I was scouring the NET to see if I could get any information on Laurie Baker's report on Sabarimala. But except for synopsis, drafted by various news publishers I could not get a trace. Neither from his official web site. But I stumbled upon something else, and any one who lived ones childhood in Thiruvananthapuram of the sixties and early seventies would feel pained and helpless- an article published in the Indian Express in 1995 and written by Laurie Baker. (The sketch of the Indian Coffee house is nostalgic)..
Click on the link below to read on
7 comments:
It is priceless! It took a foreigner to SEE this lovely town. Baker would shudder to see it now-quite likely he would smile and calmly take out his sketch book.
Torn between Himalayas and Kerala! I can understand that!
One of those sketches looks like the old coffee house near the YWCA. We had a similar coffee house near Medical College ( my fondest memory),now replaced by a dirty one in a multi storied building. The new assembly building is an insult to architecture itself.I have never seen such a hideous looking building any time,any where.
Baker was our immediate neighbor ,when as a medical student,I stayed with my brother. He had a property at Wagamon, where he had built a lovely house.He was an exemplary architect who kept nature close to his heart.
@ Balan,
I wonder if he would be sketching still.
@ doc antony,
umm you did not forget the "land mark".
If Baker had designed the Assembly block , then the cost would be halved or even a fourth of what it eventually got to, then where is the money to be eaten by the parasites?
Just like animals at the verge of extinction, these are things that face annihilation from the ‘modern’ society…
@ Deeps,
And the beast that is called "man" is fooled up and believes he can survive by himself.
LB is regarded as the only true indian architect! ironic! i think his life and work is testimony to the fact that education in india is classroom based instead of imparting practical knowledge.
@ Kaalpanique
You will quickly identify with him. The pathos develops faster in the architect that you are.
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