Birds and City Streets: A Discordant Harmony

It is the pigeons, mynahs, and cranes, Troubling the people again and again! Droppings, nests at eaves and windowsills, A harmony discordant with noisy spills! Crows! I call them thieves, Mischief abounds with shit on my sleeves! Gelephu has the birds for daily nuisance, The dead ones...

Read More

A-z peep into architecture

A for atrium, arch, arcade B for balance, brackets, balustrade C for concepts, clerestory, ceilings D for dome, doors, designs and drawings! E for energy efficiency, eco-friendly, elevations F for form, function, finishes, fenestrations G for gazebo, gable, glass, geodesic, H for hipped, harmony, holistic! I for interiors, iconic, illusions, insulation J for jambs, joinery, joist, juxtaposition K...

Read More

The Pillar

Pillar of strength, Support for any width and length Solid backing, inspiration and clarity For my rise with all sanity! Pillar of direction Guiding the way for any mission With no confusion To chase most dreams and vision! Pillar of decoration Through life’s struggles to admiration; Holding on, and on and on In my heart though the support is gone! Well, what a foundation of years ago With...

Read More

Sarpang Town: Transformation to a future city

With old and dilapidated shacks but busy and robust, Sarpang, you were on a journey nervous to adjust Rags to riches withstanding disasters and pride; The Nation witnessed the scenes in your strides! With furious floods and ravaging fires You could rise in so-called new attires; You dotted the...

Read More

Happy New Year 2024

May Twenty twenty-four, the New Year ahead Grant the Mother Earth all her wishes And may there be no misses With her love and kisses! May peace, prosperity and wellness spread Across oceans and continents alike; Twelve months mean a lot of time’s hike For another new year to pleasantly strike! Twenty...

Read More

Book Review: The Fountainhead

Ayn Rand in her book, The Fountainhead Has extreme characters created; Controversy too remains to these days In depiction of architecture in many ways! No doubt, the book is a novel, a fiction With much friction and contradiction; Writing is an art; for the crowd, better it is When characters...

Read More

Recession Rains

“If you have no bread, eat cake,” Get baked or frozen when life’s at stake; Recession is apparently here by any definition Combined with inflation, speculation and inhibition! With construction sector being a component Of ‘loan-freeze’ from banks at the moment, Are we okay with our priorities?...

Read More

Quackery in Architecture

Pretends to have skills and qualification, Belongs to other profession With no license to practice, no registration Is simply a quack by definition! In architecture, quacks are a few site engineers, Supervisors, surveyors, other profiteers And those who look only for extra bucks Just like a gory leech that sucks! Do quacks have love for the profession? No, not at all! But claims of professional...

Read More

Visions Rendered

Searched for a layman but couldn’t find one; And so, my presentations were mostly in 2-Ds done! A layman knows no drawing, I was long ago told But lo! All have the belonging to the profession’s fold! Sketch plans and a few words are my deeds To explain all of the visual and spatial needs; I take the client on virtual tour From outdoors to the inside as spaces fill and pour; A few times, my...

Read More

My path to architecture and more...

Amidst childhood's wonders I wandered free Unaware of architecture's majesty! Owner-built houses were rustic and serene, With mud and timber, dreams were little seen! Simple dwellings where hopes would reside, Floors of cow-dung were my mother’s pride! In schools of huts on hills so green, Bamboo and mud were a haven serene! A thirst for knowledge like a magic stream, In nature's embrace...

Read More

Memories untold

In childhood’s realm I roamed carefree and wild, With sticks and mud, I built dreams undefiled; Amidst fallen leaves my imagination soared While I knew not that my future path was stored! By stream’s gentle flow, toy houses took shape Crafted with wonder with no plan, no escape; Nature’s apprenticeship, I learned from each bend Unaware of the architect I would grow to befriend! From humble...

Read More

Architecture and poetry: what is so common?

Both architecture and poetry are forms of art Both are precious providing balm to my heart Both measure my time and life with precision Both are creative forms of expression! Both expose the human in us Both exalt life’s purpose thus! Rhyme or rhythm, metaphor or meter Path-crossing and no less than gold’s glitter Inspiring each other, both reach my eye fast Solid and void or sound and silence...

Read More

Embracing the dawn of a new city!

I’m waiting for a grand headline news About a city poised to get its dues Of crowds overflowing, rustling and hustling And businesses prospering and forever bustling; Tracked, winged, channeled, greened and AI-fed With records to be overtaken and reset; A smart sustainable city to be proud of For...

Read More

Sketching to begin...

I often sketch to begin a project, A scribble of thoughts to later refine or reject; At times, creating a mess to fit on a sheet of paper Providing clarity of the proposal altogether! A motion is set as the mind scans Through the process to evolve the plans With images normally farfetched For a skeleton of the proposal sketched! Forwarding a quick solution is the craft For clients wishing...

Read More

Baakal (tree-bark) House

How to deal with exterior artwork and architecture when no two pieces are same in texture, colour, thickness and strength? Options: orient in two or more directions and/or adjust the lengths! It provides the warmth and coolest comfort inside, while, with the Nature, it blends to abide, among others, with the tide of simplicity and honesty in a spotlight that it deserves to be! Long ago, I...

Read More

City in Wilderness

Godly creatures with gory deeds and their trampled rights Banana bushes at the road sides to rampage a few nights! Marauding the city roads amidst the chase being cracked While danger looms large with fear of life being hacked! The bulky beasts were at their best in the wooded tract At Hatisar...

Read More

Materials, Materialism and Spirituality

Materials and spirituality are contrast to date, But, in architecture, the two are together as mates; We say, to be spiritual one has to be less materialistic But in spiritual places, this is far from realistic! Places of worship have so much of material wealth; It’s stacked in built forms too, perhaps, for history’s health; Ages old carvings and paintings on best of best materials Stand...

Read More

It is almost magical...

It’s almost magical if it appeals to the heart With glamour becoming a part of the living art; Expressive spaces with modest colors and play of light Impressively enhancing the living for day and night! I wish for rainbows in interiors; broad and soft As I clamor for glamour to rise nonstop, I wish for the spacious, lighted and sleek And for surfaces and facades to prevail and speak! Elegance...

Read More

Renovation, restoration, reconstruction and remodeling...

There is a revised drawing on my table Of an ancestral house unstable; Nicely done, with colorful legend to indicate The changes for its most modern fate- “To be dismantled’, ‘to remain same” And “new walls” to play the latest game! And at site, I pulled aside a near-rotten frame But something else fell apart and down it came; Opps! The older walls were crumbling down To be redone and to be...

Read More

It is past midnight...

It is past midnight so soon; From between the hills rises the moon; I didn't keep awake to watch it though, I am enjoying its lustrous glow! The halfmoon looks like my teaspoon, It stirs my mind out of a cocoon, While its luminous glow seems to propose My stay deeper into the night, I suppose! With the clouds, the moon turns maroon, The color of demand these days in the saloon; And there, the...

Read More