Sunday, December 10, 2000		Scene Stealers

It was only appropriate that a Chandigarh-based architectural firm should bag the prestigious Anandgarh Sahib project and still more logical that Namita and Satnam should be chosen from among dozens of national and international bidders. The architect-couple has done Chandigarh proud time and again by winning open contests for prestigious projects like the Congress Bhavan in Chandigarh, Dashmesh Academy, Vazir Sultan Tobacco Company’s housing project in Hyderabad, Naval Academy project in Ezhimala, Kerala, and the Punjab Udyog Bhavan project. "It is a real challenge to be awarded projects through open competitions. You are then matching your skills with the best in the field," says Namita, who met Satnam while they were studying at Architecture College, Chandigarh. Satnam was in the first batch of the college, while Namita was a year junior to him.

Satnam has been dreaming about an Anandgarh-like project to come his way for years. He prepared himself for the biggest challenge in his life by studying city planning and demographic changes which urbanisation brings about. He has also devoted considerable time to researching ancient and modern city plans internationally. "I am a little bit of socialist in my thinking. The common man and his needs are of tremendous importance to me , and so I have given them top priority in my design for Anandgarh," he avers.

The design truly reflects the duo’s concerns. As per the blueprint, the city square or the city centre will be surrounded by cooperative housing societies’ highrise buildings in which about 60 per cent of the new city’s working class will live. The next block will be made up of small tenements with green areas around them. There will be schools, community centres, shops etc in the block. "This way," he says, " The working class will not have to commute over large distances for their daily needs or to reach the workplace. They will not have to spend time or money on transport."

The next block will again have flats followed by the last block which will have large plots for the rich. Satnam and Namita have also taken care to design roads in such a way that there will be continuous flow of traffic. "There will be very few traffic lights, and provision for flyovers for fast moving vehicles has been incorporated in the design. For pedestrians and cyclists, underpasses have been provided for," they say.

The main feature of this satellite town will be that residential areas will have houses for all strata of society so that there is no segregation on the basis of earnings. However, individual identity will be maintained, they claim. Satnam is keen to retain the identity and character of the villages which are going to fall within the Anandgarh project. He has also planned out pedestrian pathways which are reminiscent of traditional Indian streets.

The couple has virtually lived in the office for days together to plan and design for every need of the new city. Here is hoping that Anandgarh Sahib succeeds where Chandigarh failed and the names of Satnam and Namita go down in annals of history as architects of great merit and vision.

RANJIT LAL, among one of the top ornithologists of the country, has made bird watching a vocation. A keen environmentalist, Ranjit is associated with the NGO Kalpvriksh. To Kalpvriksh’s credit, it has taken over the greening of the famous ridge and waged a relentless war to rid it of encroachments.

Ranjit Lal is a recluse, who is the happiest while watching the antics of the bird kingdom and clicking their photos (he happily gave their slides instead of his own photo). His writing table faces the wall, because "otherwise no work will be done, as I will just gaze out of my bay windows overlooking the woods".

He comes across as an earnest man, who is not very forthcoming with words. One literally has to coax him to speak. He fondly remembers his childhood house in Madras, which had a big garden. Since there were no indoor distractions such as TV, the children had to amuse themselves outdoors. "That is how I got attracted to nature,"says this avid nature lover. When he searched for literature on the subject, Ranjit discovered that there was very little that was available on India.

In college, he was all set to be an automobile designer but it was fate that willed otherwise, as he says: "Since I had a heart problem, that field was out. As an alternative, I started dabbling in journalism. My forte was satire". Around that time he got a binocular which changed his life. He would spend hours watching birds.

The first book that he wrote was published by Penguin India in 96’ called Crow Chronicles, it is set in a National Park. The war of the crows is described as a battle between good and evil forces. It illustrates how the desperate hour produces unlikely heroes. The book creates a pungent political satire in the tradition of George Orwells’ Animal Farm. The book got rave reviews, "but I never tried to promote it", says Ranjit.

The second book Enjoying Birds was titled after his heart. It is in a coffee-table format. Birds are described as colourful, clownish, graceful and stunningly beautiful. Three more manuscripts of Ranjit’s books have been accepted by publishers. "But the process is long and tedious, the race is between which comes out last" he says. He is worried about the extinction of the plumed species due to pollution, pesticide and filth. "Our environment is like a time-bomb. Vultures have contracted a virus and peacocks are dying because of the spraying of pesticides."

He loves photographing nature."In Bombay, I used to do candid photography but I never really enjoyed it, because it is like spying on people", says this keen naturalist. Ranjit contributes to a number of newspapers and magazines including writing for Tehlka.com. In his own quiet way, he is also working to improve the Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary.

— Belu Maheshwari