Arriving in the Indira Gandhi airport to this beautiful display of mudras. Airports use symbols of place to welcome you to their city and their culture.

Amazing All the Way Around

Design Habit & Space Matters

We visited two design studios with amazing hospitality. The designers/architects were fascinating to listen to, in terms of their knowledge and thoughts about the work they do and how it represents their country. Design Habit, with pictures above, is an exhibition design studio started by Amardeep Behl in around the 1980s. Amardeep and his team work on a variety of projects but many that are historical in nature and representing different aspects of culture and religion in India. One such project is the Virasat e Khalsa museum, which we plan to visit in the next could of days, north of Chandigarh. The museum is a contemporary space that represents the history of the Sikh religion. Amardeep talked about how they worked with local craftsman to create the exhibition and added a more high-tech touch with sound, lights, multimedia. The thing that stands out to me most is how he talked about letting his projects unfold as he learns about what he is communicating, spending time in the space and considering the different forms of storytelling, along the way. Going with the flow.

Spacematters

The second studio, Spacematters, is an architectural firm of three architects, along with engineers and other members of the team that work on a variety of project. With some commercial work, this studio works on many pro bono, public projects with the very first one being a competition that was about creating a memorial for the Bhopal chemical spill disaster in India. The young, 24 year-old-architects, including Amritha Ballal, Moulshri Joshi and Suditya Sinha, were thrown into the fire, so-to-speak, with this heavy project, working with the corporation and government, who were still in denial about the spill and the leftover issues with the area. The three architects won the competition and continue to work on the project to this day, some 20 years later.

The aquaduct, called something else here, adjacent to the Qutub Minar compound.
The water can raise up to the top and has several levels of this same design.

Site-Seeing on the First Day

Who Knew We Would Become Famous at the Qutub Minar

The Qutub Minar was fairly close to the first couple of interviews so we went to tour that area before. These ruins are from a Muslim ruler, Qutab-ud-din Aibak, who built the complex after defeating a hindu king around 1199 and 1220. There are minarets central to the complex, one that was kept well and another one that is in more ruin. The details in the columns and structures around the area are beautifully intricate. While there we had our photo taken by a guard that knew all the best places to photo. Of course he was doing this for a tip but we failed him. We were also approached by people visiting the area from India, first two were beginning college students who were excited to share what we should know and eat around Delhi. Above is a picture of the two young women. After that were asked by another young woman to get her photo taken with us and at some point there was a line of men waiting to get photos with us…we had to practically run away from the scene screaming…I think we might have been there all day, if we hadn’t stopped the madness. Crazy, just crazy! Below, see more images of the tour.

A Crazy Sales Pitch

We had a little bit of time between Qutub Minar and the interviews, so our driver took us to the Rajasthan merchants…I think maybe knowing that we would get the pitch. We walked in and were drawn into the Kashmir hand-knotted rugs area and were shown how the rugs are made and how the designs of these rugs are shared from one generation to another with each family having maybe just one design, sometimes two. He showed us the tools, what the patterns look like and what the process is for making. The rugs are quite beautiful, as you see in the pics and Cindy almost bought one! We went to an area that had kurta sets and Cindy bought a pretty printed set. We then went to the scarf seller and ended I did end up buying a colorful scarf. After to another kurta seller and I bought a set…Yikes, get us out of here! It was quite overwhelming and we were quite jet-lagged, so maybe a bit taken advantage of. It was an experience, none-the-less and we were smarter the next time around.