3 Punjabis & 1 American Fight About Furniture
In a good way. Every part of this building adventure has been exciting and full of discoveries. But buying new furniture has a shiny sparkle that bricks and stairways can’t compete with. On the other hand, everyone feels qualified to have an opinion. I mean, we all sit in chairs; we all have our own […]
Fire Hoses and Paved Roads
This is what the building looked like the last time Madhu, our architect, came for a visit. A muddy ground, a busy work crew and a buzz of progress in the air. Madhu’s inspections are minute – he looks at the quality of the work, the faithfulness to design and whether there is strict adherence […]
What Spaces Can Do
I took another Latika team down to the building site a few months ago to show them how things were progressing. Look how they responded to the first classroom they walked into. This photograph never fails to make me smile. I had just said: “Look at this – it’s going to be a classroom,” and […]
Ramping Up On Safety
Safety is one of the most important values at Latika: ensuring the protection of our children and staff at all times is key to everything we do. Our ramp is a work of art, an example of iconic design and a practical means both of access and escape in the event of an emergency. The […]
Art for Latika | Take Two
During Covid, I happened to be stranded in the US. I had gone to be with my daughter for her first baby’s delivery and the day I arrived, all the airports shut down. I stayed for 15 months – until I’d gotten the second vaccine – and among the many things that happened during that […]
The ABCs of Art, Beauty, Construction
When we selected Pradeep Sachdeva Design Associates as the architects for our new campus, we knew our building would be beautiful. Exposed brickwork done with exquisite craftsmanship is PSDA’s signature trademark and we were not disappointed – they even designed a selfie point for us as a surprise! What we didn’t expect was how the […]
Why India’s National Building Code Matters
In Serbia, protests over a railway building collapse in November, 2024 which killed 15 people and severely injured two now threaten the stability of the nation. Students and other citizens have been demonstrating in ever-growing numbers since the accident over two and half months ago, claiming that the direct causes were shoddy construction, inadequate oversight […]
Sensory Style!
Moy Moy was a beautiful young woman: she had black eyes, like the deepest pools, and the most wonderful hair: thick, dark, glossy and straight. But cutting it was always difficult – both for her and for us. Moy hated anything happening around her face. She would bob her head frantically from one side to […]
And now for the ladies . . .
After last week’s site visit with a pack of excited, energetic little boys (which left us exhausted and questioning our own common sense), we visited again, but this time with a group of grownup young women. Most of these girls have been students at Latika for years: they know what’s what. They have visited schools, […]
Photo Shoots | Summit | 70% Completed
It’s been a very busy week, beginning with two photo shoots: one involving, in addition to videos and stills, a drone camera brought in to capture the sweeping scope of our iconic ramp; the second focusing on 6 students making their first visit to the site since ground-breaking over a year ago. The drone shoot, […]