Shree: Enclave?

 

Shree: Enclave?

these thoughts are inspired from the topic of 'enclave' as discussed with my colleage Shivram today. the reference came about from a lecture given by KT Ravindran in SPA in 1990s. the topic mentioned a typical experience of a kid growing up in Delhi from an air conditioned enclosed home to AC bus to AC school to AC mall and what happens when he/she is required to confront the world of work/ career at the age of 23 or so. has this growing up attitude imbibed any useful preparation for him/her? many thoughts come out of this statement -

all experiences that take place in an AC induced 'space' become extremely sterile and limiting - from the people who share the same space to the activities that take place therein to the social diversity dimension (or uniformity dimension) inherent in that space and so on. in the craze of super surveillance, control and protection, the exposure to diversity of all sorts is blunted and thereby making the memory of space "blunted" or sterile or plain superfluous. this brings the question again what is space? is it physical (or is there anything just physical out there) or is it imposed with constructed social, cultural and psychological or even spiritual meanings? And if these meaning are important to make us feel "anchored" or having a sense of place on earth, then how are these meaning constructed and where and when and why? so what subsequently creates an anchored feeling or a sense of belonging?

the meaning of space keeps changing with layering of past and future (relative) and in this changing meaning we also sense something more fundamentally constant - which we conclude as the real essence of existence and which connects all of us together. so becomes the foundation of architecture to the people it is required to serve.

diversity and tolerance are essential ingredients of pain and empathy and compassion. this is what makes creation of space profound.

in making the students live only in AC space, how much of this value system gets developed in the students?

and the worst part is the influx of AI has even disconnected role of understanding mind and body and how they help us make sense of our own environment? thinking is so superfluous, fractured and too plainly logical that wholesome and empathetic thinking looks like asking for too much from today's times!

what is shared if everyone gets fragmented? do we even have a common point to discuss anything? does that mean a lot of noise or a disturbing and an uncomfortable silence?

Hari Om.