the beach

the basic design exercises this year have been incredible. yesterday was the day of the final jury of the last project and all the work was absolutely brilliant. beginning with ideas emerging from and observation/experience of juhu beach the kids made some incredible installations in the school and on the beach. what that meant was that the day was a whirlwind of moving from the beach in the morning to the school and back to the beach in the evening and for the final installations to the school again. and in all those trips there was no way to avoid the abhi ash obsessed media created traffic jams outside jalsa or prateeksha. it was like being on a roller coaster holiday with sightseeing trips planned out for you of the most surreal places in the city.

on the beach rollers and stamps made intricate patterns of garbage only to be washed away with the tide,

ping pong balls scampered out of the ground when the water came rushing in,



people popped their heads into a periscope like box to experience the vastness of the ocean,

and strange objects blew bubbles and popped out of the sand (almost).

in the school the entire workshop became an ocean sound making machine through the manipulation of the motors there,

the av room was turned into a night sky with a cloud of delicate and pretty lights from the beach,

a game of light and shadows made ghosts out of men

in the darkness of a lecture room you found fans, lights and bubbles enveloping you.

it was a lovely day whose perpetual movement was only disturbed by another child’s mother pleading for us to forgive her sons lies and laziness by throwing medical certificates and tears.

as if it were not enough for us to spend the whole day thinking and talking about the beach; after the jury we sat at sea view for beer before ninad me got us a beach massage with fireworks exploding above our heads.