Some notes gathered at SID bamboo craft workshop`

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Not too many words are here, except to appreciate a good design which enabled an opportunity for a plenty. In other words, the exercise went on for a couple weeks, with twenty-five craftsmen and another twenty-five students, and open to visitors, experts, and ideas, which should create further a countless learning opportunities. At School of Interior Design, CEPT, the workshop here gave some interesting directions to search for the meaning of ‘sustainability’ through hands on craft and exchange.

I could gather a few things with my random visits, perhaps research oriented, and I would like to share.

Most materials expand on heating. When bamboo is exposed to higher temperature conditions, one way is by putting it under a flame, the material’s molecules would move apart, therefore, allowing ease in bending. The bamboo craftsmen may like this. A design student who made me understand this, said,

“They say, this bamboo strip usually cracks when bent under fire, but see, you go slow about it and this does not." showing me the perfect bend.

The technology student was even more creative. After discussing with him no-life in the outer space and no oxygen therefore zero flammability, he was quick to add,

“If left in space, bamboo may take a free form on its own.” He did his best to make his eye, face and hand gestures all like that of a free form.

There were many other revisions.

Another point we take lightly, perhaps we must consider, is the health issue when bamboo is tempted to cut finely under rapid rotors and as a result genate dust. Smoothinly hummin rotor bladed machines- some fixed, some handheld, will produce dust like particles which fly all over. The air was so dusty with grains that things looked like a live 1600 ASA print. The bamboo grains I consumed through my nostrils most, smelt fresher an not toxic- well, sometimes, toxic smells nice too, but this smelt nicer. ‘The smell of freshly cut grass…’, as Richie Havens (Woodstock fame below) says, reminded me of the bamboo work small communities in rural India continue to do with bamboo saw dust floating in air, all around and about, humming their own folk tunes.

Easy Bamboo

CEPT canteen teaches many things. Here you see artisans of all and any types, from all or any part of the world, with most of them being professionals dealing with built environment and its spaces. There are amazing number of theories and suppositions in the canteen air, which have only increased in the confined space with the increase of people in recent years; hurried rock bands riffs go in the background too. They call it blues and they give you blues.

Leave that, one such theory suggested by a real-estate-artisan to me is - “target the army, man!” He doesn’t means shooting with guns, but rather explaining how an organization can use the Bamboo as an emergency material which can be simply crafted by its soldiers during war as well as during relief.

Bureau of Indian Standard’s IS 7344 1974 Specification for bamboo tent poles needs mentioning to that artisan.

Safety at Highway Construction

Allow artisans talk something on the issue of safety of road workers in Indian roads -especially highways, which has few lanes on either side. Where the issue becomes more visible.

Contractors, clients, consultants, all are now aware that road safety at construction time is important. The migratory daily wager too now. So, he is given a cap and a high vis(ibility) jacket. Boots hurt his feet. They work in groups, some doing the work, some holding a banner, which is custom made, is usually red inked. It says something like, "MAN AT WORK". The cordoned area has men, and some machinery, some big some expensive. You notice then you carefully maneuver or maunder your car not to hit anything.

Cheenk Wala Bhai

Lal Bhai has been sellin Bamboo blinds for almos' last twenty-five years. Summers will ensure better business, so these days I usually don’t find him around at his reception. He must be running around (literally) chasing and fulfilling orders made by his clients. He says, annually he would earn about 50,000 Rupees as profit selling just cheenks (bamboo blinds) of a few types he is good at. This money is enough for him to fend for his family. He is middle aged but his curious eyes will easily escape the protective thick layers of his glasses frame and lenses. He might tell you more, if you befriend him.

His reception and business area is, where his wife keeps her grand, or perhaps grander daughter or son covered by her traditional chunari to keep off the air pollutants or the dust, is a newly done futpath by the Municipal Corporation (City civic authority). He says he is fine here and doesn’t feel any need to move to a shop because he doesn’t need to pay any bills or taxes. Just give local corporation guys or local cops some good heart money for chai-paani. The local cops who used to harass him earlier have also ceased to do so because their interaction has turned into aquaintance over the years. Once in a month, a Municipal Corporation contracted lifting truck will put an act on show that it is removing Lalbhai and likes from the city spaces. However, since this is only an act, half an hour later they will return to the same futpath. All understand. All have to coexist. Lalbhai is cool about it too – he will move away if he eventually has to.

Tell me or this - how cheaper, easier and reliable can enterprise get? Lalbhai makes his deliveries almost in time, delay might be for a day or two maximum. His bamboo chinks, which is bought from him is much more value-for-money than a typical franchisee shop run on top-down business model.

You can try calling him on his mobile phone in India (0) 96382 36396 - informal business.

Karmika - Woman Empowerment (Mason Trainer series - 2)

Karm + ika = Woman worker {Etmy. (Karm = Hindi for Work + ika = suffix making reference to feminine)}

Women empowerment is a big and concerning issue, and recently someone floundered with a recent book, think it was a recent NY Times review, titled “Are Islam and Feminism compatible?” Well, I support the issue of empowerment of women in workplaces, but 'feminism' is a little tougher to understand. Maybe, because I am not a woman myself. Tough, was also to interpret the flood of write ups such as top 100 women achievers, interviews with prominent achievers, columnists, celebrities sexy, which followed 33% reservation, almost certain, of women seats in the Indian Upper parliament- now to make rounds in the lower house.

Perhaps, somewhat related to this sometime back, and more focused on my artisans in the construction sector, that on recommendation and curiousness I went to visit the office of Karmika; an offshoot of SEWA which works with enabling and assisting womenfolk in construction work. Karmika also conducts its own Trainings and runs other programmes, through an established training centre it has in Bopal, Ahmedabad (City is the seventh largest city in India) - till now, numbers in thousands have been trained here in one level or the another. And why not, when their corporate office is at an easy distance from mine! Quite approachable and tradition loving people, I could easily get access to their chief, Smt. Bijal Bane (Smt. is an Indian prefix and Bane a Gujarati suffix for adding respect to names). After I said I came to visit her because of Karmika's good work in our field, and would like to know more, she in all humbleness gave me her space and her time to talk. We talked for some good hours.

I recall, our talk focused on the role of women in construction - how good and bad they are doing - current dynamics. I also came to know, how the traditional apprenticeship culture has not been traditionally supportive of normal women who do normal work. And currently the culture is left pretty much to improvidence. The course of our talk went on, and the role of big time governments and big sized corporates came in the picture too. Upper level women, great women achievers - leaders, etc.

PolisWala and Sahib

We both were intoxicated. It was the vapor around. While, I got high on thoughts of righting a blog, he continued to scrape sandpaper on the furniture he was going to shine-polis for me. Sunil is a freelance polis-wala who will charge you exorbitant money if you are not careful. Rupees 2200 is all he asked for a one and a half day job he completed with his assistant.

In addition to his rightful labor, the cost of two chemicals which means the thinner and the polishing chemical, a nitrocellulose based material locally manufactured in the local industrial areas, and other contingencies could not be more than half of what he asked me earlier for. Thankfully, protective gloves, boots or masks don’t figure in the picture.

The locally industrial areas manufactured vapor producing half litre nitrocellulose tin box shows a badly designed cross ‘X’ with ‘HARMFUL’ written next to it. Think the brand is called Taralac. Perhaps, this all was the information that the box gave. I got reminded of COSHH I learnt about in the UK, and how the gov’ment regulates the use of such harmful substances, so I felt pity for Sunil and asked him if he knows the job he does, and if it is bad for his health. He replies in a pitiful and a draggy tone about how he has been doing this work for last sixteen years and has always felt intoxicated while doing it. His eyes rolled unsure why we are talking this as he continued to polish the table leg.

And I think to myself- wow what a nice rare job he does because it gives him a high he doesn’t mind.

Sunil tells me of burning sensation in his hands sometimes because many a times the chemical is harder than usual. Sometimes his eyes get yellowy. Then he tells me the importance of studying and teaching his chillen well in a nice ambitious city like Ahmedabad. He is hopeful and starts to put a pitying tone to extract that extra money.

The Sounds of Silence (when constructing)

‘Ahmedabad’ city, has been misspelled in the Indian census, therefore Google has it as ‘Ahmadabad’. Otherwise, affectionately known as ‘Amdavad’ I would like to give it a mod name - ‘A-bad’. Perhaps post Gandhi scene which quintessentially starts from here, the city is recently experiencing a greater migration wave, with immigrants from the rest of the country finding relatively better opportunities cum prosperity here.

Within the midst of overpowering apartments, the new part of the city has some bunglo’s too.

Nice sun is shining even though it is winter – the rich bunglo’ owner and his equally rich neighbor are basking under its shade, only to be separated by a compound wall. A contractor, who perhaps aspires to be similarly affluent, has his elbow resting on the compound wall, as he is talking to one of the owners. He attempts speaking in style, efforts to dress presentable, and is nodding to everything possible or impossible which probably the owner wants. A bathroom he has been contracted to redo. He gives further employment to his subcontractor, who in turn would get a band of laborers - normally from his own village - in popular culture known as – ‘gang of labourers’ - to work under the same shining sun.

The construction work would go on. The gang making merciless noises by randomly banging and ringing their hammers for the whole day, persistently and patiently, taking a month to redo the bathroom. While the skilled gets 250 rupees for a day, the unskilled gets 110 - they both get kayami-work (Gujarati for ‘longer-term work’; pronounced Kuh-aya-me). The subcontractor from their own village makes a little more, and the main contractor we were earlier talking about some real good. Maybe it makes sense, because he is an unsaid bathroom design consultant too.

The image here shows the exterior of the bathroom they would deliver in the end. Yes, this is the finished product. Presently, there is a graphic appeal to it, but the neighbor isn’t amused. He dare not comment to his uncaring neighbor about the bad alignment of windows, and quality that is left. Commenting - which will make him endure the same sounds of construction once again.

Where is the mason gone?

Surya has a well established practice in Ahmedabad, and amongst many interesting architecture he has done in his over a couple decade practice from here, strongly believes in (and has executed) load bearing masonry structures which go as much as five stories high.

He (like me) is bemused that why most constructers are into believing that in such mid height buildings, concrete with steel inside will be the strongest of all? Why is the skill with masonry, abundant a plenty in this country not trusted? Well, it is just a muse, and leaving apart the sustainability benefits of masonry is about the mason. Instead of utilizing the Masons skill, what we now do is give the masonry mason two concrete pillars reinforced, and tell him to do whatever he wants to in between them; which will eventually be plastered - in turn killing him by killing his art.

Along the highway - Part -II

Sarkhej-Gandhinagar highway (part 1 in previous post) has cars zooming at a speed of 100kmph. Definitely, dangerous enough to kill any one if there’s a knock. Four lanes are separated by an upstand divider in between. About five men (or women) are working on some modification to this, so they need one innermost lane. Just about a foot or two away from them, the sixth one is standing on the road and has a placard for the oncoming traffic. Legible, once you are close enough to him, you read - “DENJAR - MAN AT WORK”.

Along the highway

The expansion of Sarkhej-Gandhinagar highway with a couple of lanes on each side required a fresh new road construction, and on top is a layer of bitumen which needs some time to harden up. Now so that the people do not accidentally drive over the newly laid surface and so spoil the road, the contractor has placed some brick and stone pieces randomly on it. I am not sure if this has a safety intention too. But surely this is cheaper than the incalculable length of an expensive ‘keep-out’ yellow ribbon. A work of art for sure, and thus, the unknown contractor finding his name on this (my artisans) hall of name.

Safety – why is it not there

A typical four storey apartment with a basement here in this semi-arid part of the world has to be dug nearly about twenty feet for its foundation pillars. The entire site is nowadays dug by an excavator. About ten years back it would have been larger gangs of human strength. Right now there are at least twenty men working at that depth, laying the foundation concrete or doing minor excavation works. The site is also a temporary habitat for their families too, making the total a larger number - about fifty. There are kids roaming around, about half naked. They all take their bath at night because the site is otherwise surrounded by four and five storey apartments on all its eight sides. Without any internal walls they have a big kitchen in one corner made out of neatly surfaced mud floor and kids are rolling, jumping, laughing all about. The rest of the site is a hazardous place by any simple construction standards but this is where these kids learn to handle the struggle they’ve got to face when they grow up. In the cool confines of this big ditch these few families sleep under the open skies of a free country and at day time they work or loiter within. The twisted and deformed reinforcement bars jetting out of pillars look like a work of art as they look like sculptures, each similar in character and purpose, yet different.

These migrant labourers have this job at hand, which they are free to choose because there aren’t many options. It looks like a happy place unless we impose the specifications of modern living standards in this analysis. If the site wasn’t a deep ditch like this, life here would have been different - the temporary inhabitants would have needed walls or plastic sheets. From a distance I could see the site contractor standing on the edge barting loud instructions and himself passing down long cut steel bars in the pit. There are occasional slips, and as a consequential action some large chunks of loose earth and stone fall. The solid bricks miss the worker but his head couldn’t escape a football sized clay lump finally crumbling into pieces after the contact. The guy then scrabbles his head a few times for next few minutes and is energetically back to work. Next to him, about a feet away, are reinforcement bars jetting out at his eye level. The work of art.

The labourers don’t mind this living condition because the contractor gives them the job. They try to live the best out of available, so expecting the contractor to supply helmets and toilets is probably little too much for the money he earns. Unless his employer, the builder, who is selling each flat in this building for a sum this currently resident family might earn in their lifetime, does something out of a haughty gesture or concern. Perhaps again it’s expecting a bit too much from him because he may argue he has competition right there then. I hope he will plead ignorance. Or maybe, the larger God the government, or the indifferent municipality does something to regulate – but then at what price and what do they get in return?