Our Quest for a Dream Home - 2

Part 2

Putting together a plan was something I loved to do.  I had several plans already prepared and now I wanted the one that would fit our long term needs and the location of our property.  As an energy consultant, I wanted to reflect my work in my own backyard.  I wanted a home that was energy efficient.  My trips to our old temples since my return to India helped.  I could recall several of the temples having a cool interior in spite of the sweltering heat outside.  I was amazed at the old architecture, especially in South India.  They were so custom built for the hot and humid climatic conditions we normally see here for more than half a year.  People of those days were smart and very scientific.  I wanted to incorporate some of those ideas.  I didn't have to reinvent a wheel, I just had to know how to use it properly.

I put together a plan and then had to get it professionally validated.  My eldest sister came to my rescue.  She is an architect by profession and has always had a passion to build efficient homes.  I gave her my plan and requirements and she took good notes of my needs and came up with an even more architecturally professional plan.  After several rounds of reviews and changes, my wife and I finally we saw our dream home come to digital reality.  The 3D models were impressive.  Now it was time for us to make the digital world a reality.

Before we started off on the actual construction, we had to go through legal processes to get the plan approved by the local municipality, which took a good two to three months to accomplish.  In the meantime, we had to ensure there was water available for construction and so the well digging process was started on May 29th, 2013, exactly one year ago today (May 29th, 2014).  After about 15 feet, we were luck enough to see natural water spring out of the ground.  Another 14 feet took us to the rock bottom and the digging was completed in three weeks.  In the meantime, the plan approval was submitted and my father, a civil engineer by profession until he retired assisted me in helping the contractors mark the land based on the drawings.  He also was imperative in ensuring the building was structurally sound from the basement.

To be continued...

Our Quest for a Dream Home - 1

Part 1

It all started in early February 2013, about a year after our return from the US.  We wanted to settle down after years of moving around from country to country and city to city.  Like many in our age group, we wanted a place to call our home.  As most do, we were also in a rush to get settled and looked for easier ways to get settled.  So, we drove around the outskirts of Chennai searching for our dream home that would fit our budget.  Truthfully, we weren't sure of what our budget was when we started.  We thought we will cross the bridge when we get there.  We wanted to have it all, we wanted luxury, we wanted comfort, we wanted a great locality for our children to grow in.  My wife had always wanted to live in a community with similar while I have had dreams of building my own house just like my father did.  But time and effort took priority and so we started venturing out.

We drove down the toll roads for several days at a stretch to places I used to be open stretches of land along the seashore with a few engineering colleges dotting the wide open landscape.  The place has changed so much in the last dozen years.  Now, all I could see were several sky scraper apartments dotted by a few stretches of open land.  Every few 100 meters had big signages promising lavish and comfortable living at "affordable" costs.  Each site we visited were at several different stages of construction and hardly any were completely occupied.  It appears to be a booming housing market on the outside, but when the rubber meets the road, all we could see were several incomplete projects on hold for years together due to lack of funding and demand.  Those that were sold were mostly empty, one could notice while driving at night, only a few apartments that had lights on.  Several walk-throughs of model apartments beautifully and attractively furnished with the best possible materials used in construction lured the interested buyers in us.  We set ourselves a budget and needs.  We needed close proximity to a good school most of anything.  We were ready to move farther out from the city but were not ready to compromise on the quality of education that our children would be getting.

Suddenly a property that fit our needs sprung out of nowhere, surprisingly closer to the city with a new reputed school coming up on campus.  We were all excited and started liking almost everything about that project.  We liked a floor plan and decided to stretch our budget a little to accommodate our most important need.  We got our parents to walk through the model home and convinced ourselves that is what we were destined to lead the significant portion of the next few years of our lives there.  My father was the only one that was not fully supportive as he insisted that I could spend much less and build a better home for ourselves with lots of outdoor and garden space.  He was prepared to give us a property that he had invested in but I was reluctant.  Although it briefly tickled my lifelong dreams of constructing our home, the thought of undergoing the task was daunting.  We decided to invest in our dream home and gave in our 2% token advance to book the place.  We had about three weeks to make a decision.

In exchange to our token advance, we were handed the legal documents, which unlike other documents, we decided to read through.  To our amazement, there was 100% risk on buyers and none on the builders.  We wanted some changes in the contract and approached the seller with the same but the seller was not ready to budge.  We were so worried and had to make a decision in a couple of days.  We discussed and decided that this is not for us and retracted the day before the end of three weeks and saved ourselves the deposit.

My dream of constructing our own home was rejuvenated.  I tried convincing my wife that now that was our best way.  Although I didn't succeed completely, I got her nod to start putting together a new plan.  My father was happy that we made this decision and made arrangements to let us take over one of his possessions.  Our quest for our dream home revived and I started putting together a plan for our new home on a home architect software I had bought several years back...

To be continued...

Boomerang

My brother sent me a boomerang from Australia for my 22nd birthday. It was a wooden boomerang nicely hand-carved. He remembered that I was in awe of all those boomerangs and wondered on how they worked. I guess I got to know boomerangs from watching all Jungle Book when I was younger. I loved the way Mougli carved his own boomerang out of jungle woods to hunt and to protect his family of wolves. To me, boomerangs are so amazing even today. If thrown the right way, which is apparently very hard and needs lots of practice, it would make a perfect flight around a pre-determined curve and return to the thrower.

I have had this boomerang for a few years now and have not tried to throw it even once. I have safely and artistically hung it using two glass pushpins on my wall. I have dreamt for so long to throw a perfect boomerang but I have also worried that I might break it. I have actually forced myself from living one of my own dreams from my younger days. I am making assumptions in my life that to pursue ones dreams, one has to give up something else. I don't know yet if that is true, as I have never taken that step to disprove myself. It is like the chicken or the egg thing.

The day I pick that boomerang of the wall and throw it across our thick polluted atmosphere will be the day I will really start believing in myself. I hope that day comes sooner than later.

The beginning of a journey...

Originally I started posting this as a comment on my previous post. But then, I ended up writing more than what I initially intended to. I wanted this to be a continuation of the last discussion.

Let me start by saying - "there is nothing to conclude". In fact, those who believe after all these discussions that some changes can be made should take it upon themselves and push to implement what they think will work. If you are still confused on what needs to be done, get it clarified with someone you trust and try to support him/her in working towards that change.

Honest to everyone, there are some of my friends who read this blog (most of them are silent observers) and have conveyed their support and we have started thinking on ways to do things now. By contributing to this discussion, you have already started doing your part, by making people think that several solutions are available. Keep continuing to do that by bringing in your own group of friends and making them think and work together.

If you think doing something for your school is good, start gathering your school mates, create an informal association (cos more formal it becomes more problems arise) and start working on things that you think will improve the situations that you felt weren't good when you studied. If you don't think that works, then fine, do something that you think will work rather than giving up after about 150 comments on this blog - that was not the intent. If you think Onyx is the solution to cleanliness in your neighborhood, take it upon yourself and make it happen - now. Gather the strength of those in your community and work towards it as doing things alone is not easy. There are several who want to do something but have very little guidance. Those who respond and read this blog are several steps ahead of those who are clueless. Help them achieve their goals by guiding them.

If you believe that this post is more than just another post, take it yourself or help me take it to the next level. If you don't want to publicly support, then those who know me, email me in person of your intent and thoughts and those who don't know me email me through my profile.

We conclude only when we achieve our results. We have just begun. Like the name of this blog, there are several milestones to cross and we have crossed the first few. No one knows where the road takes us further, but everyone knows where we want to go. There will be road closures and detours, there will be wrong turns and U-turns, there will be blow-outs and empty gas tanks, but just like we do whatever it takes to get to our favorite weekend destination, we should work harder when in crisis to get to our destination. For that to happen, those who work together must have the same destination though they may have several routes. But, if many head the same route, then it is easier to handle problems on the way as compared to taking different routes. Let us drive forward rather than spinning the wheels in the same place.

Fruits of Life

After my earlier post, I started fresh. I believed it can done. And now, I am reaping its fruits, literally. All it needed was some soil, a sapling, lots of water and plenty of caring.

That is a good enough motivation for me to think bigger and I am going for it. To go bigger, I need the tools synonymous to the soil, the sapling and water. I consider optimism as the soil, kids as the saplings and time as water. To gain the fruits of life, we need to start with kids in schools and groom then so we can pick the fruits of life when we grow old.

It is easier to teach a kid than a grown person. A grown person has a brain filled with tremendous information and it is hard to convince the person to change the way of life or the way of thinking. Selfishness and ego tend to take the driver's seat over humaneness and morality. A country can never become developed until a human life gets the respect it deserves irrespective of the status - rich or homeless. Such a state can not and will not occur in a country like India overnight. Patience and perseverence are the keys to success.

Personal and public hygiene, safety and compassion should be an integral part of a kids education as they are the keys to a healthy and humane life that defines a country's stage of development. Personal hygiene, as most of us know, is learnt through family values and the way the kith and kin carry themselves around in the family and the kids do in the school. These are instinctively learnt. Public hygiene is often not given as much importance as personal hygiene in our society. This needs to be taught in schools so the future citizens of the country can carry the education to make the country more healthy to live in.

Safety needs to be taught in schools. In my school days and I am sure it still continues in some schools, there was/is no concept of safety or precautions except in record notebooks. I have not seen a physics lab darker or a chemistry lab without the basic safety equipment like fire extinguisher and first aid kit. We were not taught the importance of safety in school in our days and that reflects in the current generations total lack of safety on roads and in society. Had we been given the right tools to tackle these situations when we were in school, we wouldn't be having posts and debates on if safety and hygiene need enforcement or not. Moral values need to be taught at an young age and social implications needs to be highlighted to kids. These can only be done at schools. Schools form the soil, kids are the saplings and education is water. The more nutrients we replenish the soil with while watering the sapling, the juicier is the fruit.

Twenty years ago, had someone not thought of the idea that India could be a strong player in the world today in IT services, it would not have happened today. Hundred years ago, had someone not thought that India could be independent, it would probably not have been independent.

It is time for us to think and act now. There are several problems we face and we also candidly exchange opinions on what can solve those. But no one enters the field to implement the same. Let each of us pledge here to solve one problem in our lifetime that we think needs a solution. Let us take the effort beyond opinions and solve it for a change.

Today, I pledge that I will do all in my power to make my country healthier to live in for all. I intend to do this by requesting the support of some of my friends in India to take up the duty of cleaning a designated area themselves and with the help of the local school kids. In the US, highways are often marked by mile markers saying that a fraternity is responsible for keeping the highway clean for so many miles. These are not mandatory organizations or enforced by the government. These are voluntary frat members who work hard to keep the zone in their jurisdiction clean. Such zones need to be created in the places we grow up in or become part of. I also intend, with permission from the nearest school, to teach a class every week on safety, hygiene and the importance of individual responsibility in society.

The doubters and critics may just dismiss my intentions saying I live in a foreign country and this is just "ettu suraikkai". As long as I am true to myself and my intent, I will continue to make all the efforts and I would appreciate your support, suggestions and actions to make us gain the real fruits of life.