It is nearly twenty years since I started designing and building houses for my clients in Kerala. During these years I had been studying closely with utmost attention on details about house design and construction. I have done several experiments, attempts, trying out ideas, developing new ways of doing while studying and questioning old established ways of design and construction. In fact it was a long journey of study, research and development. What I am today is mostly due to this hard work over years almost fully dedicated to the profession.
I have also tried communicating with lots of people in different parts of the world through my blogs trying to create awareness of need for professional design, involvement and guidance from beginning to end of constructing a house in Kerala. I knew it is tough to change mindset of Kerala people who still have the feeling and belief that a local mason without any formal education or training is all that required to design and build a house.
One thing which surprises me a lot is, people still ask me about Engineering college which I studied as if those four years is the only period in my life when I got all knowledge for being a professional in building construction. I quite often smile or laugh hearing a question like that. In fact those four years I hardly studied anything. May be a few vocabulary in technical jargon. Nothing more. May be building up few friendships which in later life do not mean much. Those four years were an attempt to get through those exams somehow or the other, rather than a determined quest for learning and developing knowledge in Architecture, Structural Engineering, and Art related to design and construction and Vasthu.
I do not know why people still think that those years in college are the most important part of learning. On this aspect there was a funny incident in high court of Kerala recently when a Judge asked a lawyer how much VS Achuthanandan studied in school. Lawyer replied: “Possibly up to seventh standard” Judge then offered to teach legal procedure to “ignorant “VS. His reply when this matter was brought to his attention is similar to my ideas given earlier:
”I have studied for 70 long years in the school of world interacting with people. No one can give a better education to me”
A successful professional is not produced by any engineering or other professional training schools/colleges. It is the result of determined efforts of the person to become a successful professional. In this process, no chapter is left out of study. No copying of assignments is done. No cheating in exam hall is there. No favour from any teacher is required.
A good professional try hard to win full marks for his study. He does not want to miss even one mark. Because, he is not trying to convince some one about his capability and efforts. He is doing it to satisfy his own mind trying hard to reach perfection and no compromises are acceptable in that process.
