dear ankita

new york / hong kong musings, visual diary, questions and observations

[dearankita]

Revival

I have decided this blog needs a revival. Writing, reflecting and capturing the magic of life has always been so important to me and I have allowed myself to let it slip. There’s enough social media bashing that I don’t think I need to add to the noise, but I do think that the instantaneous nature of platforms like Facebook and Instagram distract me from taking time out to really acknowledge how things are going. 

In my urban class this semester, we keep circling back to the idea of maintenance versus growth. Our discussions have centred around the notion of how cities are always focused on building new things rather than maintaining existing assets and infrastructure. There seems to be an obsession with newness. This is something I have been thinking about a lot since arriving in New York. There is a tendency in many modern societies to quickly discard the old and replace it with something new, instead of putting in the effort to maintain it so it lasts longer.

As I was thinking about returning to my blog, I thought about starting one from scratch. A clean state. And then I just thought to myself - why? There is loads on here from earlier stages of my life, stories and memories I’d like to preserve. Perhaps all I need to do is some maintaining. So here I am. Trying to brush off the dust from the lack of posting in a while to preserve a little digital space I hold so dearly.

[dearankita]

You're oriented to think of time as a means of accumulating, not just accumulating things, but degrees, extra curricular things that will look good in the job interview. We see our time as a means to accumulate things that will help us meet our ends and stepping back and looking at time as a resource itself, not just as resource itself but the most valuable resource you have is just what you do with your time and just say: okay, I am going to put that front and centre and I am not going to put my time to structure a life but I am going put time front and centre and try to make the decision that are necessary to where I completely own my time.

Brandon Stanton

[dearankita]

[dearankita]

Swooning over poster of a poem by Karin Boye. Saw it today and it instantly caught my eye.

Full poem below:

Yes, of course it hurts when buds are breaking. Why else would the springtime falter? Why would all our ardent longing bind itself in frozen, bitter pallor? After all, the bud was covered all the winter. What new thing is it that bursts and wears? Yes, of course it hurts when buds are breaking, hurts for that which grows                         and that which bars.

Yes, it is hard when drops are falling. Trembling with fear, and heavy hanging, cleaving to the twig, and swelling, sliding - weight draws them down, though they go on clinging. Hard to be uncertain, afraid and divided, hard to feel the depths attract and call, yet sit fast and merely tremble - hard to want to stay                    and want to fall.

Then, when things are worst and nothing helps the tree's buds break as in rejoicing, then, when no fear holds back any longer, down in glitter go the twig's drops plunging, forget that they were frightened by the new, forget their fear before the flight unfurled - feel for a second their greatest safety, rest in that trust                   that creates the world.

[dearankita]

Today came together wonderfully. I attended a conference for my studio project and discovered that Hilary Clinton (!!!!) was presenting at the same event later today. Then I Dean of School of Design Strategies at Parsons who is brilliant and really helped to steer the next steps for VergeNYC all while giving us the positive feedback and pep talk we needed at this point in the game. Things that have proved difficult and challenging are starting to come together and it is truly a wonderful feeling. 

Together with that, I feel so grateful to be around and to spend my time with so many amazing people. On our way back from the conference, I was talking to my two friends - one from Iran and the other from Iraq - about how New York proves itself to be the city where anyone and everyone can find a place. It doesn’t make you feel like a spectacle, an anomaly, or someone filling up the diversity quotient. Your opinion isn’t sought because you’re different “from the rest of us”, but simply because you are a person with an opinion worth hearing. I really, really love that. 

[dearankita]

The view from our 16th street studio. 

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Forever gushing over this photo.

[dearankita]

Bengali was my first language, what I spoke and heard at home. But the books of my childhood were in English, and their subjects were, for the most part, either English or American lives. I was aware of a feeling of trespassing. I was aware that I did not belong to the worlds I was reading about: that my family’s life was different, that different food graced our table, that different holidays were celebrated, that my family cared and fretted about different things. And yet when a book was in my possession, and as I read it, this didn’t matter. I entered into a pure relationship with the story and its characters, encountering fictional worlds as if physically, inhabiting them fully, at once immersed and invisible.

JHUMPA LAHIRI

[dearankita]

When people think of design, most believe it is about problem solving. Even the most expressive forms of design are about solving aesthetic problems. Faced with huge challenges such as overpopulation, water shortages, and climate change, designers feel an overpowering urge to work together and fix them, as though they can be broken down, quantified and solved. Design’s inherent optimism leaves no alternative but it is becoming clear than many of the challenges we face today are unfixable and that the only way to overcome them is by changing our values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviour. Although essential most of the time, design’s inbuilt optimism can greatly complicate things, first, as a form of denial that the problems we face are more serious than they appear, and second, by channeling energy and resources into fiddling with the world out there rather than the ideas and attitudes in our heads that shape the world out there. Rather than giving up altogether, there are other possibilities for design: one is to use design as a means of speculating how things could be – speculative design. This form of design thrives on imagination and aims to open up new perspectives on what are sometimes called wicked problems, to create spaces for discussions and debate about alternative ways of being, and to inspire and encourage people’s imaginations to flow freely. Design speculations can act as a catalyst for collectively redefining out relationship to reality.

-- Speculative Everything by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby

[explore-blog]

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.

C.S. Lewis (b. November 29, 1898) on the true measure of friendship – absolutely wonderful read.  (via explore-blog)

[dearankita]

New York so far has been all about stretching my creative muscles, feeling emboldened to try, to simply have a go at things I’d have otherwise considered twice. It has been tough to be on the steep part of the learning curve, but so gratifying at the same time. It’s hard to believe it’s only been two months; part of me feels like I’ve been here forever. The city has done an exceptional job at making me feel like I belong. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there is something so familiar about the streets. It makes me feel like I was always meant to end up here. It has really started to feel like home.

[onlinecounsellingcollege]

I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. If you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good.

Roal Dahl   (via thesoutherly)

[dearankita]

I swear to every heaven ever imagined, if I hear one more dead-eyed hipster tell me that art is dead, I will personally summon Shakespeare from the grave so he can tell them every reason why he wishes he were born in a time where he could have a damn Gmail account. The day after I taught my mother how to send pictures over Iphone she texted me a blurry image of our cocker spaniel ten times in a row. Don’t you dare try to tell me that that is not beautiful. But whatever, go ahead and choose to stay in your backwards-hoping-all-inclusive club while the rest of us fall in love over Skype. Send angry letters to state representatives, as we record the years first sunrise so we can remember what beginning feels like when we are inches away from the trigger. Lock yourself away in your Antoinette castle while eat cake and tweet to the whole universe that we did. Hashtag you’re a pretentious ass hole. Van Gogh would have taken 20 selflies a day. Sylvia Plath would have texted her lovers nothing but heart eyed emojis when she ran out of words. Andy Warhol would have had the worlds weirdest Vine account, and we all would have checked it every morning while we Snap Chat our coffee orders to the people we wish were pressed against our lips instead of lattes. This life is spilling over with 85 year olds rewatching JFK’s assassination and 7 year olds teaching themselves guitar over Youtube videos. Never again do I have to be afraid of forgetting what my fathers voice sounds like. No longer must we sneak into our families phonebook to look up an eating disorder hotline for our best friend. No more must I wonder what people in Australia sound like or how grasshoppers procreate. I will gleefully continue to take pictures of tulips in public parks on my cellphone and you will continue to scoff and that is okay. But I hope, I pray, that one day you will realize how blessed you are to be alive in a moment where you can google search how to say I love you in 164 different languages.

b.e.fitzgerald || Art is a Facebook status about your winter break.

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Something about this, I just love.

[dearankita]

Life got hectic towards year end, and I admittedly withdrew from updating anything on here. One month became two, and two became three. Outside a coffee shop I used to pass by everyday, there was once a message, "Life is what happens when you're busy staring at your smartphone." It made me laugh. It is true to some extent. Behind the scenes of the past 90 days has involved laughing until my face hurts, being utterly content with the company I keep, travelling, the quiet that comes with being in transition between point A and B, and devoting my days to work I love to be a part of.

[dearankita]

Flower shop near the office. 

[dearankita]

On Sunday, it was a Hong Kong that most of us couldn't quite recognise. Social media exploded with live updates and everyone was shocked to see photos of tear gas clouds hanging over the exceptionally large crowds. #OccupyCentral started trending on Twitter. I went to bed restless, waking up several times in the night to simply check the latest update. Worried about the people who were out there. Hoping that the violence stopped. Praying that no one got hurt. 

And ever since then, crowds have continued to grow, getting louder and bigger. Hong Kong has been breaking news on every news channel and the front page of major newspapers. In a mere two days, this whole new side of Hong Kong is starting to feel recognisable - it's a city full of people that are willing to put up a fight for something they believe in. 

[dearankita]

Silhouette city