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Gift Of Time<br />
If I could stand at every random site from morning to sundown, supervising the<br />
casting of slabs for other people, why couldn’t I do this for my own daughter, my<br />
pride and joy? So I decided to design and build this <strong>Art</strong> Centre - her dream project,<br />
in my own presence. Given my age, the location and lack of accessibility to modern<br />
amenities, and not forgetting variable climatic conditions, it was going to be a feat all<br />
around. But, I also knew that if I took it on, I would be able to spend time with my<br />
daughter. So this time together, was a strong factor in influencing me to take on this<br />
challenge. The task demanded grit and determination but I knew why I was doing<br />
this, so we got down to business.<br />
The first brief given to me was to create a high ceiling with terracotta tiles for the<br />
roofing, so that the building would blend in with the historic chattri and baoli and<br />
landscape of cultivated fields leading to the hills in the distance. It was also decided<br />
to build the structure on a platform. A lot of filling-in of the low land was necessary<br />
to have a building on a raised platform. We had many things to work around and like<br />
pieces of a puzzle they had to fit together.<br />
My problems were many. If on one hand I had capable men, on the other, I was<br />
working with illiterate and unskilled workers who could not read a drawing. After<br />
having taught students of architecture in present day IIT, this was a new experience.<br />
But it was interesting to have people from all strata of society to work with. As it<br />
was with the team, so it was with the project. The architectural design is based on<br />
a combination of state-of-art technology as well as traditional practices. We were<br />
creative with this - using things like VRF air-conditioning and toughened glass on<br />
one side and then plastering the walls with lime surkhi on the other. Economy was<br />
achieved by employing innovative methods of construction such as the octagonal<br />
plate slab in the conference area. This was held up on a twenty-four foot-span using<br />
only eight millimetre diameter, ‘Tor’ steel bars. This reduced wastage to a minimum.<br />
Fifty years after I designed the main altar of the Eucharistic Congress at Bombay for<br />
Pope Paul VI, this job was giving me equal satisfaction.
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