Violence today

Recently Sanjeev Bothra, an alumni of NID, had come to teach a typography course here, and we had many interesting and enriching conversations with him. Over lunch one day he mentioned how there is so much violence in most cultures today, across the world. Violence may not necessarily manifest as physical violence, but violence in the way we think. Even the thought of harming someone, or hating someone or something, is the beginning of violence. And so many times a day we perform violent acts on others, even in our minds. The only way to create a more non-violent world is to accept and acknowledge the violence in our minds, and try to come to terms with that. What we are doing to the environment and natural resources is a form of suicidal violence.

Living life at ultra high speed is also a form of violence. The art and beauty of slowness, doing things at a normal pace, is a lost art. Today’s rush-rush-rush world takes a toll on all of us, more than we realise. Doing everything at high speed, from taking a bath to eating meals, to conversations with others, its all losing its meaning, because the moment passes before it even arrives. People don’t relish their food slowly at a meal anymore, they don’t read books peacefully anymore. We are always rushing to get to the the top of the ladder when we have just about put a foot on the lowest rung. This high-speed lifestyle is another form of violence, we bring upon ourselves and people around us. We need to dedicate more time to ’slowness’, the most underestimated of forces, along with silence and humour.

Sometimes if one thinks of Gandhi, what he did with our country was nothing less than a miracle. To unite so many incredibly diverse people, with different language, (the 1991 census recognizes 1,576 classified ‘mother tongues’) culture, food, dress, customs, to fight non-violently, for freedom, is no easy task. Maybe its time to relook at the Gandhian principles and basic way of living. This would help us live better with each other, and would reduce the environmental impact we are having, as he believed in ’simple living, high thinking’. We don’t really need half the things we have, but are we ready to give them up?

The Gardener

One of the gardeners at NID sports an amazingly immaculate moustache. He appears to be a Rajasthani, and they are known for their proud moustaches. His is really perfect, symmetrical, and never a hair out of place. It almost looks like its molded in wax.

Lizzie’s umbrella

I often encounter lizards in NID, they are a part of the landscape, sitting quietly on walls and ceilings, blending with the cement. They have little fingers that makes them seem quite human. To test one’s reaction I sprinkled a few drops of water on it, and a little pink tongue flicked out and wiped its eye, as quick as lightening. It did this several times in quick succession, and it was quite amazing to watch. Watching lizards stalking their prey is also quite a sight. We can learn patience from them. They sit still as ever, watching a spider for what seems like hours, and then at the last minute they dash forward and before you can blink the spider is in their mouth.

Rahul Gandhi @ NID

Yesterday Rahul Gandhi visited our institute causing quite a flutter. He even ate lunch with the students in the mess and and had an informal interaction with students in the amphitheatre. NID was established on the recommendation of his great grand father, Nehru, who invited the American designers, Charles and Ray Eames to India to set up the institute. Needless to say, there was tight security. The pictures below are taken by Deepak John Matthew, a faculty member at NID.

Looking at ourselves

The 29th convocation just took place here at NID yesterday, and there are many interesting displays on in the campus. The one I like the best is a display of the old convocation photographs of previous years, right from 1978. These are black and white images, and show the students and faculty all looking happy in a serious kind of way, all resplendent in their crisp saris and kurtas. Almost everyone stopped to look closely at this display, and was fasinated by it. What is it about looking at old photographs that so fasinates us? Maybe we see ourselves in them, in those smiling and serious faces, full of hope, looking at the future. It’s almost as if they are looking at us, giving some unseen message. These pictures should be kept somewhere as a permanent display. There’s something inspiring about seeing previous generations at the institute, a legacy of sorts.

Dashrath Patel

Today a very inspiring person came to NID and spoke to us. It was none other than Dashrath Patel, the amazing painter, designer, sculptor, thinker, and above all, just an amazing human being. Truly humble, genuine, and from the heart. We first saw a movie about him, about an exhibition of his works at NGMA, Delhi sometime in 1998. The body of work he has produced in his lifetime is amazing. The objects and works of art were so simple and functional. But more than the movie, it was seeing him in person and hearing him speak. He shared some experiences of his life.

There is no design today. Today design is stylization. It is no longer in the context, and does not deal with the needs of the people. In the sixties, design was born out of the needs of the people.
When he was young, they doing a project for India Post, the post offices, they had a problem, that when they went to villages, the people were not ready to speak to them. He spoke about how to become a part of the village. When they went to the villages, all the doors were closed. He and his friends sat down and started eating. An old woman came out of the house, and he asked her for water. She said no, because she was of the harijan (low) caste, and no one would drink water from them. He asked “Do you drink water?” and she replies yes she did. Then he said, if you can drink, then so can I. She still said no. Then he asked her, do you digest the water? She said yes. Then he said, so can I, so give me some water. So she got him a pot of water. It was in Kutch and the water tasted terrible, bitter, and they had to walk twenty miles to get their water. But while drinking it, he was sensitive enough not show his disgust, as that would have hurt her. They asked them if they could read and write, and he said yes, so they got their letters to him to read out to them. He realized that the old woman was a talented poet, who could write beautifully. And so the village slowly opened its doors to them.

When I was young I waited for hours on the streets of Mumbai to see a car besides a fiat or ambassasdor. Today I see only foreign cars; we have become a dumping ground for outdated western culture. The developed world is dumping its defunct designs on us, and we think we are becoming developed.

In America once upon a time it was a thing of pride, that every person had a car. If that happens in India there will be no place to park, let alone drive. It is so true that we are becoming a consumerist society. We have to look at peoples’ needs. Earlier design was done for peoples’ needs, now it seems to be done for people’s greed and money. Earlier, for example, you bought a watch for thousand rupees, and it told you the time. Today the watch is for twenty thousand rupees, and it still just tells you the time. This is so true. India is unfortunately blindly copying all the things of the West, and we equate globalization with progress. This is going to be a horrible mistake.

The developed world has reached a bottleneck, and there is no further to go. But in India today there is still a small chance that we can change that.

The bullock cart at NID is over two hundred years old and was brought to NID by Dashrath. It is unique in that the wheels don’t have an axle. They move inwards and outwards depending on the roughness of the road. Sometimes the job of a designer is not to design, not to try and be creative, or be ‘different’. Sometimes, some things are perfectly designed for their purpose like the bullock cart, and our job is to just uphold that example of design.

Knowledge is not to manage but to use and inspire. So why call the library ‘knowledge management centre’.

In his young days he went to study in Prague and also lived in France. He never learnt the French language, and used to communicate when he had to by scribbling, and making small visuals.

The beauty of our country is the small things that people do, the way the fruit seller arranges his fruit,

It was amazing to see the man who was one of the founders of NID. The body of knowledge he has, the experience, and the humility endear him to one and all. Looking forward to more interaction with him on Monday.