The Moms Pitch In
I walked up to the terrace this morning, looking for a bit of sun to warm up in. Every available sunbeam was already occupied by a group of Latika Moms, hard at work with scissors, tape and transparent plastic sheets. It was the Book-Covering Committee and with our library scheduled to open in March and […]
How Buildings Learn
I never knew that buildings are alive, that they learn and adapt; that, like children, they teach us what they need. Stewart Brand’s iconic book “How Buildings Learn” explains that we just need to listen. Most architects would rather we didn’t. And the more famous they are, the more insistent that we should listen not […]
Welcoming the Light
Our new building is a jewel box of light and shadow. Especially shadow. There are dramatic shadows like those on our indoor stage; more subtle ones along the ramp or cast across a colorful balcony fence and onto a long classroom floor . . . they are as powerful and evocative as poetry or dance […]
Moy’s Birthday: A Special Day for Pumpkin Pie
Yesterday was Moy Moy’s birthday — she would have been 36 if she were still with us. Ravi and I celebrated this year by going to the cemetery with a bucket, soap and scrubbing brushes to clean her beautiful gravestone — it was actually fun to scour the white marble and watch it begin to […]
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 […]
Finding Inspiration at the Museum of Solutions
Rashmi and I visited the Museum of Solutions in Mumbai last week — a magical children’s museum I wish every child in India could go to at least once. Tanvi Jindal‘s brainwave, the museum invites kids to think about, play with, invent and design solutions to some of the world’s most challenging problems. Rashmi and […]
Designing our new Library
We’re in the process of designing our library for the new building . . . I’m 100% confident our kids already love books (they may just not know it) but taking care of them, putting them back where they belong, treating them like polished jewels when they borrow and take them hom is another level […]
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 […]
Ashish Rangari, Project Manager Extraordinaire
This Guy. We first met Ashish Rangari, Senior Project Manager at our building site the day we broke ground in March, 2023. Though employed and assigned to our site by Cushman & Wakefield, he became an integral part of our team and oh! how we loved working with him. Today, so sadly for us, was […]
Art for Latika
During Covid, I had gone to the US to be with my daughter for her first delivery and the day I arrived, all the airports shut down. I stayed for 15 months – until the second vaccine – and among the many things that happened during that time was that I felt extremely rich. As […]