Reflections

I spent formative years of my life living in a large colonial house with a large angan
attached to it and my most vivid memories of those years is of lying down at night in
the angan looking at the stars and even today, I sometimes feel like tearing down the
roof of my bedroom. The form or proportions of the house have a very small place in
my memory.
Once in London, we had asked about a dozen architects to draw the elevation of the
office building they were working in. Only one of them could do so with any kind of
accuracy. Many did not even know the number of windows it had!
I also know of friends who spent most of their enterprising and creative years, living
and working out of homes and offices, which were not only ordinary, but were almost
rundown. It was only after they had made good in the material world, that they
renovated their places. Having done so, I know they have enjoyed greater physical
comforts, but I doubt if their enterprise or creativity has appreciably increased.
If you look at the institutions, almost the same thing prevails. Oxford University has a
set of very distinguished buildings so has Cambridge, but Harvard does not. Still
Harvard is at the frontiers of knowledge. Similarly, at the MIT, most of the pathbreaking
research is done in rooms which are no more than four walls, two windows
and a door strung along dark, dingy never-ending corridors. And the guidance system
for the Apollo Mission which landed the first man on the moon was designed in a
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