Are Australians Recist
Topic: Racism of Australians

This has reference to the article, “Don’t tar all of Australia as racist” by Swapan Dasgupta in the Times of India ,7^th June .

 

When a few Nazi zealots meted out barbaric treatment to the Jews was not the entire German people tarred as Racist? What about Rhodesia, erstwhile South Africa or Mobutu’s Uganda? If on every alternate day (statistics given by Dasgupta) one Indian gets physically assaulted does it not smack of Racism? It is inappropriate  of Dasgupta to compare the incidences with wariness felt by “Marathi Manoos” about Chatt Pooja in Mumbai; it only exposes his bias. In this context my experience of a group of about 20 well educated Australians men and women in their forties is worth narrating.

 

About 4 years back I was (with my wife and 40 year old son) on a guided couch tour of East Europe conducted by a well known British tour operator. Apart from 3 of us there was one old south Korean lady, a Doctorate in languages teaching at a university in her country. The Australians behaved, by my conservative Indian standards, in a most atrocious manner with all of us “non-whites”; making constant fun of the old lady and taking her photographs while she was dozing in the bus and generally making it impossible for us to be alone or have any privacy. They made fun of my wife when on the last day of the tour she had donned a Sari and intruded in every picture frame making obscene faces. I have the photographs as proof! I wrote to the Tour operator,predictably not receiving even an acknowledgement! After all who is this “Oldy” Indian complaining against White men? I had thought of writing to the Australian Consulate to remind them that such behaviour does not exactly spread good feelings about their country but did not as I also did not want to Tar all of Australia as Recist. But I think it is now time the world did so.

 

Padma Awards
Topic: Bharat Ratna

Padma Awards

 

 “Plaint against Dhoni, Bhajji “(Times of India 20^th April 2009) brings home the truth that  Cricket is no more a sport but a ‘business’, more ‘lucrative’ than a Padmashri. If the President of India who frequently visits Mumbai and Maharashtra  found it fit to send a clerk to ‘deliver’ the highest award of this nation-Bharat Ratna- to the great Bhimsen Joshi  why blame two ‘self auctioned’ cricketers for absenting from the award ceremony? It is time for the Government to introspect about its criteria for these awards. It has long since instituted national level awards for Sports and Sportsmen (Arjun), for literature (Gyanpeeth), Sanget Natak Academy awards for visual &performing arts, ‘Udyog shri’ for industry and National awards for Films & Film artists. It should therefore consider giving the Padma awards to a very select few whose life and works have truly brought glory to the country and not ‘distribute’ these to all and sundry as ‘Favours’ as the British did with ‘Raosaheb’ and Raobahudar’! Let Padma awards be a rare  bestowal that the recipient will feel honoured to receive.

 

 

Why is M.F.Husain absconding?
Topic: M.F.Husain

 

Why is M.F.Husain absconding?

 

Shobha De fervently pleads for return of M.F.Husain (Times of India 1st Nov.2009.). Who is stopping him from returning? He has fled to escape the charge of disrespect to the country, Ms. De claims, he made his home for 8 decades! Talking of ‘Tameez’, did he (or now does she while defending him) have any, despite having represented the motherland (Bharatmata) as a nude cheap siren? And she talks of decency! It is plain and simple treason. He will be pardoned for painting the ‘Hindu’ gods and goddesses in nude because it is the “in” thing in this country to  insult the majority community to prove our ‘secular’ credentials! But is it a moral issue if people expect an Indian National to respect his country? If he did’nt have any wicked intentions, what stopped him from offering an apology? As rightly observed by her, with Congress in power in the Centre and the State he may even be welcomed back as a Hero! Don’t worry Mrs. De you will not be alone to receive him back, there will be many ‘chamchas’ of the system present at the airport to do so!  

 

Competition for designing a new capital for Chattisgarh, India

I made a submission recently, jointly with Christopher Benninger, for pre-qualification to design the new Capital for Chattisgarh. I am the only Indian Planner to have planned a new capital (for
Gujarat). Christopher has planned towns in Sri Lanka and India. Together, we are now preparing the plan for Bhutan's Capital, a commission won against a host of international firms including MIT (USA). Few would have such excellent credentials. The selection committee, while short listing consultants who have not prepared a single city development plan in India, rejected us! A coincidence perhaps that, years ago, I had declined to select one of the committee members to a HIGHER post in the Central Government service, as he had been earlier rejected for a LOWER post there itself!

A rare assignment to design a capital city will now be hogged by those trying to appear tall standing on the shoulders of "Foren" consultants! Recently, a Danish firm (its local office in Chennai run by an Indian civil engineer) was selected to prepare the structure plan for Hyderabad, rejecting among others, a proposal given by us. Lacking real competence for the job, it sub-contracted the work to a School of Planning! Realizing the true "worth" of the "Foren" firm perhaps, Government of Andhra Pradesh has now asked them to engage Christopher Benninger as an Advisor to oversee their work!

This dismal failure of the selection system is causing the profession, the art and the country an irreparable damage! Do qualities other than professional competence count most in consultancy selection? Can any honest planners then have faith in the dictum ‘merit shall prevail'? The tragedy is not this rejection of real merit; it is to be made a helpless witness to the banishment of the professional competence by the ‘Marketeer'! The outcome of Chattisgarh will show the true worth of the selected and the veracity of the judgment of the selectors. But this is not my first experience of inappropriate selection!

A few years ago, I was a candidate for the post of Professor and head of department of Architecture at M.S. University of Baroda and Director of School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi. Settled in Baroda for three generations, I had hoped, given an opportunity, to bring up the Department of Architecture there to the national level and repay my debt to my ‘Gurus' Prof. Dave and Achwal. But despite the Vice-chancellor's inclination for my appointment, another Architect was selected. Devoid of commitment to education or a stake in Baroda, he kept the department in a limbo by taking up a job in USA without resigning his post in Baroda and dragging the matter in the law courts for years together! The department has never come out of the mire that it got into because of his selection!

At the interview in the Delhi School, I said that the Director should be a coordinator managing heads of departments. In the belief that the Director must provide academic leadership, a Professor was selected. The turbulent times the school went through as a result, is history. The School recently had a Director, who was more of a CAD expert! Bringing up and managing institutions is a different ball game and not every Architect or Planner's cup of tea! Qualities other than professional or academic excellence like; dedication to a cause, management skills and personal background, are more important in such assignments. That is why the IAS scores over the Technocrats. Yet, there is a tendency to apply a single parameter of architectural attainments for any type of assignment!

In retrospect, not joining the academia has in fact benefited me financially and professionally! But in the process, two good institutions almost went to dog. Not having been considered "eligible" for the school assignments, I thought that at least my proved and internationally accepted expertise in planning a new capital city and experience of 40 years in town planning would be recognized for the Chattisgarh assignment! For reasons best known to them, the selectors appear to have overlooked it!

If those who are eulogized as the "beacons" of light in this profession themselves fail to educate and guide the "powers", what would be the future of this profession and the country?

P.M.Apte

Dec. 2001

 

 

Identifying bounded aquifers in Mumbai
Identifying bounded aquifers in Mumbai

This refers to an informative article ‘Urban Info.Systems for Planning' in ‘Cordinates' June 2007. I was not aware that the system would include mapping by GPR. I wonder if Mumbai is included for the GPR input.

My particular interest is because I have suggested in my 2 part article ‘Water, Water Everywhere" (Feb.-March 2007 issues of Times Journal of Construction & Design) that the Municipal corporation in Mumbai could take up a pilot project in 1 or 2 wards of the city a rain water harvesting project based on identification of bounded aquifers which can be used to store water by creating percolation tanks in those wards . To that end the land use plans of these wards can be modified to create large open spaces by using the TDR to compensate the affected land owners.
Can such an idea work? Simple methods of percolation in a city like Mumbai can just drain off the underground water to the sea and hence it is necessary to identify such bounded aquifers by GPR.

Prakash M Apte

Careers in Town Planning in India
Careers in Town Planning
Town and regional planning (Town Planning for short) involves making long and short-term decisions for management and development of cities, towns and regions. A Town Plan aims to find the balance between competing demands for land for housing, industry, commerce & business, recreation, transport; to create a healthy environment for human habitat and direct the city growth
Town planning is a broad area of work, requiring many different skills. Being a multi-disciplinary field, a town planner must have team spirit, leadership and coordination, administrative and managerial skills, writing reports, addressing meetings, and work closely with other professionals like architects, civil Engineers, lawyers, sociologists and economists. Knowledge of computers is essential as computer-aided design systems help.
The rapid expansion of cities and towns in India has created a need for more Town Planners to properly direct the growth of towns & cities. Opportunities exist in government and private sector. After B.Tech./M.Tech. in Town Planning, one can join government organizations or private planning consultants. Planners are required mainly by local authorities, metropolitan planning organizations, Industrial development authorities, housing boards, tourism corporations, Town & Country Planning Departments of State Governments. Large industrial and business houses need them to plan their campuses. There are openings in construction companies and environmental organizations. Increasing number of colleges require teachers in town planning. One can go into consulting after sufficient experience.
Town Planning is offered as a 4 year undergraduate (B.Tech) at a few institutes but mostly as a post graduate (M.Tech.) course (after a bachelor degree in Architecture, civil engineering, Geography, Sociology etc.). The Town Planning course covers architecture, civil engineering, geography, economics and sociology, transportation, and planning of housing, infrastructure, industrial and commercial uses. Post graduation in town planning is offered in specialized fields like environmental planning, housing, urban design and transportation planning.

The CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) conducts entrance examination (All India Engineering Entrance Examination- AIEEE) for entry to undergraduate programmes in B. Planning offered at SPA in Delhi, Guru Ramdas College Amritsar, School of planning Chennai. Colleges in many states offer post graduation in Planning and conduct admission tests. The Institute of Town Planners, India, helps regulate planning education in India and offers distance education to eligible employed candidates. A list of accredited institutes offering undergraduate and post graduate courses in town planning in India can be had from its office at 4-A Ring Road I.P. Estate New Delhi 110 002.

Prakash M Apte

 

Affordable House
Affordable House

The problem is well defined and researched by Mr.Rybcznski.It is true that the unaffordability of a house, specifically in metropolitan cities in India is due to high cost of serviced land. Even this cost is not the real cost of servicing the land but the "speculative opportunity cost" of serviced land. The present per square foot prices of apartments in Mumbai for example range between Rs. 65,000(approx. 1413 US $)at Colaba-southern most tip of the island city- to Rs.1400(approx.30.40 US$) at Vasai the northern suburb a variation of almost4648%! Not surprisingly the cost of construction at the two locations for similar specifications varies by hardly 50%. The key to affordable housing is therefore the availability of serviced land at affordable prices rather than the construction cost.The Government has addressed the issue by
1 Reducing the size of a house to as low as 225 sq. ft. of carpet area.
2 By making such houses available to the lowest income groups at cost of construction.
The result is that the occupants, despite various legal constraints, manage to sell the apartment at the market rate earning a profit of anything up to 2000%!
So long as the opportunity cost of land in cities like Mumbai is much higher than the real cost the so called affordable housing will ultimately be taken up by the rich.
A possible remedy lies in not reducing the cost of construction or size of a residential unit but reducing the opportunity cost of serviced land by making the metropolitan cities less "attractive' for the speculators. Rather than architectural or engineering solutions an urban planning and strategy has to be devised to make affordable housing a reality.

Prakash M Apte
10/20/2008

Symbol for Indian Rupee
My Concept & Theme for Indian Rupee Symbol.

I have created two symbols which are an adaptation of the two Devnagari Alphabets viz.

"SHREE" & "RU".

‘Shree' means "Wealth" and represents "Laxmi" the goddess of wealth.
This letter is inscribed on top of all documents written in Ancient India as an auspicious symbol and still used in Devnagari.

If written by hand the proposed symbols of "Shree" & "RU" require only 2 strokes as in case of the currency symbols for Dollars, Pounds, Yen or Euro dollars( one has to lift the hand only once to complete the symbol )

"RU" is a rarely used alphabet except by "Panini" in his grammatical treatise in ‘Sanskrit" the most ancient spoken and written language of the world.

"RU" stands for "RUSHI" (Sage) and also the phonetic abbreviation of "RUPEE" or "Rupyakani" in Sanskrit inscribed on all Indian paper currency

Both these symbols evoke the deeply rooted emotions in the subconscious mind of Indian people and represent their traditions and culture.

The two symbols are not connected with any particular religion but represent the ancient culture of India.

Both these very effectively represent the "Value" of the Indian Rupee.

Prakash M. Apte
April 2009

New Capital for Chattisgarh:Letter to Architect A.P. Kanvinde
Prakash M. Apte Mumbai
13th Sept.2002

Dear Shri Kanvinde,

The contents of your letter of 2nd (received on 11th ) did not surprise me. I had feared all along that your international reputation as an Architect and a man of integrity could be greatly harmed by your involvement as a Jury member in this competition, which, from its very beginning, did not follow an honest procedure. Had it been a fair process, we (myself and C.Benninger) would certainly have been short listed.

All the same, my great regard for you and faith in your sagely character has only been further strengthened by your letter. There may be other great Architects but there just cannot be another like you with the courage of his conviction to hold the integrity of his profession above pecuniary gains. Believe me sir, there never was one like you nor will there be another. Earlier also, in my letter to the journal of IIA I had paid tributes to you not merely as an Architect but more as a great human being.

When I was vociferously protesting against the building of 55 flyovers in Mambai at an estimated cost of Rs. 4000 cores, to facilitate only the cars, which according to MMRDA account for only 4.8% of the daily trips (67% by local trains and 23% by buses), a wise man had to enlighten me that I was blind to the minimum Rs 1400 crores (35% of the expenditure) that would ultimately line the pockets of the bureaucrats and the politicians!

The building of the new capital is currently estimated to cost Rs. 5000 crores. Does a poor state like Chattisgarh need to build a new capital city? Even if so, do we need to design it as a totally new city in the age old mould of new capitals of the world? What is essential is an administrative center with facilities for WORK, why shift the WORKFORCE with families, supporting population and create BRAND NEW PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE that would cost Rs. 5000 crores? Only to satisfy the ego of a city planner? Why not follow a multi nucleated approach , develop existing smaller settlements around the WORK CENTRE to a minimum standard and spend more on a RAPID TRANSIT BUS NETWORK connecting these settlements to the WORK CENTRE for journey to work? This approach may require hardly 10% of the estimated cost of 5000 crores and achieve the same purpose. But, as I said in my letter to the Indian Express, how will then the Consultants and the Bureaucrats get their kickbacks?

A very small nation-Bhutan-probably just as big in size as Chattisgarh, with great pride in its culture and aware of the perils that Urbanization and urbanism has brought in its wake in India and other developing countries, accepted our suggestion not to expand its capital Thimphu and make it just another capital city. Instead the wise King and his Ministers accepted our ideas of developing "Urban villages" around Thimphu and let people live in their traditional way, habitat and culture, only journeying to Thimphu for work or business by a rapid transit bus route, thus reducing by 75% the costs that would be incurred for laying a mammoth infrastructure of services to expand Thimphu.

Chattisgarh has a very ancient history. When the kingdom was divided between two princes, there were a total of 36 forts (Chattis Gadh) in the kingdom. The two capitals were Ratanpur and Raipur. Ratanpur is located just north of Bilaspur east of Kota on the railway line. In the belief that I, with my background of having planned Gandhinagar, the new capital of Gujarat and Benninger with his experience of having planned 4 towns in Shrilanka and our joint work on Thimphu in Bhutan would be a sure choice, at least for short listing for planning Chattisgarh new capital, I had made a very detailed study and research for the location of the new capital.

This site just west of an ancient lake north of Bilaspur is ideally suited for the new administrative center for Chattisgarh. The work force can stay in the smaller settlements of Sakri, Bilaspur,Kota etc. around this proposed site for the work center and all the infrastructural requirements for them could be provided at a marginal cost and funds available from the central Govt. schemes for development of small and medium towns without any burden on the state finances whatsoever! This would only require a competition for design of a Capitol comprising of the Legislative assembly building and offices for the different ministries and may be some residences for essential staff and hostel for legislators and guest houses for the ministers. But such ‘low cost' solutions do not "suite" our decision makers of today!

You have made a courageous gesture by walking out of the jury and refusing the very large amount being offered as an honorarium(?). Have you ever had an experience of such a large amount offered as an honorarium to an Indian Jury in an Indian competition? Do you think there was more to it than what appeared on the face of it? I had mentioned about one of the Jury members in my first letter. Do you know that the second "god fearing" one works in Bangalore as a Consultant?

Before these Jury members and the promoters have an opportunity to spread false reports, DON'T YOU THINK YOU SHOULD WRITE TO THE PROFESSIONAL JOURNALS AND THE PRESIDENTS OF THE IIA AND ITPI AND NARRATE YOUR EXPERIENCE? You owe it to your conscience and your profession to let the world know the facts. In your position, one could even write an open letter to the Chief Minister of the State and publish it in the leading English dailies.

You are an internationally acclaimed and revered Architect with an impeachable record and reputation, having lived a full and professionally glorious life. You cannot be cowed down and made to stoop to the level of a Ribeiro or Gurumukhi. In anyr action you may take purely in the interest of ensuring ethics and morality in the profession and the country, all honest professionals will support it and be ever grateful to you.

With regards and Sashtang Namaskar to a Rushi among Architects,

Sincerely ,

P.M.Apte

India more equal than others?
To,
The Editor,
Times of India,
Mumbai.

5th June 2007

The article "By global standards, India more equal than others" by Subodh Varma, appearing in TOI 3rd June 2007 is brazenly misleading and confusing to say the least!. The author has conveniently failed to point out that,
1)The comparison between various countries may not be accurate as the data comes from surveys covering different years and using different methodologies.
2)The data has been cleverly manipulated to misrepresent the current economic condition in India and does not corroborate his statements... "India is a land of contrasts: how extreme wealth exists cheek by jowl with shocking poverty. We see these contrasts everyday." and "Over 70% of the population has a monthly per capita expenditure below the national average of Rs. 555. This indicates the low levels of income prevalent in the country ..."
3)The author fails to recognize that the disparity metric by itself is not an indicator of well being of a people, as the author wants us to believe. Though the disparity ratio is stated to be higher in the US as compared to India, most of the lowest 10% in the US have all their basic needs (food, shelter and clothing) satisfied while 70% of the total populace in India are below the poverty line!
4) The data used in the article is a consumption data which indicates lower levels of inequality between the poor and rich.

Without understanding the statistical significance or the applicable relevance of the data, the author seems to have "cut and pasted" it from the Human Development report (http://hdr.undp.org) and cobbled together a confusing article. The author's conclusion of "prosperity meaning unequal distribution of wealth and incomes" has been pulled out of thin air. It would appear that the article is more of a sponsored advertisement (India Shining!) than a reflection of the truth!

Prakash M Apte