We live in a world where virtually everything we do is shared online. What we eat. Where we go. How we go. Whom we meet. And so on.
But we only share the best parts or the parts that would gain the most ‘likes’. We avoid sharing the seemingly boring parts of the day. The activities that the world would consider boring. We alter our lives to seem more exciting for the society around us.
DBR Mills came across my purview more than a decade ago. I heard about it in passing and was curious to learn more about it. Old news articles told me that DBR (Dewan Bahadur Ramgopal) Mills shut down in 1992 temporarily but was never opened after that. Today, two and a half decades after its closure, the buildings line in complete ruin.
Over the past year or so, we have been surprising our clients with a little present on their wedding anniversaries. We wanted to give them something physical, a keepsake of sorts, unlike the usual greeting card on their first anniversary. I put myself in the feet of a newly married couple and tried to think from their perspective. Given that I was also recently married, I realized that we often think of printing photos but rarely get to the act of doing it. So I decided to make some beautiful prints of the best moments of their wedding and compile them in a folio box. These 12 prints look great on the wall, on a desk and can be framed for extra effect.
About 8 years ago, transitioning from a teenager to a twenty year old, I always wanted to go out and have fun. Eat new types of food, try out new drinks and stay up as late as possible. That was not always possible, mostly due to financial limitations. At that point, I used to observe the relatively older people around me and wonder why they were not doing more exciting things. After all, they had money and freedom of time (or at least that’s what I thought). Why would any red blooded human being not want to spend their money on eating out, drinking more beer and partying till the early hours? Nobody could stop them. It seemed almost bizarre to me, not to make the most of their freedom, and I claimed that I would not be like that when I was older.
2017 went by faster than I expected. It feels like it was just yesterday that I had finished with 2016 wedding season with a quiet New Years’ Eve at home. As I grow older, it is obvious that a single year forms a smaller part of my life, statistically speaking, and hence the feeling of ‘time flying by’. For example, when you are 10 years old, 1 year forms a significant 10% of your life time. But when you are 30, 1 year is a mere 3% of your life. And that figure will only keep decreasing.
The year is 2037. A loved one has passed away. You grieve over your loss. You want to relive your favourite moments with them. You recall the summer of 2017 when you traveled together. Your fading memory can only relive so many moments so you want to see the photos again. But they are stuck in your iPhone 7 whose battery died a long time ago. But you had also copied the photos to your pen drive. Alas, USB ports don’t exist anymore. All you are left with is a low res image on Instagram/Facebook with multiple filters applied.
Exactly 10 years ago, I went to England for the first time in my life, as a curious teenage not knowing what to expect from this nation. My father told me to go with an open mind and so I did. Looking back, University was the perfect environment to try out all the things that you’d always wanted to do, without any real world repercussions. It was a simulation of sorts of the outside world, complete with its own internal politics, competing egos and conflicting personalities.
Often, we find inspiration from places where we least expect it. Earlier this year, I was traveling in Europe and came across the gardens of Villa Borghese in Rome. While the gardens are themselves quite vast, the real gem lies in a villa within them. The Galleria Borghese was started by the nephew of Pope Paul V and houses an extensive collection of art & sculptures. However, what impressed me was the actual interiors of the building. Every tiny corner was decorated down to the last detail and no two rooms were alike. It was truly breathtaking.
My father had several little pieces of advice for me when I was growing up (and continues to have new words of wisdom for me) but one of his often repeated words were – “You are a product of society.” Being a hot headed kid at that point in time, I categorically disagreed with his statement. At the outset, the simple statement made me feel that I owed something to society even though I was “clearly” the one doing all the hardwork. Or so I thought. As I have grown older, I have come to appreciate the value and real meaning of those words. I realized that society plays a large part in shaping our lifestyles and thoughts, whether we like it or not.
Study well and you will be successful. Be sincere and you will be rewarded. Work hard and you can have a nice car and a big house. The world around us teaches us to believe that success in life is measured by our apparent wealth and fame. Maintaining a good image in society matters a lot. We are engaged in a constant competition with our peers and are always ‘keeping up with the Joneses‘. We feel that it is important to drive a better car than the neighbour, live in a bigger house and wear better clothes. Living a good life has become about holidays in Bali, driving around in an Audi and wearing suits by Armani (hey, that rhymes!).
