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 […]
Why Contract Labour Doesn’t Work
Twenty years ago, my children and I had passes to a swimming pool at a well-known boarding school in Dehradun. During the long summer, we made friends with the security guards. At the end of the season, I said goodbye to our favorite, saying we’d meet again the following year. “Not likely,” he said ruefully. […]
We Began. Look What Happened.
Whatever you can do, or dream you can – Begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now. At Latika we thought and dreamed a long time. Boldness took courage. Today, as our dream for a truly accessible campus where EVERYONE is welcome comes true, we see the genius, power and […]
Accessibility Doesn’t Stop at the Bathroom Door
“How accessible are Tier 1 cities like Pune?” asks Sudhir Shenoy, who writes on leadership, inclusion and philanthropy in a LinkedIn post recently. The answer, unfortunately, was: not very. As Sudhir and the RunInSync team planned accommodation for wheelchair athletes attending their event, they ran into a problem that disabled people in India know all […]
Behind the Blueprint
So proud that Latika is part of the Cushman & Wakefield family. We work with many donors, but none have stolen our heart the way C&W has. Starting with Anshul Jain, whose vision and conviction set the construction of India’s first truly accessible building in motion, it has been a complete joy to be connected […]
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 […]