Watermarks
The death of the Indian city is scripted by the lack of imagination, will and intent in the constitution of its public spaces which are being reconstituted to comprise roads to move private vehicles, fragmented and broken sidewalks and a few scattered parks. In particular, the public spaces associated with the harvesting and collecting of water have succumbed to widespread neglect and decay. Despite academic discourses extolling the value of this architecture for water and related spaces for people, design actualization is negligible. Large scale, homogenous, mono functional infrastructure characterizes the thinking of the spaces for water, with people retreating into the banality and orchestrated publicness of gated communities. Consequently, even less resources are expended on the design of public spaces associated with water, further forging a cyclical process of neglect.
Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Historically, cities across the country expended resources in the creation of some of the most beautiful public spaces around water, the most prominent being the ghats of Benaras, the stepwells of Gujarat and the kunds of Rajasthan. These constitute some of the most vibrant, dynamic, diverse and multi-faceted manifestations of spaces within the fabric of traditional Indian cities. Emerging out of India’s climatic and socio-political and cultural composition, these spaces were public, inclusive and active participants of the daily life of people. They offered citizens opportunities of engagement at several scales for a multitude of activities. They were designed and carefully calibrated. They were spaces of social recital, of public participation, political deliberations and lived experiences that formed the base of celebration of life.
Well
Digging deep into my memory cell,
I found a trail that led me to a well,
The sweet, cool water I gain,
With the taste of the stone, the sky
The earth and the rain …
A center in sight
For rituals and rites.
An occasion to converge
A chance to converse,
A place to be, was that well.
Today as I seek to dwell,
Which is the trail to the well?
The narrow deep pipe, a death knell,
I bid adieu to that well.
Kund / Stepped pond
The chisel of the mason,
Crafting the occasion,
Raised as an offering,
For the water it was celebrating,
Between the shadows,
The stone dissolves,
Capturing the light,
As the space evolves.
Steps that direct to the center
Crafting a pause along the way.
They share a note and a word,
The lightened burden brings a sway.
The way of life, the bond with nature,
All anonymous, without any stature.
You craftsman made a mark
Deep in the earth dark.
Nowhere now I see the shadows,
All merged, flat and dreary,
I bid adieu to that kund,
Talaab, sagar, pushkarani,
Kulum, sarovar, jheel and eri.
Lost is the play of light,
Nowhere seen the stone’s might,
The silent waters without a ripple,
Where can I ponder the life simple?
Roofs
From under the eaves, I sit and gaze,
The joyful rhythm of the rain,
Sometimes a deluge, sometimes a haze.
A gusty wind brings in the spray,
Cools my face and wets the clay.
From under the eaves, I sit and gaze.
Red and brown, the earth rests high,
Like little steps, seeking the sky,
Wide verandahs, smell of the soil,
A gentle reminder of the toil.
Caught between the banal slabs,
Crowned by antennas and the tanks,
No gentle spray to cool my face,
Where is the eave, where do I gaze?
Ghats
Flowing along the river,
An epic, a haiku, a sonnet, a couplet,
A procession, a pause, a walk, a shift,
Lofty high or modest low,
The water always on the go.
Gathering the multitude,
Comforting the solitude,
The search for redemption,
An end with a procession.
I hear the chatter on the banks,
The myriad colours, the little lamps,
Sometimes alone, sometimes many,
Shimmering gently in memory.
Replaced by a surface bland,
A barren place as a no-man’s land
Where is the poetry,
That culminates the journey?
River
Architecture was the reverence for water
A celebration, an offering, a meaning larger,
A place, to converge, converse, ponder and pause,
But architecture is now a forgotten cause.
The tube well, the wall retaining,
Without scale, articulation or gathering,
An endless jumble of pipelines,
No light and shadow in such confines.
Where is the celebration or occasion?
In engineering water, architecture is lost.
Where are they now? Are we content to let our water architecture live on in shrouds of banality, chaos and
neglect? Will the path to reduce and minimize public space continue in its present trajectory till they are
wiped out of people’s memories and consciousness? Will infrastructure projects only create a wasteland to
keep the cities clean?
This artwork was created for an exhibition titled 'Death of Architecture: Circa 2000' that traveled across India covering more than 20 cities.
