Ahmedabad! 

It’s been almost two years since I left this place. People say photographs bring back memories, but more than memories it is the travel experience that leads to an emotional connection, which we all hold on to… Each and every one of us leaves a piece of us while we travel, either in people, place or products. There are many such emotional journeys that I could share on the three P’s of travel but a special one is the shared two-bedroom house that I resided in. 


Place: 

Home away from home, this really old apartment gave me comfort as no other place would. This bedside window was my favorite through the initial years of college where I came home just to eat and sleep. I love how the light is not harsh or dull but good enough to relish as it passed through the curtains. Most of my mornings were waking up to the strong ghee smell from the house above which kept reminding me of my moms cooking through the years I lived there.

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Product: 

As design students, we all test our prototypes on ourselves and our friends. Also as students, we don’t get to invest in furniture rather use our own works though they are not completed products but yet functional outcomes of our thoughts and processes. A piece of beautiful low-seating furniture made by my friend became my companion through the final year of college. Yes, an emotional connect towards a product - as comfortable as possible, flexible enough to move around, and oh it understood me though it conversed with me in silence and sometimes creaks here and there. Are you one of them who has conversations with objects? I’m sure all designers do. The small Japanese style furniture had all my love and yes I did leave it behind for the ones moving in after. 


People:

Moving cities is always fun. Learning new languages, communicating in mixed ways possible and getting embarrassed 90% of the time, also being asked by the auto-rickshaw or cab drivers ‘Are you Madrasi?’ for my poor spoken-Hindi skills. In spite of all this, I had people who understood me and replied back with patience, one of them being the security person of the apartment. Every day while I step out to college, that’s the place he sits and enjoys his morning chai in that simple furniture. I wish I had captured more pictures of the same through seasons. He is the one most relaxed person I’ve met, similar to the ones who we’ve always seen in old movies. Our conversations have always been a smile, sign languages or yes, no, theek hai. 


I captured these photographs so I could hold on to these emotions forever. We cannot carry the product, person or the place everywhere we go, but we hold on to the emotions. I’m sure all of us have a similar connection in life, not everything we share is reciprocated to us in the way we wanted it or thought it would be. And this is my emotional connect.