Going candid with Ar.Snehanshu Mukherjee

Going candid with Ar. Snehanshu Mukhurjee

Virendra Behl V Yr viru.behl128@gmail.com

An informal conversation with Ar. Snehanshu Mukhurjee, while dropping him to Deccan hotel after Teacher’s T Programme. Here are some takeaways from the chat -

When asked about his visit to Pune after a long time : “I really don’t know why haven’t we learned from Mumbai and Delhi? The metro is a tertiary need and Pune needs to work first on the primary need - strengthening the BRT system. Also, there has to be community participation in decision making for such mega projects before starting construction. The public, specially the urban middle class, has a mentality of just accepting what is thrown by the government. We don’t question.”

His thoughts about what’s happening in the country currently: “It’s a very unfortunate time to be witnessing what is happening in our country. But I am very happy that the young are standing guard and giving a strong message to the old who are somewhere scared to take a stand. The place where I teach, I faced a situation where one professor told me why are our students converting our colleges to JNU? This shouldn’t happen. I was shocked and lost my mind at the same time. The moment you say that you are eligible to vote after 18, it means you have the right to question who you vote for.”

Talking on architecture and political/social service : “One does not necessarily have to join politics to do social work but if you have a background, like in your case, you must. Studying architecture trains you to find solutions which can translate into built programmes eventually. I am impressed that the youth is talking about politics and social service nowadays. This is the new India which will emerge. You should look at work done by Ar. Ashish Ganju sir in Delhi, where he himself is staying in an unauthorised colony and fighting for basic infrastructure for the people. That’s what I call having a bottom-top approach. That is the kind of service you should pursue. Definitely join politics later but first understand the community and work for them. Start from the bottom, unlike our general top-down approaches which have failed miserably.“ These were just a few excerpts from conversation. The chat was both inspirational and motivating for me.