BRICK SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
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SMEF'S BRICK GROUP OF INSTITUTES, PUNE
BRICK NEWSPAPER www.brick.edu.in | PUNE | AUGUST 2018 | 2ND EDITION | PAGES 08 | ISSU.COM/BRICKSCHOOL | Rs. 20 ONLY
TRIBUTE TO THE PRITZKER PRIZE WINNERAR. B. V. DOSHI IN THE VERTICAL STUDIO MASHUP TRAINING UNDER THE MASTERS
CONTND. TO PG. 5
ABCD STUDIO 'AN ARCHITECTURE D-TOX' Written by Prajakta Chakravarty
AHMEDABAD: Have you ever read a book, which has intimidated you for many years, but finally when you pick it up....its unputdownable? Have you ever seen a movie....which keeps you rooted to the seat from the word 'go'..... And then when it is over (the movie or the book)....You are a changed person.We experienced the same emotions in the ABCD (Architectecture with B.V. Doshi, Chhaya sir and Durganand) studio in Ahmedabad. It was an Architectural cleansing and D-tox. For all of us. From the evening of 14th January 2018, when we met Doshi Sir at his residence, till the night of 20th January 2018, we were in an Architectural limbo, mentally and physically. Each day there was an evolution and new revelations, about self, hence the way we perceive Architecture and space.
These experiences were planned in a series, that were various steps of evolution and there were intensive discussions on the same, making our brains exercise themselves, unlearn what we have been used to seeing and perceiving and learning to put on different cloaks of sensitivity to understand the spaces. We have been fortunate to experience and discuss most of these with Doshi sir himself. I myself realised the difference, when i visited the Mill Owner's Association 20 years back, in my 2nd year and explained by one of my faculty. This time We went with Doshi sir, who sensitized us about the massing, the way we looked at a structure, the quality of light and the narratives that go behind designing of each and every detail. There was a story to each of these experiences.
where everyday a new allied session was organised, about music, dance, workshops, travelling, Shayari, etc. These things are so important to sensitise us as humans. We were becoming lighter each day the barrier of faculty, students big small experienced and amateur were left behind. It was as if suddenly the shackles were broken and now you can fly high. It was an experience difficult to put down in words or present on a power point but it is a culture, a mindset, a religion of which a small morsel we carried back from Ahmedabad and now all of us need to ingrain that within our everyday life within and outside the Brick. In B.V. Doshi sir's words. A School is a FOREST.
From day 1 evening, we were asked to go and experience a space (Manik chowk in Ahmedabad), it was Uttarayan and the space was jam packed with eating stalls, people, vehicles, etc. The same space was to be experienced the next day morning at 6.30.....the place was 'vast', peaceful and exact contrast of the evening. We experienced the 'pols' and we could see
The intensive brain storming sessions that happened at Sangath and the small assignments which we all did together was a fun learning. Along with this the most effective were the evenings, where everyday a new allied session.
These five words say a lot of things, it has very deep set meaning and if we can understand that, we should be able to cultivate this religion and carry it forward.
Illustrations by: Karan Rane
the surrounding structures. After coming back there was intensive discussion on the same, where people came up with amazing interpretations like it was a stage where performances and performers change. and hence the experience. From then on every day we experienced a new structure, starting from Sangath (B. V. Doshi Sir's office), Sarkhej Roza, Dada Harir ni wow, Mill Owner's Association, Institute of Indology and Kamala House (B.V. Doshi sir's house).
"Brick should become a place of challenges, where each brick is flying" - Neelkanth Chhaya
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BRICK NEWSPAPER
BRICK SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
ENTHUVA: A HIGH-OCTANE ENERGY FEST PUNE: ENTHUVA is a seven days festival celebrated by students and faculty at Brick School of Architecture in the month of January every year. This includes the exhibition of academic and co-curricular works of students of B.Arch. and RDID, workshops conducted by various experts, sports, cultural events and display and sale of handicrafts and cuisine prepared by the students. The festival started on Sunday, January 7th, 2018, with inauguration of the exhibition by renowned architects, Ar. Narendra Dengle and Ar. Ramesh Edwankar. The ceremony was graced by the presence of Ar. Pratap Jadhav, Ar. Vishwas Lele, Ar. Hemant Khire, Ar. Jyoti Panse and Ar. Sanjeev Joshi. The campus was adorned with a number of art installations done by the students. The studios were very imaginatively converted into display gallerias for exhibitions. There were two interactive sessions with the guests and faculty. Ar. Narendra Dengle had given a positive feedback about the students' work. He also addressed everyone with his vast experience in the field of architectural pedagogy. Jan 8th -10th 2018 was the period for the workshops.
CLAY EXPRESSIONS - This workshop was designed and organized by Ar. Ninada Kashyap. She designed it to demonstrate and learn the techniques to work with clay to express the emotions. These techniques included use of potter's wheel, sheet method etc. On the first day Students had prepared animal characters in clay. Day 2 was planned for thinking of the expressions and express these in the form of masks. On day 3 they worked on potters' wheel and prepared pottery. BAMBOO WORKS- This 3 days workshop aimed at developing the understanding of using Bamboo as a building material and its possibilities with respect to form, structure and construction. This workshop provided a theoretical and practical understanding of working with bamboo and applying proper construction methodologies. The workshop was designed and conducted by Ar. Vaibhavi Agarwal and Ar. Shital Chaudhari. They are founders of RAY design studio. Their work focuses on geometry, structure and material explorations, visual arts and teaching methods all through the lens of Architecture. URBANSCAPE - Urbanscape workshop was about learning the water colour
techniques to express the streetscapes and landscape on paper. They started with imagining a landscape and then painting it with simple techniques. Second day they started painting based on some photographs and third day they went to Pune University and painted real scenes in the campus. This workshop was designed and conducted by Mr. Vilas Kulkarni. He is an artist and author of book titled '10 Landscapes step by step'. His art works are demonstrated in the solo and group shows in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Singapore, Dubai and France. UPCYCLING - Upcycling workshop by Ar. Dhara Kabriya was focused on preparing artwork, sculpture and street furniture from municipal waste.The waste was collected from municipal scrap yards. This included meter boxes, cables, metal pieces, broken sheds of bus stop and similar waste. Students had well thought of the creative use of these waste materials and converted them in the form of durable street furniture. LEEWARDISTS - This workshop was conducted by Ar. Anuj Kale. It was about creating interest in architectural presentations through a story board of cartoon series. Humor can be inserted in the expression of spaces and people, through this medium. If drawing is the language of design, Leewardist conveys dialogue between the people and spaces and that too in a lively and humorous way. Students understood the ways of presenting a story about the space with inclusion of people and dialogues in it. At the end of the workshop they came up with story boards of fifteen types. Similarly, we had a workshop on enriching the self through thinking, role-playing and introspection called 'DESIGN YOUR MIND' conducted by life coach Mr. Shankar Mrihda. We also had the popular SALSA workshop by the well known choreographer Mr. Rocky Poonawala and his associates as well as an intersting workshop on visualizing and representing information called 'ART OF INFORMATION DESIGN' conducted by Ar. Ashwin Chikerur.
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TRAVELLING WITH A
BRICK STUDENTS
HOW WAS YOUR
PURPOSE !
PARTICIPATE IN
INTERNSHIP?
VENICE BIENNALE
FINAL YEAR STUDENTS SHARE
PUNE: Research grant of year 2016-17 has been won by group of three students, Ojas Nibandhe, Tanvi Shah and Shruti Mittal for 'Study of Adoptive Reuse of Havellies of Rajasthan'. Travel Grant of this year has been won by group of three students, Archit Awasthi, Maithreyi Nair and Swarupa Pawar for 'Exploring world of Monks'. Every year the Satish Misal Educational foundation releases two grants, for each of these programs. The proposals for these grants are invited in the month of June and in the guidance of Brick faculty, a number of students from B.Arch. And RDID apply for these grants. These proposals go through a jury at School and the winners are announced on the Founder's day. The winners get ten months' time to complete their work. Research grant program is designed specifically for advanced study in any area of architecture, which effectively contributes to the knowledge, teaching or practice of the art and science of architecture. Students explore architectural knowledge beyond the boundaries of syllabus. Travel Grant program is designed specifically to assist students from Brick Group of Institutes to travel across the country experiencing and documenting architecture, people and places. The grant intends the recipient to study by travel and contemplation while observing, reading, writing, or sketching. In the year 2014-15, Suraj Bhandari had won the grant for 'cost effective construction techniques in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra' and group of three students, i.e.,Vipin Gurunai, Yashada Potnis and Sanjan Jadon had won travel grant for Comparative study of regional wadas. In year 2015-16 the travel grant was given to group of three students, Simran Mehta, Gautam Ramesh and Qutubuddin Unwala for 'Travelling in Pondicherry to study the mixed fabric of cultures'. The research grant of this year was won by Anurag Agarwal for '3d printing in Architecture'. DO YOU WANT A CHEAP EUROPEAN HOLIDAY THIS SUMMER WITH YOUR FAMILY? CALL HERE: XX-XXX-XXXXXXXX
INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCES
PUNE: The first batch of SMEF's Brick School of Architecture went out for internship in 2017. Brick School of Architecture has established an internship facilitation cell, to help the students in applying for their internships. Most of the students successfully completed their internships by the end of October 2017, while some continued till end of November 2017.
VENICE: A group of 40 students from Brick School of Architecture had participated in a workshop at Venice Biennale which is one of the most prestigious and historic cultural institutions in the world with history of more than 120 years . This was the 57th International Art Exhibition, titled Viva Arte Viva. The Exhibition included 86 National Participations in the historic Pavilions at the Giardini, at the Arsenale and in the city centre of Venice. The students participated in a one day workshop organized by Luca Foundation, where they were supposed to design a pavilion for India, in group of three to four students. In spite of extreme cold climatic conditions, they worked enthusiastically and creatively and had come up with wonderful concepts. These concepts included the expression of physical and cultural divesity of India in terms of built form. The students' work was appreciated during review and discussion. Students had received a certificate at the end of the workshop. This was part of BRICK's annual 'Exposure Tour' which is goes to different culturally rich places all around the world. Last year, it was in Italy.
We decided to create an opportunity for these students to share their very first experiences with the 'World Outside'. An informal presentation and interaction session was arranged in the Orange studio of our school on Wednesday, 22nd November 2017 .
THE FINAL CALL TO ISTANBUL!
Our faculty members Ar. Ketaki Gujar and Ar. Aditi Agarwal were invited to present their paper titled 'Permanence in Architecture: Context and Time' at ARCHTHEO '17 conference in Istanbul. Their paper looked the aspect of longevity of built forms with respect to 'context' and 'time' and their inter relationships. They substantiated their arguments through historical as well as contemporary case studies. This experience brought in a lot of learning to the school and has paved way for other faculty to undertake such endeavours.
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Colaborate | Educate | Empower
Design Mela 2018
COLLABORATIVE PRODUCT DESIGN
Written by Prajakta Chakravarty
INITIATIVE SUMMER WORKSHOP Written by Priyanka Mangaonkar Vaiude
PUNE: The The idea of design mela was conceived to give an enthusiastic start to the semester, a run up for the upcoming semester and to explore student's creative side, we decided to start the semester with a big bang. We decided to celebrate design through a 'Design Mela' at our very own SMEF's Brick Group of Institutes . The design mela intended on bringing together the faculty and students alike, celebrating design in various ways and creating opportunities to brain storm, discuss, experience, work on Architectural design. To achieve all this, the design mela was divided into three segments; The Workshops- Mash up, The vertical studio and Brick 12 on 12 2018. The mela started on 7th June 2018 with three workshops simultaneously happening on the campus for 2nd, 3rd and 4th Year Architecture students. For 2nd year B.Arch., Ar. Yatin Pandya, Ahmedabad, conducted a workshop on 'Space narratives'. The basis of this workshop was to understand various elements that makes up a space and give some essence, some meaning to the same. Apart from inputs, the students got to do a couple of explorations, and have continuous interaction with Ar. Pandya as they refined their explorations. In the end, the students came up with some very interesting explorations and memorial designs, with varied themes. The designs were presented and thoroughly discussed in front of the faculty, with valuable inputs from Ar. Pandya.
PUNE: Summer 2018, Brick introduced a fantastic opportunity for creative hands to understand and experience the process of 'Design Development' through learning from material properties, craftsmanship and technology involved in the shaping a product. This workshop was an initiative by CEE: Collaborate | Educate | Empower in collaboration with REHAU, Greenlam and ZAGA. The participants got a chance to enrich their preliminary hand skills for Carpentry, Weaving with polymer plastic, Fabrication. There were total 33 people who got registered for this workshop. Out of these there were 16 professionals, 11 Students and 6 social entrepreneurs who got benefited by learning from each other along with the skills taught to them by the experts. Every participant came up with an amazing product which were displayed and exhibited at ZAGA for 3 days after the workshop got over. Further after the exhibition, participants were open to keep their products for selling or could take them back home for personal use. This summer workshop gave each and every participant an excellent opportunity not only to design & learn a skill but to also market their product globally in attractive and inspiring environment.
Simultaneously, 3rd year B.Arch. students had a workshop on 'Campus designing and planning'. This consisted of live case study visits to the campuses of IUCAA and Suzlon, Pune. Students studied campus formation through arrangements of built and unbuilt spaces. The campus case study also exposed the students to the thought process of two Master Architects, Ar. Charles Correa and Ar. Christopher Benninger, dealing with two completely different types of campuses.
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The second part of the workshop was an extensive input by Ar. Vikram Hundekar, on Principles of campus planning and designing and he showing and making a comparative analysis of five different campuses and
Through this they had to can create the models. The students managed to not only recreate models of these structures, but while managing to show case the philosophy behind the design and use of materials and technology etc., extracted the design philosophy and presented that as well. The vertical studio went on for three days. At the end of the third day, each group of students presented their structures and
ultimately showing the design process of IIT Gandhinagar Campus designed by himself. The third workshop going on in the campus was again conducted by Ar. Yatin Pandya for 4th Year B.Arch. students on 'Sustainable Habitats'. The workshop intended on kickstarting the housing semester, with some quick and basic calculations and volumetric analysis etc. to understand how to go about a housing or habitat designing. The students also got input from Yatin sir on various types of habitats and their importance for the society and how they are more to do with community building, than just building design.
study along with the models created in the past two days. Some of the presentations stood out exceptionally.
The three workshops concluded on 10th of June 2018 with a thought that the learnings shall be carried forward in the respective design studios. The second segment of the Mela consisted of Mash up : The vertical studio. The vertical studio intended on two things, firstly increasing interaction amongst the various classes from 2nd year to 4th year, within RDID and Architecture. It also intended to have increased interaction and bonding between the faculty and the students. What could be a better opportunity than this, to pay a tribute to the Master who recently won the Pritzker Award and is the Mentor of Brick, Ar. B. V. Doshi. . The vertical studio aimed at understanding Ar. Doshi's design related philosophy and thought process, by studying his various designs. The entire student's population was divide into mixed groups of students from various classes and disciplines. Eight such groups worked on understanding eight different models of eight structures designed by Ar. Doshi. Each group of students was allotted with one mentor each from the faculty for understanding the design philosophy, structures, materials and technology, climatology and materials
The intensive Design Mela concluded with an event Brick 12 on 12 2018, where 12 students; eight of Architecture and four of RDID, presented 12 of the best designs of the past semesters, in 12 minutes each. This was the second year of Brick 12 on 12. The chief guest for the event was Ar. Kirit Vora. The event took place in the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule sabhagriha, in Fatima nagar, Pune. The event showcased the students works in design studios from 1st year to 4th year, again in Architecture as well as RDID. This was a good exposure for the students as well as faculty as to what is happening parallelly in the other classes, also giving an idea, how design studios progress along with students and their maturity in designing. After the students Ar. Vora presenting his own work, high end residential project 'Voyage to the stars' and gave a very valuable feedback that; Students seem to be very confident and extremely well spoken. There is a good amount of depth in the process. The one very important thing that seems to be lacking is, the students are still not thinking in 3rd dimension, in volumes and sections. The program ended with the chief guest felicitating all the 12 students who presented and Design Mela ended with an enthusiasm for the next semester.
INDIAN CONCRETE INSTITUTE’S CEMCON 2018 7th - 8th DECEMBER 2018 IISER Auditorium, Pashan Road, Pune 3rd R.N.Raikar Memorial International Conference & Gettu-Kodur International Symposium on ADVANCES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF CONCRETE 14th - 15th DECEMBER 2018 The St. Regis, Mumbai
To know more about the upcoming conferences you may contact Hemant Joshi Sir
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BRICK NEWSPAPER
BRICK SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
Experiencing Architecture
THE MASTER STROKE!
FROM YATIN PANDYA WORKSHOP
IUCAA, PUNE
KAMALA HOUSE BY B.V. DOSHI
Written by Divya Mallavarapu
Written by Ninad Rewatkar
Written by Prajakta Chakravarty
Students at SMEF's Brick COA recently visited IUCAA on June 7th 2018. It was a group of 45 students from third year B.Arch. Some of the students had read about this campus. As a part of Architecture fraternity students and faculty believe in understanding and learning through multimedia, and hence most of people had already seen IUCAA in Volume Zero. But, what struck to everybody's mind was an engagement with its intangible aspects. This campus was built for scientists involved in Astro-physics and Astronmy as per the documentary. The design is so much impactful for inner self as if it was programmed to affect humanmood, level of attention and stress level. As soon as one enters the campus the visitors start going through various courtyards of various volumes, light intensity and air movements. These courtyards were combination of covered , semi covered and Open spaces which were placed along a diagonal axis. This helps to discover the non-static behaviour of any buildings happening due to Panchmahabhuta. The breeze flowing through these courtyards created a comfortable environment. Additionally, the gigantic central courtyard allows a person to subconsciously absorb the beauty and meaning in the structure. The place was so impactful that its feeling made a place in every student's mind and heart. It was till an extent that the group who is so fond of listening loud music was relishing the experience individually without playing any music.
AHMEDABAD:
PUNE:
I sit in this corner and think about a 'home'. I can hear Hariji's flute in the background. I am in the embrace of plants...somewhere a koyal is cooing and I see a peahen prancing around in the garden.
Space Perception Workshop. The workshop started with a mention from Juhani Pallasma. A door knob is a handshake between the visitor and a building, Fenestration can change the character of the space. A perfect example of perception and conception of space. The students were then introduced to the various of space making through Ar. Yatin Pandya's book. Elements of Space making. Various examples and case studies were presented to the students as an inspiration to their exercise to implement and experiment with all these elements of space: physical, natural, metaphysical (the six senses , sixth being notion). As an exploration to implement the understanding from the presentations and understanding was presented as a challenge to students. The exploration was to design a memorial. The students were divided into groups of 5 - 6 per group. Through discussions and votes. The themes for the memorials were decided, the students could choose from: Peace Freedom Human Spirit They were given the independence to choose their own sites, no restrictions on the geographical location, areas. They had to come with a design through a model; which is experiential, must include the physical elements of space making, natural and the meta-physical. The students came with models, spoke about the journey through the space and experiences of the user. The students gained an insight into spatial design, elements of space and team work. The workshop is a foundation to the Design explorations for the Design studio this semester.
Kamala House! From the moment you enter, the space connects with you. It embraces you, encloses around you through the low height lobby. A play of light and shade , the warmth in colors and again the play of light on colors, play of heights, this is all so theatrical, but not dramatic. Its not a performance, you are not a mere spectator, you become a part of it. The journey takes you to the basement, the 'garbhagriha'. The light here is magical. Am I inside? am I outside? I don't care.
Illustration by: The writer
I am just feeling at peace, playful, overwhelmed, all at the same time. Then as you come out in the garden 'freedom', place of co-existence with nature in true sense. I see langoors come and go, various birds settling down. So many corners and nooks, with so many memories. Its a memorabilia. As you move, the space, the light moves with you..it accompanies you in different characters. Once inside, the glimpses of the outdoors play a game of hide and seek...they wave at you and disappear, then reappear. What a wonderful game!! what a wonderful play!! home !!
Layers of shade and light in courtyards of IUCAA.
Space Perception !
All the stationary from the class are always stolen by the unknown. beware!!!
BRICK SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
OPINION : CHANGING TRADITIONS
CONCRETE PRODUCTION Written by Hemant Joshi After witnessing around 4 decades of construction, you feel awe that how things have changed in construction. Concrete was produced entirely on the site for all types and extent of sites in 70s and 80s. Then, only four constituents of concrete ( namely, Cement, Coarse aggregate, Sand and water ) were exclusively used for PCC/ RCC. Using 10/7 mixer machine was only alternative available for any type of concrete, normally. So, Concrete production set up is usually, Mixer machine or machines are located strategically on the site and heaps of material along with cement godown at the back. Either workers convey material to machine hopper by ‘ghamela’ or for well controlled project in 'farmas' of 1.25 cft size. Mixes were prepared volumetrically like 1:2:4( so called M:15 grade ) if good control on site is there or just by 12:16 ghamela for one bag of cement, otherwise. Water was added by machine operator (who was considered to be authentic concrete technologist on site). He used to decide the workability of concrete. Even hand mix concrete was being produced on many sites. Hardly, any testing was conducted for concrete. Neither for fresh nor for hardened concrete. May be only some major sites used to keep compression testing machines which were hand operated. Over the years, now manufacturing process has changed. First RMC plant in India was commissioned in 1992, in Pune commercially but wound up operations due to non viability.
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Later, may be around 1993-96, RMC India, Unitech, ACC etc started commercial operations in Mumbai and then it became available in other Metros. Concrete from RMC is available for smallest quantum also ( bucket concrete ). Quality Circle of India ( QCI ) now started giving quality certification to the plants. There are 5 major types of cements now available. 4 major types of cement additives for replacement are available. 4th generation variety of admixtures are available to adjust the properties of fresh and hardened concrete( Consider BASF who has 65 different product to add in concrete ). There are variety of other additives like steel fibres and synthetic fibres available in market. In cities like Mumbai, water is de-mineralized to avoid any salinity in concrete which is very harmful to reinforcement. Batching Plants of high output of 30 cum/hr, 60 or 120 cum/hr are available. They are fully automated so as once the recipe is given it will give well controlled mix within 1%- 3% tolerance of batching which has consistent quality in fresh and hardened state. Many types of concrete like self compacting, light weight, porous, low heat, high early strength, architectural coloured concrete etc are now available. Concrete grades upto M:100 are being commercially produced and M:180 in laboratories. Now, actually self cured and self healing concrete is available in laboratories which will be commercially available in near future. Material testing laboratories and Concrete technologist are giving lot of assistance even in 3rd tier cities. Rather, Material testing laboratories have gone further and they are involved in structural audits of structures and forensic investigations of problems. Though this is the major scenario in Metros and tier 1 cities, at rural or interior locations things have not change much from previous era. Many cement manufacturer like Ambuja, Birla and Ultratech etc are giving free guidance to small customer; mobile testing and mix proportioning facilities. They are also holding free seminars in small cities as well, as a social responsibility. So, now concrete has become a fashion statement! Though some say that concrete is not going to sustain, concrete will survive because, change is key to survival.
CHANGING INDIAN TRADITIONS INTO SUPERSTITIONS SCIENTIFIC FACTS Written by Anurakti yadhav Traditions in Hinduism were considered mainly as superstitions, but with the advent of science, it is becoming evident that these traditions are based on some scientific knowledge and moved from generations to generations as traditions. Though the common people did not know science in it, they were following it very faithfully over the years. Most of the practices, customs and traditions or rituals have some basis, some of which are truly scientific. The tradition might also be right under the conditions prevailing at the time
it was made part of the social conduct. Later on, they get incorporated more as practices as over the years, the actual reasons are forgotten. Traditions and customs were taught at a very young age and followed as part of life because we are programmed like that since childhood. Here are some misbelieves or superstitious things adopted due very logical reason at long time back: Why People Don’t Get Married During The Chaturmas The Chaturmas are the first four months of Dakshinayan lasting from July – Mid October. Uttarayan is the period of northward movement of the sun with days lasting longer than the nights and during the period of the Dakshinayan, nights are longer than the days. Medically, Uttarayan is a phase of a positive state of mind and Dakshinayan is the phase of a negative state of mind.
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OPINION : CHANGING TRADITIONS
Also Chaturmas falls at the time of the rainy season with a high rate of infestation by worms in the soil leading to contamination of surface vegetables. Leafy vegetable are a part and parcel of all marriage ceremonies, therefore, community lunches and dinners are avoided in Chaturmas to prevent people from being food poisoned. At old times due to rain people were unable to travel with bullock cart to attend the marriage and that’s the reason they started avoiding getting married for that months which is now taken as the form of Devsoyani period. • Why do we have Navratras? Navratras give enough time to the body to adjust and prepare itself for to the changing season. These nine days were marked as a period when people would clean their body system by keeping fasts by avoiding excessive salt and sugar, meditate, gain a lot of positive energy, gain a lot of self confidence & increase the self determination power (fasts are a medium to improve our will power and self determination) and finally get ready for the challenges of the changed season. • Why Do We Worship 'Peepal Tree' 'Peepal' tree is almost useless for an ordinary person, except for its shadow. 'Peepal' does not a have a delicious fruit, its wood is not strong enough for any purpose then why should a common villager or person worship it or even care for it? Our ancestors knew that 'Peepal' is one of the very few trees (or probably the only tree) which produces oxygen even at night. So in order to save this tree because of its unique property they related it to God/religion. • Why Not To Sleep With Your Head Towards North? Myth is that it invites ghost or death but since says that it is because human body has its own magnetic field and Earth is a giant magnet. When we sleep with head towards north, our body's magnetic field become completely asymmetrical to the Earth's Magnetic field. That cause problems related to blood pressure and our heart needs to work harder in order to overcome this asymmetry of Magnetic fields. Apart from this another reason is that our body have significant amount of iron in our blood. When we sleep in this position, iron from the whole body starts to congregate in brain. This can cause headache, Alzheimer's Disease, Cognitive Decline, Parkinson disease and brain degeneration.
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• The Act Of Putting Water Around The Plate As we know water acts as a repellent to many tiny creatures that roam on the floor seen and unseen, hence the circle of water stops them to approach the plate when kept on the floor also they are attracted towards the part of food kept outside the plate making it safe to consume the food. This practice is redundant while eating on dining table which is presumable cleaner than the floor. • If A Cat Crosses Your Way In the previous times there was not much machinery and technology. There were only carts to transport & travel in those times. Travel usually was done via carts pulled by bullocks, mules or horses crossing fields, jungles etc and travel could be any long from a day to weeks. So when a cart is on move and if some Cat or any other animal crosses the way, that bullock, mule or horse get scares at the sight of that ferocious animal. Since the journey is long and animal is scared, driver steps out of the cart and used to run his hands around the neck to calm them. This process takes a couple of minute and once the animal is fine and relaxed, they could resume their journey. Over the ages, reason to make a halt was long forgotten and became a superstition. • Curd/Yoghurt with sugar It is considered good to have a spoon of curd mixed with little sugar before moving out for any important task like taking exam, interviews etc. Curd soothes your stomach and gives a cool soothing to body and mind. Sugar, as source of instant energy, is mixed to make great combinations. This mixture is also considered as thirst reliever. Thus, having a spoon will keep your mind and stomach better to concentrate on the work and also you won't feel thirsty so quickly.
Editorial Team: Ideation: Poorva Keskar Photo Credits: Student's Photography Club Shriram Lele Edited by : Shraddha Manjrekar Ketaki Gujar Designed by: Karan Rane Ketaki Gujar Kanchan Shinde