POETRY AND ARCHITECTURE

KIRAN KALAMDANI

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT – London Lectures – 1939

“Every great architect is – necessarily – a great poet. He must be a great original interpreter of his time, his day, his age.”

QUOTED BY WRIGHT: Architectural Forum, January 29, 1938, p. 37 

Wright’s honest arrogance was best expressed in Walt Whitman’s ‘Leaves of Grass’, which he admired and based his life upon.

  

“Going where I list, my own master, total absolute, listening to others, considering what they say, pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating, gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself

of the holds that would hold me.I inhale great draughts of space.

The east and west are mine,and the north and south are mine …

Beware of the moral ripening of nature.Beware what precedes the decay of the ruggedness of states of

menBeware of civilization”

Revitalizing Environs of Shaniwar Wada

PROLOGUEUrban space in pre-industrial Indian cities is characterised by traumatic

transitions. Living patterns are torn between changing social orders reflecting in transitional life support systems and the omnipresent cultural

continuum.  

A rich mix of myth, religion, history and heritage seem to be fighting a loosing battle with overcrowding, poverty, pollution, traffic jams and

thoughtless renewal. 

It might be a long time before the Indian urbanite comes to terms with the machine. Meanwhile the election-crazy politician and his puppet

bureaucrat are busy building monuments to themselves in urban space. Their stepbrother, the corporate executive is happy with cosmetic surgery

or monumental disasters. The well-meaning bureaucrat and the well-intentioned politician are too often silenced. It is high time the man at the receiving end wakes up to his impending doom and forges the path to his

own salvation. 

Revitalizing Shaniwar Wada and its environs is but one step in this long and treacherous journey.

Kiran Kalamdani, Feb.’ 91.

 

Shaniwarwada Before & After

During V.P.Singhs visit in 1990

The first performance in July 2000 after implementation – Phase I

TRAGIC TALE OF GODAVARI 

Quiet flows the Godavari at GangapurUnsuspecting and Innocent, Inspiring poet and painter,

Into the City of Nine ShikhasIt is Witness to the myths, the tirthas, the scent of man over the millennia

Serene and silent at SomeshwarIt then thunders with a violence, cutting rock and fuming

In premonition of the debacle aheadCutting a wavy course through farmlands and historic sites

It arrives at Sunder Narayan to witness the spectacle,The vast cauldron of Man and Myth, churning for salvation across the

centuriesThrough Kunds and Furrows, Ghats and Gates, along markets and below

bridges,It shrinks and swivels

To make space for God and ManAruna-Varuna, Medha-Shraddha, Gayatri-Saraswati,

Sister rivulets long-lost and forgotten, now mere sewers awaiting salvation,The Gods sit silent in their magnificent and crumbling stone edifices,while men continue their bizarre rituals of ravages of the Godavari

Washing sin and soil, before death and after.Abused and deceived, she leaves the Holy Sites

TO SEARCH FOR CLARITY IN MYTHS, HISTORY, KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS AND CRAFTS OF THE CITY

Rethinking Ghats of Godavari, Nashik, Group Godavari under INTACH

The Kumbh Mela of 1991 – Maharashtra’s most important city that relates to the religious geography of India (photo Kishor Ahirao)

Gloomy and Dark,With little hope and much despair,

Once again at Tapovan she dashes through deep chasms,Billowing clouds of surf and stench,

Wishing the Shurpanakha without a nose was a universal condition,the Kapila meeting to console

the dark caves of Lakshmana mourning the tragedyFurther on at Takli, forlorn sits the Ramdas Samadhi

Casting aspersions on ‘Hindavi Swarajya’ and national resurrectionUneasy flows the Nasardi, equally disillusioned with Humanitythe two sisters meeting quietly to continue their tragic journey

of neglect, abuse and uncertainty.

Kiran Kalamdani, Oct. 10, 1996

TRAGIC TALE OF GODAVARI

300 year old map of the Godavari in the most Holy Zone

Clarification of the religious geography in Nashik’s Core Heritage Zone

SWAN SONG

I am the G.P.O. – Pune,A modest heritage cousin,Of sixty others across the

subcontinentA legacy of colonialism,

Of bureaucracy, ad-hocism and discontent

I sit in the city centre,In a Heritage AmbienceWith scars of time, wind

and rainBeating me with a

VengeanceI reveal debts to Palladio,To the Colonizers and the

VernacularTo tireless stonecutters

incognito

I look back at my past.The elephants and horses,Now forgotten stones alas.My present lies abused.

Leaking, overcrowded and over-used.I look forward to E-mail and

Electronica.Helping people communicate,

Remains my Swan Song to Eternia.Hoping my conservation,

Urges an era of care and cure.A balance of my past, present and

futureOf nurturing legacies and carrying

them gracefullyTo the oncoming Century!

Kiran Kalamdani, 1994

SWAN SONG

p/šK3Is,

.p/šK3Is p/šK3Is Mh`je kay Ast. phav. trI 0kda k=n

.p/Ty9at vaStu ]waraycI Mh`je kay Ast. b6av 0kda ba.2un

.nkaxa kxasa#I lagto phav. sa{3vr ja}n

.0S3Ime3ce kse bara vajtat mjle phave c!vun

.iD3eil.gca kay bo–ya hoto b6av. 4apI hatat 6e}n

.kapoRrexnCya la{nIt phav. 0kda 4a.bun

.lac, SpIDmnI, peprve3 idva;I Mh`je iktI te trI pahu

.tare vrcI ksrt k=n vaDg. phav. ifrvun

.

POxacI c`c` Mh`je kay te phav. AašfIs 0kda calvun

.Pa3Rnrixp navaca 2o.Da phav. payavr paDun

.Kla0.3cI qrqr phavI 0kda 0ekun

.3šKsce p` hPte pahu 0kda w=n

.dus–ya.nI keleLya cuka.pa{ AorDa 0kda pahu qa}n

.hatatl. kam gel. kI kay hot. phav 0kda sosun

.keleLya kamaca &ey dus–yala im;alel. Paahu k2I pcvun

.rojcI mšc Astana yala p/šK3Is ka Mh`tat b6u trI 0kda k=n

 ikr` klmdanIÊˇÉʇÈÍ

PRACTICEPractice…Practice…what is it lets try it, let us

indulge in the agony & ecstasy of it,Enough of classrooms, submissions, imaginary

projects, hypotheses and design ‘crits’,What is it like to actually get a building built?What is the use of a drawing? Let’s go to the

site and find out,What is the role, status, image & value of an

architect in a real world, day in and day out?What happens to an estimate, tender, lets add

storeys to a building and find out,Whether there is God or the Devil in the detail

lets dig it out,Let’s que up in the local authority to know the

meaning of sanctions, nocs, bribes, paperweights, speed-money and Diwali,

Explore the maze of contacts, contracts, liaisons, agreements and undertakings

Lets walk the tightrope walk and take the begging bowl around,

Experience the frustrations of bills, compensations, competitions, reimbursements and returns,

The triumphs of awards, adulation, appreciation, admiration and recognition!

Let’s know what it is to set up office with no money to spare,What it is like to have lots of work & no help, or little work and

too many hands to share,Or being paid at long last your dues that were yours with no

one to share!Let’s get into partnerships that are difficult to bear, or ones

with friends who care,Let’s form consortiums, joint ventures, companies, trusts,

foundations that then make us swear,Let us collaborate with fellow professionals to see how a

project fares,Structural, electrical, acoustic, ventilation, interiors, landscape

experts to hire you would dare, Complaints, criticism, suggestions, unwarranted intrusions, let

us learn to bear,What is the exact meaning of success that happens in private,

and failure that is in public glare,What is a tax burden at the end of a year?What is an assessment, inquiry, audit, advance tax,

professional tax let us be clear,What happens when someone else makes a mistake whose

blame you have to share?When some one else takes away your work how hard it is to

bear,What is it like when someone else takes the credit that was

yours to share,Why is it called a Practice when it is a match everyday, and it

is your soul that takes the wear and tear!? Kiran Kalamdani December 26, 2008

ODE TO THE COURTYARD…

 O quiet courtyard, O timeless

courtyardHow many virtues you beholdYou are cool, you are bright

You are safety incarnate at nightWith strong walls around

You are a child’s playgroundYou are festive, you are active

With trees and plants, fountains and pools,

You are cool-evaporative.You are a space within a space

To the ensemble you lend graceIntroverted, ornamented, colonaded,

arcaded,Your types are many-faceted

The ‘haveli’ is yours, the ‘wada’ is yours,

The ‘gadhi’, townhouse, ‘mandir’, masjid, all are yours,

You are omnipresent, ubiquitousYou cut across regions-humid and arid

You are indeed the priceless inheritance of the tropics

You may be round, you may be squareBut of senseless planners you beware

How much life you nurture,How many lives you nourish,

In future we hope you won’t perish,Long live the courtyard

O quiet courtyard, O timeless courtyard

Kiran Kalamdani, Narakchaturdashi, Nov. 2, 1994

ODE TO THE COURTYARD…

OH ARCHITECTURE! WHAT ARE YOU?

  Are you Agony and ecstasy?Are you real or a fantasy?Are you the ‘Holy trinity’?A process or a productConscious or Spontaneous, Art or Craft? Do you embrace form or function?“Complexity or Contradiction”?Are you ‘less’, are you ‘more’But certainly not a ‘bore’?Of society are you a Mirror or a mould?Repository of Memories and Miseries

untold?Are you ‘Silence’ or are you ‘Sound’?Frozen Music, Figure or Ground?Are you Poetry or Prose,‘Symbol or Social Purpose’?

Are you Commodity firmness and Delight,

or ‘Magnificent Volumes in Light’?Are you the churning of climate and

culture,Prima Donna, Partnership or Joint

Venture?Structure or Space,Economy or extravagance?Are you Simplicity and honesty,Or of Time yet another travesty? Oh Architecture, Mother of All Arts,Machine for living and ‘Invisible

fountain’from which all rhythms flow beyond time

and infinity.

KIRAN KALAMDANI 

HARMONY Three weavers in a nest,Weaving together a dream in right

earnest In unity is strength, support and

securityBut also a compromise rooted in

amity Each one free to explore his worldBut with a common responsibility Beyond the marriage of convenienceInto a partnership of sharing and

harmonyKiran Kalamdani, Oct. 22, 1998 

HORIZON Oh colourful horizon between sun-

up and sun-downOh meeting of earth and skyYou are the consummation of

aspiration and ability Nudging me onward on an endless

journeyIn search of new horizons When I’m sure I have reached you

just,You open up another world, another

sky, another horizon

Kiran Kalamdani, Oct. 22, 1998