Reflect

2018 has been a roller-coaster like every other year. By end of the year, on a personal level, there are 10 things I would reflect on and keep with for the next years:

1.     Be politically correct

2.     Make up your mind for worse

3.     Keep zero expectation

4.     Do not share everything with everyone

5.     Never discount yourself

6.     Get used to things you know won’t change for another decade

7.     Attach but detach faster

8.     Learn to say YES, learn to say NO

9.     Experience is King

10.  Keep upgrading yourself

A Soul Clenched

Initially I had titled my research paper as: Challenges and learning opportunities for Himroo of Aurangabad. As I was refining the paper further, the title felt more like an essay and less like a title. So I changed it to Himroo: A Soul Clenched

Why such a title? It is inspired from one of Pablo Neruda’s poem called Clenched Soul. Because I believe when circumstances give you a clenched feeling, or when you clench your teeth, it is time to fight back for yourself and make a significant change against the unpleasant circumstances you have been facing. Currently this is what Himroo of Aurangabad is facing – some unpleasant circumstances.

Himroo became a part of my life since 2007 when I was studying post graduate program in NID. For past 11 years it was an on and off relationship with Himroo which began as a craft documentation project, then a photo shoot project, a craft publication project and so on. In November 2018, with a clenched soul I decided to end this relationship by presenting a design research paper at INSIGHT 2018 – A Design Research Symposium at NID, Ahmedabad.

Indeed a clenched soul of Himroo and a clenched soul of myself form two different metaphors here. But life is that way – sometimes quite hopeful and not always determined. I go with what Rumi says, “Be like a tree and let the dead leaves drop.”

The research paper will be part of a publication by NID soon.

Sharing few images and slides of my presentation here.

I began and concluded the presentation with images of women Himroo weavers as they are the only hope for the craft to survive and sustain further. 

Simran

Since DDLJ I thought that Simran is a very filmy name, until the day I discovered that I will be having two neighbours named Simran for the next decade or so. Women of the two homes next to mine are named Simran. At my home, whenever anyone mentions Simran, the next question is which Simran? So we had sort this out. Shall we mention them as Simran 301 and Simran 302. Gaah! No! Strangely that sounded like bed numbers to me! Parjeet chi mummy and Ishaan chi mummy is blah, too past century! So we decided to mentioning them with their husbands names, like Gurpreet chi Simran and Sadiq chi Simran. That sounds love, doesn’t it?

chi (marathi) = ki (hindi)