of these are values. These values support certain notions of institutions. They express certain kinds of institutional rules – cyclical and linear. So, all cultures up to a certain point used to believe, pelo golden yug, pela apda char yug keva? Koine khabar che? (First golden-yug, those four yugas. Does anyone know of it?)

ST: Satyug, Dvaparyug, Tretayug, ane Kaliyug (Refers to the cyclic age in Hindu cosmology).

NC: Etle aaam bagad toj gayo bagad toj gayo. Sharuaat ma ekdam sundar satyug pachhi bagadtu gayu, pachhi thodu vadhu bagadyu, sav bagdi gayu. Kaliyug ma pachhi Vishnu e akhu andar lai lidhu, pralay karine. Ane

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Stable, valued, recurring pattern of behaviour.

That is an institution.

School Without Walls

On Moving Beyond Article Published by: IAB (2013), Studio Matter (2017)

I propose to start by discussing the school itself and only briefly touch on the larger issues at stake. Nothing of what I say is new; it has been done to a greater or lesser extent everywhere, but I feel it would still be useful to record these views as a reference for improving architectural education today.

Uncertainty and the Responsive Institution: How do we build organisms that are constantly learning?

The one thing certain about the future is that everything is uncertain. The physical environment, which has always been considered an unchanging backdrop of human activity, is likely to undergo major changes and upheavals, with climate change looming on the horizon. Resources are certainly likely to be less easily available while the demand for them increases.

Economies are volatile and rapidly changing. Political structures are stressed to the limit, and new and unknown forms of organisation are very likely to emerge. Technology is changing and transforming our relations with the world at an ever-increasing pace. Social forms, customs, and norms of behaviour are rapidly changing. Cultures are in a stage of reconfiguration with increased and instantaneous communications.

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Less tangible but equal and perhaps even more important are the changes in the psychological and social environments of students and teachers.

There is a huge proliferation of information of all kinds, readily available at the click of a button. The media technologies have encouraged a much smaller attention span, with the attention flitting from byte to byte at great speed.

In this environment, sustained slow thought and deep inquiry are difficult.

All physical or geographical contexts are instantaneously interconnected.

Consequently, all cultural forms and peculiarities are flattened, and identities of individuals and groups are homogenised and desperately hardened in defence, constantly reforming. In short, every aspect of life that we have considered stable and relatively fixed is no longer so.

Similarly, individuals, both students as well as teachers, being affected by the changing environment of education are also different, and institutions built out of human participation need to take that into account. Institutions are built to suit particular conditions. Educational institutions are no exception.

In a period of flux, how do we build responsive, agile, flexible organisations that are capable of learning continuously and modifying their shape and methods to suit ever-new challenges?

In the past, institutions were built to answer an unchanging and eternal order. They were meant to propagate a mode of living that the culture

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considered valid. Today, perhaps, we need to keep the objectives more open.

As a consequence, the shape of our organisations will need to be more openended and fuzzy. The contents of curricula and the methods of study will have to be more tentative and open to development.

Moving Beyond the Industrial Model of Education Where does learning occur? Is school a place where we train young people to be efficient workers to feed the needs of society? Is it a place where existing knowledge is transmitted to new entrants to the profession? Perhaps these are part of its objectives. If this set of objectives was sufficient, we could go on forever, simply refining the content and methods, making sure that competent individuals came out of this systematic grounding within the sheltered walls of the institution. We would have to attend to the clarity and manageability of the system, the sufficiency of financial, material and human resources, the availability of appropriate instructional material, and the development of technologies and methods for the efficient transmission of knowledge. We could treat it as an industry.

Industry needs a well-defined task and a clear picture of resources available – both material and human, as well as infrastructure and tools. It is finite. We might think of it as an enclosed system, where the test is the difference in character between the raw materials that go in and the product that comes out. It is vital to make sure that the product fulfils the need. Prediction of what is needed is essential to the viability of this production. The more accurate the prediction, the better the fit and therefore, the more successful the industry.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to have an exact idea of a society’s future development except in broad statistical terms. This is especially true in our age of rapid, unprecedented and unpredictable change. Those professions that work with specific, concrete conditions and respond appropriately, such as architecture, cannot define themselves narrowly. Sufficient flexibility, responsiveness, and redundancy must be built into their outlook and methods. Evolution is littered with the extinction of too-specific forms, unable to respond to changing conditions.

Even if we could have accurate forecasts of the future and treat education as an industrial enterprise with a defined product range, the Indian situation would present nearly insurmountable obstacles to installing such a procedure. Huge

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Such reflective thinking – where facts are gathered and organised in many different ways, critically scrutinised and imaginatively reconstructed – can occur only in small intense interactions between interested people.

in our doctrine. Don’t do anything else, sing this only. And that’s all, nothing else can be sung). And the teacher drills this into the student over and over again, just like how we make you draw over and over again. The teacher does this drill and the skill is absolutely in the very fibre of that person’s body.

There is nothing extra to it and every skill is there in that fibre. Then they are put on stage and they are supposed to do something creative, something different, something new. They have to stretch that raag, take it to the limit and they have to come back from the brink. It is also quite all right for them to sometimes even fall over the brink, as long as they are doing it responsibly.

This is the paradox of creativity that this school has encouraged every student and faculty member to go to the brink and then come back safe. There are zones of safety like how Ustad Ali Akbar Khan says “zehar ki dava” (medicine for poison). You know that raag, that zehar (poison) is coming and you have to take a dava (medicine) which will immediately correct it. That thing is available. This school is the harbour of that safety from where we can jump off and come back. So, then it really means that we are talking about school in a very different way. It is unlike any other way in which we can talk about a school.

What is a school then? They say that you will learn even without me teaching.

Then what’s the point? We used to have these American lecturers. When I joined the first year, as an innocent young boy, the American teachers would sort of shrug and say, “Well, I don’t know. Maybe I am wrong and that’s the way I feel”. I was like, “What the hell! You come here to teach me and you are saying you don’t know?” (laughter) Well, that’s the nature of this task where you know but you still hesitate to say that you know. You are still hesitant to freeze the fact that you know something, but that’s only a very small thing and there will be many more things that you can know.

So, school is a place where you can be like that. But of course, educational institutions are necessary. We need to create a place where people can come together. Some people are more experienced, others are new. They are coming and learning together and teaching one another. Educational institutions are necessary. We do not have to do away with institutions; it is not the objective. The objective is the transformation that happens in the teacher and in the student at the point of development and that point of learning is where both are transformed, not just the student. The most exciting thing about being here is that every semester, I have changed from what I was.

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Every semester, every single day, in fact and that is the nature of the place of learning - the transformation of all individuals who are a part of that.

Institutions regulate transactions. You pay a fee, I teach you and that’s the crudest way of putting it. The less crude way of putting it is that there are obligations, duties, so on and so forth. Obviously, institutions must do this.

They have to have this otherwise they’ll fall apart. But the institution’s final goal and objective is to free the individual through that internal learning process, where they are transforming themselves. That is something that doesn’t happen when we remember the institution and its norms. This is the only school perhaps which has escaped this kind of a shadow.

For example, we talk about so many other schools in India which were places of creative energy and they became connected to the sense of being an institution. That is something which we must remember at all times, that the place of learning is our goal. If we look at the extremes, on one side, there is the personal search for the right action. Whether I am an architect, a doctor or anybody, whatever I do I want to do it the right way. It is the same with my own life: family, friends, relatives or with everybody. I want to do the right thing and that is a completely internal process, which should be continually ongoing and in most cases, it is. It doesn’t affect anybody in the society except those I come in contact with. On the other side, are institutions and organisations which need to codify transactions and there is a need for definite, clear and measurable formulations, methods, routines, laws, rules, etc. All this comes out of the need for institutions to set down the kind of frameworks within which activity will happen.

In between is a very interesting area that is neither absolute subjectivity nor utter objectivity but an in-between area which I think we normally call a ‘community of practice’. The community of practice is based on trust and mutual respect. How does trust happen? By doing what you are supposed to do. Respect comes out of the quality of work you do. Whether a student is very brilliant, dull, not fully skilled or hasn’t learnt everything, that respect comes out of the fact that the student is trying. ‘Kar raha hai kuch, kuch.

Shayad do saal ke baad niklega’ (He is doing something. Perhaps he will get through in two years). With my colleague, I was discussing that I failed yesterday and I made a blunder, and today I’m trying to make it up. An unsaid and continuously evolving hope of mutual behaviour is the birthplace of both things – trust and mutual respect. This unsaid code gives birth to the explicit law.

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My partners who officially agreed for me to spend half a day in school. But I used to spend three half-days in the office. Sohan and Kallol allowed me all of these kinds of things because it was a bond of a different kind, still is. I am grateful to my friends and colleagues who were so wonderful. Not only colleagues who were teaching with me, like Nithin, Raje, Mikki Desai, Munna or Pratyush or Kashikar. It’s not just colleagues but even people like Ramesh, Panchal, Anita Ben and Hansa.

I haven’t found an administration which is so alive to the spirit of being a school of architecture. When I used to have trouble, Panchal would come back to me with a budget and say, ‘Saheb, books mate aatlu barabar nathi, correct karo, correct karo’ (Sir, this much for books is not appropriate. Correct it, correct it). Where will you find an administration which does that? Then the malis (gardeners). What a wonderful way they keep this place! The people who clean the place and the people who are available for all kinds of messenger services. You know Dev ji and I joined the school in the same year.

He, as an administrative person, and I as a student, we are roughly the same age. He is a little older to me and Dev ji is capable of giving a full lecture on architecture (laughter). He has done that at RSP (Rural Study Programme), much to the disgust of faculty members (laughter). It’s because sometimes he was holding the attention of the students better than they could (laughter).

This is the kind of people that we have had in this campus.

My students. I can’t think of a more wonderful bunch of people. All these years. All these years, and students not only of the school of architecture but students of all the schools, students even of schools elsewhere would come here and spend time on this campus. The library is a fantastic place. Grateful for that.

And finally, of course, I’m very grateful to my wife, my family, my brotherin-law Kiran who has flown all the way from Vancouver, just to attend this lecture. You don’t know how much they have given to this school. There are so many hours, when my students needed a shoulder to cry on and I am sure this is with Madhavi and Miki also. Everyone of us. This is the privilege of being a teacher, that we teach as a family, not just as individuals and the whole family is important. Thank you very much, all of you. Jaimini, who is sitting here, was the first person to whom I became a teaching assistant.

I think he was teaching in this school for the first time, but he has taught elsewhere before and I was put as his assistant. And since then, the deepest regard and friendship have been there. Punita was our student.

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And this is the school of architecture. Thank you very much.

(Crowd ovation ) Ar. Pratyush Shankar: Thank you, Prof. Chhaya. I think it was a very moving lecture, like all your lectures and talks. And as I see it, it’s also a very important and historical lecture. What you have done here is, you have opened up the place. Bimal was talking about a relay race, where ideas have to continue and people change. I remember the question you keep using, “What is the genetic code of the place?” I think what you have done here in fortyfive minutes is truly amazing. (focus light flickers brightly on Pratyush’s face.

Crowd laughs). This is throwing more light on that. This is the perspective that you have really listed out what makes this place unique. And all of us faculties, students, friends, and alumni, cannot thank you enough for that. I imagine that we’ll have many more talks and many more lectures here. If you had this idea that retired life would be peaceful and we wouldn’t trouble you, we are going to be calling you again and again. Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.

I would request everyone to put their hands together again for Prof. Chhaya.

(Crowd gives a long standing ovation)

Valedictory Address | CEPT University | November 2013

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The cycle of ‘reflection-action, reflection-action, reflectionaction’ is the cycle in which there can be miss-steps, there can be bad decisions, but it is always something in which we are going to reflect upon whatever we have decided.

because that is what we can share. You can make your buildings in your own way. They look different, they will be different. That’s fine but we have to share our knowledge in a way in which we are talking about processes rather than projects. We’ll make projects, I mean that is our joy and that is what we do out of sheer animal instincts, but we also need to share the processes.

Next, we have to learn to devise open-ended systems, not controlled solutions. Banaras, the ghats (steps along the river bank) were an openended system. The kings from every part of India came and built. Indore wala (people) came and built some ghats, and somebody else built some other ghats. The only thing that was known was the river floods and we needed to have ways of going down when the water was low, protect the building when the water was high, and on how we could make it sacred; these three conditions were there. This became one of the most creative solutions to how a river and a city can connect as, but there were no final solutions, nobody had a drawing. There was this one drawing with which this one riverfront was made (referring to Sabarmati). One drawing, one section and that is seamlessly and without any doubt at all applied across kilometres, as if the land behind was the same. And that is the great hubris and the arrogance of the technocentric mind, that the solution once given will never fail.

They are digging up CG Road now, that was the solution at one point of time, but now it’s a problem. Hence, it’s worth thinking about this. We Amdavadis are used to being distrustful of solutions. ‘Are ranchod ratio su karvano?

Chelle pachi bill banavyu, tran vakhat bichara a divaru kadhyu. Pan ae atle ek type nu je athasya thatu tu je aapde bhuli gaya aapde dar ek vastu swaha, bahu saras, uttam’ (Hey, Ranchod! Why should a ratio be done? At last, the bill got made, the poor person found defaults in it thrice. But we have forgotten the type of sarcastic laughter that was created. We took it all, oh! Wonderful, great!) We have to be a little careful about this. Sometimes, we have to act to balance the action bias.

Suppose there is an event of plague, Nipah virus or something, we have to act fast and get rid of it. But all the time don’t suffer from the action bias, also balance it with a sensibility for restraint, holding back. Not doing is maybe as important as doing. And that’s a golden sentence which could be written everywhere. Value both the old and the new because the old ideas sometimes have wisdom in them. Look at it. Today we are having a water crisis and we used to have an advertising agency in Ahmedabad. When there were no advertisements, they would write ‘pani ghee ni jem vaparvu’ (Use water like

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ghee). That was in our system. So, the old has also some values. Values can also be new, no doubt - good phone, good communication, but value also the old. Don’t throw it out. That is another lesson that we have to learn.

Lastly, which should feel like music to an Amdavadi’s ears. Use a little less or as little as possible of everything. If there is one chai, divide it into three because we value every resource that nature gave to us, not because we are kanjoos (stingy), but because we are aware. The idea of using less was profound by all the Amdavadis, which was adopted and promoted by Gandhi, needs to come back. And it is sickening for somebody who has lived in Ahmedabad for so many years, to see the amount of waste of materials, resources, and money that’s going on all around this town, which never was a showing-off town. It was a town in which you restrained yourself. You need not try to show yourself as richer. ‘Aa pravin ne toh su batavi desu... evu hatuj nai... gamme etlu sethiyo hoy, gamme etlo nano hoy, bannev sarkha, kapda bev a sarkha peira’ (What will you show, Pravin? Wasn’t it like that? However big a boss he is or however a low wage earner he could be, both are the same, both wear the same kind of clothes).

If we go into that, then we are going to change the profession, not into a profession which is only following what is happening but is leading into areas in which we have never thought. Our pride as professionals should be in leading new models of thought and action which are kind to the earth, creating happiness between all of us, and creating a sense of well-ordered, yet free and creative existence. All the professionals that sit here all have this capacity, provided we think about it.

Thank you very much.

Host: He has touched so many aspects of life, I think all of you must have some questions.

Q: I think you have explained a sorrowful picture of the future. Very pessimistic, and I don’t agree with it. We are all full of capacities. I am here and managing projects all over from have and that is possible. Even though I am doing a small thing, that doesn’t mean that I am not aware of that. I don’t agree with you.

NC: I think that it is perfectly good that we don’t agree. The pessimism is for the present not for the future. It is these young people who are going to

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puts the fish into a river. It’s still growing. Then puts it into the sea, but the sea is the place of Matsya Nyaya. What is Matsya Nyaya? Big fish eat small fish.

Outside the gates (referring to graduating students), big fish eat small fish.

So, this little fish that Manu was trying to save is eaten up by a big fish. The bigger it became, the more dangerous the world was. From a pot, it went to a pond, where there were other fish, then it went to a river, where there were even more fish, and then made it to the ocean, where there were huge fishes.

The bigger the fish became, the more dangerous the world.

That’s the first story. The second story is from the Jataka Tales. These are Buddhist stories. The other one (the previous one) is also from our traditional stories, but as I said, I’ve changed because Manu, in the end, does something even more than that, but for the purposes of this, across the road or outside the gate I had to make this story a certain way.

Second story. It’s a story about a small brave parrot. While flying in the air, the parrot notices a big fire that is destroying the forest. Along with trees and plants, a whole lot of living creatures are suffering from the searing heat and are threatened with death. This is what the parrot sees from above. The parrot feels really sorry for all these suffering beings. The parrot then flies to a nearby lake, wets its wings, flies back to the forest and flaps its wings, a few drops fall on the fire. It goes again and keeps on doing this. The Gods sitting there notice this and burst out laughing at this futile activity. Yeh choti si chidiya kya karlega? (What would this small bird even do?) Foolish creature. So, they laugh at this, but one of the Gods feels pity for the parrot and swoops down, taking the form of an eagle. He tells the parrot that this activity is meaningless. Tries to explain to the parrot that its small action will have no effect on the fire. Save yourself. The parrot in the middle of fighting the fire says, “I don’t need advice. My own flock might have told me such things long ago. I just need someone who believes in me and someone who is empathetic to all beings”. Hearing this, God’s tears flew down in a torrent. You know when a God has tears, it’s beyond measure and the fire is extinguished. So, God will come, and be sympathetic and in admiration will burst into tears. All the beings that were suffering are saved.

So, these are two stories, you have a choice. Stepping outside the gates of this institution you can become either a fish or a parrot. Beautiful parrot blue, green, red beak. Wah!

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You can become this or that. Fish also is beautiful. It’s not an ugly thing. The choice is yours. Who am I to say anything? The choice is entirely yours, I told you, I won’t give advice. The choice is yours. But, I have one recommendation.

If you decide to become a fish, don’t become any fish, don’t become a shark, become a whale or a dolphin. Dolphin is the symbol of joy (gestures jumping out of water). How joyful! A whale is the symbol of wisdom and communication. Whales talk to each other, they sing to each other. The other day, there was a photograph of whales, a group of whales sleeping.

They sleep vertically. I was shocked to see that photograph. But anyway, whales are wonderful creatures. They are constantly having a dialogue. So, if you become a whale or a dolphin you will be out of the rut of the other fish, which are rushing around in schools to eat each other and never satisfied with anything. Never satisfied. Have you seen a whale or a dolphin rushing?

There is no greed there. There is only the enjoyment of the air and the sunlight. Beauty. So, even if you decide to become a fish, decide to become a dolphin or a whale. Otherwise, you can always be a parrot.

In the 20th century, we believed that the experts knew the answers and all would need to follow. We thought that with technological wizardry, we could transform human existence. The architect was thought of as one of the experts and even considered the heroic master of our destiny, as inhabitants of the world. We built our image as lonely but determined heroes. Heroes are always lonely, they’re never in a group, and we thought that only big actions imposed from above could help us. Project after project massively erased the existing reality. Even today, we want to tame rivers, trap nature into submission, undertake huge reconstruction of city places and create ever more desires to feed the market.

In this way, we brought about disaster after disaster and stand on the brink today. Quantity replaces quality. Streamlined efficiency replaces happiness.

You are expected to be efficient. In such a time, perhaps we need to change the shape of our professional work. We will need to find other ways of working. We will work slowly, tentatively, in small steps like the parrot that watches earlier steps with an attitude of listening and conversing with our fellow creatures rather than an attitude of telling and directing. Might these not be better ways now?

The choice is yours. May you go out into the world and make your alma mater, and not just alma mater, all humanity proud of you by doing good for the benefit of all that exists. We will see you doing this in the next few years, and

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on the other hand, this campus will grow more plants, have more butterflies, and have bees. I’ll come and have lunch here, on one of these days.

Thank you very much.

Convocation Address | C.T.E.S College of Architecture | April 2023

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Akarmaa Akarmaa is an organisation with a multi-disciplinary approach to diverse projects in the fields of architecture, heritage, environment and education.

One of the interpretations of ‘Akarmaa’ is ‘Selfless Action’ where both the doer and done cease to exist. Akarmaa is an attempt towards developing mindfulness of one’s actions through research, design, and advocacy.

‘Akarmaa Designs’ approaches design as a tool of intervention in a system through various functional and contextual parameters that will aid in the sustenance and continuity of the system. Interventions in terms of design vary among graphic, architecture, heritage conservation, landscape and so on; all having a thread in common – Thannaram in Tamil (roughly translates to ‘morale inner compass‘). Akarmaa also believes in the process of ‘doing’ while constantly reflecting and making efforts to design, restore and build context-sensitive, cost-effective spaces being both responsible to the needs of the user and accountable to the resources consumed.

‘Akarmaa Foundation’, through its various centres like Centre for Heritage Research and Management (CHRM), Centre for Self Sufficiency (CSS), Centre for Learning by Doing (CLD), engages in diverse activities with an underlying common goal of becoming conscious of not only what can be done, but what should be done. Akarmaa also serves as a platform for various young graduates of architecture to find their ‘calling’ beyond their profession. Anvaya - upcycled fabric design, Ayakva - craft studio, Dhuni - art therapy centre, 1.6 frames - architectural photography, Nirmama - studio of music, mandala and making homes, Koru - pottery studio, Nishkaamya - therapy centre for special children, Sahakara - an ecological collective, Avam Narratives, Paraa - studio of sounds, Thathagatha Studio, Khoj Kathas, Suvadu, Dead Poet Society, Paropkara to name a few initiatives. Akarmaa continues to work as a collective for over a decade working with people, places and practices.

www.akarmaa.in akarmaadesigns@gmail.com

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Cuckoo Cuckoo, as a movement for the past two decades, has been engaged in various learning activities for children through the setting up of libraries, especially in remote regions, lesser privileged, disadvantaged classes of society. Cuckoo, as a physical space, is located at the foothills of Javadhu in Tamil Nadu and works closely with children of the forest through the pedagogy of ‘Learning by Doing’ that aligns with their innate nature based on Naitalim. The land has varied decentralised spaces such as the centre for special children, nursery, library, seed bank, permaculture hut, craft centre and so on, built mostly with upcycled and recyclable materials, each catering to one or two activities, knitting together a garland of learning spaces.

Cuckoo, through its varied experiences of filling the gap between thought and action, is a growing web of individuals working towards their ‘seeking’ through constructive activities on the ground across the globe. Arumbu - handmade soaps, Eetrarai - motherhood care, Motherway - palm jaggery sweets, Niyathi - a monthly five-day workshop for youngsters, Nurpu - Handloom School, Public Well Revival Movement, Thugal - Cloth Bags, Thuvam - Upcycled Toys, Thirumoolar - Health drinks are a few examples of socially relevant activities addressing present-day needs, incubated in Cuckoo. Cuckoo also is a space of healing physically through various therapies offered and mentally through various lived stories of hope. Cuckoo, through its various activities in the land and initiatives from the land, has served as the bridge of doing, which gives the sense of higher purpose both in giving and receiving, thus diminishing the boundaries between both. www.cuckoochildren.in cuckoochildren@gmail.com

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‘ …The sun will rise and the sun will set but the sky will always be there…’

Dhruv Bhatt