Worrying on past and future,careless on present

Every living moment,our mind worries about many things.Worrying is a habit to us.Can you remember a moment when you do not worry about anything? May be when sleeping.On all other moments our mind continuously worries.If you look at face of most of the people,the face has always got a worried look.Some of them have even developed wrinkles on forehead due to continuous worrying  thus  turning wrinkles on forehead in to regular lines on forehead.

What are you worrying about? Mostly about mistakes committed in the past,opportunities missed,wrong decisions made and worrying lead you to unhappiness,despair and calling yourself as a fool,incapable person who has not done what should have been done at the right time , suffering and missing many good fortunes due to wrong moves,wrong decisions.
Worrying does not end with past.We always worry about future.What will happen to me in future? What all miseries,unhappiness,bad luck,wrong decisions,painful events wait for me in future? As if worrying about past is not sufficient we find many reasons to worry about future.
In this continuous story of worrying about past and future we forget to act properly in present.We simply do not worry about what we do in present till it become past.Once it become past,we start worrying about what could have been done about just passed actions of ours.
Ideally one should think about present,act intelligently,properly,correctly about whatever we are doing at present ,calmly without carelessness without allowing our mind to wander into past or future.Once we do everything in the present in the best possible manner within our capability and limitations,naturally we will have less to worry about our wrong actions in the past.Once we make less mistakes in the present,we get more confidence about doing everything correctly,properly,to the best of our ability in future.
This command over present which we normally throw away carelessly can change a lot.That will make our past more meaningful and less worrisome.Proper management of our present activities and present time will definitely give us more successes and rewards and we will definitely get more confidence and courage to face and manage future.
So live fully in present without worrying about past and future.Remember,no one has gained anything by worrying about past and future which are not in your hands.In fact such worries have caused failures in the present .As well managed present will turn out to be proud moments of past,your proper management of present will make your past look rosy and  future definitely cannot look bad,as your confidence level increases about your ability to manage correctly giving you hopes instead of worries about future.

Your dream house in Kerala

One day a young lady came to my office without any advance information and caught hold of my hand unusual for a Kerala lady and said-“I am coming from New York.I want to build a house.Can we discuss about it?”
That is how design and construction of house at Irinjalakuda started.Problems with her in making her dream house were many.
1.She has nobody except a retired father in law to look after construction.Even he is quite new in the place where they plan to construct house and hence cannot do much about construction other than watching in silence.
2.Father in law has already located a local builder and made a plan of the house.She is not so confident about capability and trustworthiness of that builder.
3.Communicating with that local builder from USA will be a problem and for monitoring and observing progress of work,she will have to depend solely on telephonic reports from father in law
4.Even she or father in law is not aware of technicalities involved in construction and hence there is no way to monitor or ensure quality of construction.
5.Accounting for work done needs a proper transparent arrangement which the local builder cannot ensure.
6.Just by looking at plan of the house made,she is not able to make out how the house will come out when finished and what features and facilities the house will have.
in short she is simply searching for a reliable professional who can guide them properly,manage finance for construction reliably and someone who can be fully trusted to make her dream house a reality.


After completion of the house ,she told me that many NRI malayalees like her really want to buy land in Kerala and construct a dream house where they can come and stay for few days of their vacation and come back and stay after retirement if they come back to India or sell at a later date at a good price if they do not want to come back and settle in Kerala for retirement.
But she also told me that in spite of having money most of the NRIs are not daring to venture into buying land and constructing house in Kerala as they are not hopeful of finding some one reliable to make their dream house a reality.
We have been trying to become this non existent reliable professional group who will fully take care of converting your dream house into reality with communication through blogs and emails making you feel like seeing your dream house coming up right in front of your eyes sitting in any far away corner of the world.




We have done many projects like that.For a Delhi based person working with a MNC without time to come and monitor construction of house at Kalady,for Dubai based persons at Ranni and Nilambur, for Botswana based Engineer at Cochin,For USA based persons at Cochin and Perumbavoor and the list go on .
We have recently started construction of  a house at Koratty.Husband is director of a pharmaceutical MNC based at Delhi travelling around the world and wife senior official of a foreign bank.Even though they are originally from Kerala,they were not having own land in Kerala and was nurturing a dream for a land and house in Kerala.
We have located land for their future house in Kerala.Did all documentation for land purchase,designed house,obtained building plan approval and now started construction.Sitting in any part of the world they can see pictures of work in progress of the house almost on daily basis through blog,communicate easily through emails and transfer funds through net and receive periodic bills also through net.



For doing all these,we are just billing clients practically on cost basis and quality of construction is strictly the best you can hope for with professional guidance and monitoring ensuring latest technology and best quality standards followed in each item and activity of construction.
Every house we design and build is normally offered for sale at almost double our billing amount by prospective buyers and we continuously get enquiries for purchase of houses which we have designed and built even though we always advice our clients not to sell the house as it will be practically impossible to get a similar house at the same cost.
Speciality of our design is that we have carefully chosen a  unique style of design which always give a bigger and appealing external appearance for the house as every malayalee client hope for.At Irinjalakuda we were building a 4000 sft house when a film star was having a 6000 sft house nearby.Half jokingly my client asked me-“Is it possible for our house to look bigger than that house with lesser area?”
I said –Yes and I kept my word.House really looks different,big and unique in its appearance.A still better looking design with 1000 sft less in plinth area is coming up at Cherthala.
So we are improving and reaching new heights in architectural excellence,quality of construction,better communication with client and definitely much much more value for the hard earned money of our clients many of them living and working in different parts of the world.

Typical Malayalee behaviour

I do not know whether any other group of people on a geographical basis other than Keralites have a strange behaviour pattern by which nobody wants any body else to prosper or do well in his career,profession or business.We malayalees(People of Kerala origin) do not want any one known to us even related to us or even from same native place to do well in life except of course I myself or maximum members of my family.Even a brother or sister doing well cannot be tolerated.May be a son or daughter doing well can be tolerated even though there are cases where father did not like son to grow higher than him.

In the last week at my Ootty site one  malayalee worker became unhappy with another malayalee worker doing another type of work simply because the other found out the cheating ways of this man.Man who did the cheating did not consider his actions as wrong.He considered it as only his cleverness in managing crooked ways to make more money.Having realised that he is caught red handed in his crooked ways,he simply cannot quit the job and leave the place.He wanted the other worker engaged in different activity to be made to look like a crook by owner of the house under construction.Here the owner happened to be a non Malayalee and hence with a different behaviour pattern.

He approached the owner and started telling lies and stories of wrong doing by the other man simply to malign him and thus make him also out of work just like him.You will be surprised to hear the reaction of our non malayalee owner-“You are both coming from same place Kerala and then why are you trying to find fault with him?Is what you are doing correct? Do not talk to me like this again.I know how to assess you and the other person properly without your assistance and guidance”

See this is how we Malayalees behave.We are like  crabs each trying hard not to let the other climb up.You do everything possible to pull down the other person.People in other places become happy to see that some one among them is becoming famous, rich or reaching better status in life.For us exactly that is the most unhappy thing to happen in our life.

Once I met a friend of a person for whom I have designed and built a house.He told me-“I wanted you to do my house.But when I approached my friend and your client he told me that you are too busy and hence better look for somebody else.I found out another person and he did a lousy job.” In fact my client and his friend never told me about it.He did not want me to do house of his friend as he thought I will become too busy to spend time on his work.

Every one who has seen house designed and built by me at Irinjalakuda including of course owners of the house has appreciated my work.But the lady who came and met me at my office several times persuading me to take up the work told me after completion of the house-“Three of my relatives wanted me to tell you to take up their construction work.I advised them against it as you will  delay our work and their work if you take up those works also”

I wanted to  see inner details of a house near my office done by another Architect just to see and study something new or different he might have done.Even though lady of the house agreed to show me the house,on both occasions I went she pretended busy and told me to come some other time and finally I have given up that idea.She does not want any one especially another Architect to copy whatever better features her house has.

All these I have written to show that we Malayalees do not want  any body else to do well and we are extremely selfish.Even in politics when A.K.Antony was Chief minister of Kerala,his own party man K.Karunakaran tried his best not to allow A.K.Antony to rule.When V.S Achuthanandan became CM ,his own party man Pinaray Vijayan  is not  allowing  him to rule.So if every one tries hard not to make other person successful,how we malayalees and our state of Kerala will ever prosper?

Actions matter,not words

I have noticed several times that people talk about honesty,right attitudes,quality of work,care for customer interests,moral standards,ethics in work and dealings so eloquently that we tend to believe them deceived by the way they talk pretending sincerity,high standards and so called commitment to values.

If you meet such a person who talks so high about all these values,beliefs and commitments just simply beware of him/her.In all probability such a person will be a crook trying to cheat you.Otherwise why should he advertise and proclaim too much about his high standards?

People who are really honest,value based and truthful in dealings never talk about these values.They show the values through their actions and not in their words.Their sincere honest actions talk for them and they have no time to talk about their high standards and values.

Very often we hear these words from many people-“I am not like those people doing dishonest dealings and cheating.I am not that type.You can believe me 100%”

My advice to you is that never never trust or believe those people who talk like that. Really honest persons never will have to talk like that.They know very well that their actions will show and talk for them.They do not have to advertise themselves.

Do you think that such cheats can go on winning in life?Yes.May be for some time,some years.But one day or other they will be caught red handed and when they are caught,they will tear off the skin of lamb on their body and will bark and fight like the real wolf inside.They will never be apologetic about their crooked ways.Instead they will call the person cheated as a cheat.

“See what he has done to me for all those I did for him? He is a crook.Otherwise why should he penalise a honest man like me?”

Even after being caught he will go on proclaiming his non existent virtues and talk as if he is honesty and sincerity in human form.He will not even hesitate to retaliate by attacking the poor person cheated by him by words and actions.

Better avoid such people rather than being caught by such crooks believing their looks,sweet talks and proclamation of high values and standards.

Tall claims and Ad campaigns

Our marketing division was supplying an electronic component to a stabiliser manufacturer on a regular basis.When the unit wanted an extension for their building naturally we got the job for design and construction of that building.
This stabiliser manufacturing unit was manufacturing stabilisers for a well known brand along with many similar units run by Christian priests and nuns.They will do procurement of raw materials and components from sources identified by the marketing company,employ school and college drop out girls for the assembling work.After manufacturing and testing they will pack the product and deliver to retail shop selling the product as per directions of the marketing company in whose brand name product is being sold.

One day I checked up the price indicated on the packed stabiliser and asked the priest in charge-“How much you get out of this price?”Price figure indicated by him was really surprising to me.It was just one fourth of the selling price of the product.Nearly three fourth of price goes as possibly marketing expenses including advertisement expenses through media and Point of Purchase ad material costs,margin of marketing company and profit for retail seller.
So while watching colourful advertisements in TV and news papers we never realise the fact that we are paying for all these ad campaigns possibly with an added percentage of margin to the marketing company for advertisement expenses.
I have been watching construction of a four story apartment project just in front of my office and another apartment project for three story near my house in the recent period.
The project in front of my office was done by a fairly known builder who advertise and sell his apartments.This builder regularly buy land in Cochin,build similar apartments on a regular basis and sell apartments also on a regular basis.The other project(I will call it as Project B) is being done by an unknown builder who may be selling apartments through contacts and possibly they may not continue to build like this unlike Project A
Project A has regular workers to whom they are paying almost half the wages prevailing in the industry.They simply do not care about quality of work.Their only attempt is to finish the work as early as possible.North Indian workers staying at site without much facilities are persuaded to do overtime work even during night so that work will get completed fast.
I have noticed with shock that for four story building they are doing excavation for column footings simply by Jcb excavation to minimum depths.Mat footing concrete is using not even sufficient size steel bars and just four nos 12 mm steel bars are used for columns with stirrup spacing as  high as 30 cm or more.I asked one of the supervisors-“Will it not fall down if you do like this?”
He simply smiled and said-“We are regularly doing like this and so far nothing has fallen down.After all buyers are going to see building only after painting.At that time it will look good”

In our country there is no government machinery to check and enforce proper structural design for buildings being constructed and any body can do as they pleases and ordinary house building owners simply do not know anything about structural design or importance of proper structural work for the building ensuring structural stability of the building.They are only interested in getting lowest”square feet cost” of construction for the building they construct.Who bothers even if the builder does not even use proper steel reinforcement? If you use adequate steel reinforcement with professional guidance from a structural consultant,cost of construction will go up.When the customer is interested only in getting lowest”square feet cost” of construction why should builder spend more money to ensure structural stability of the building?

Recently I was rather shocked to receive mail from a qualified experienced engineer working abroad on construction projects asking me to quote my square feet cost of construction.So much for the lack of awareness even among professionals thus allowing crooks to flourish in the industry

I was watching Project B running construction from the beginning.They were doing the construction strictly as per the best procedure with proper professional design and quality.They are not well known builders.They do not advertise heavily through internet,media and hoardings.Probably they will not be getting buyers like usual players in the trade and may not get same high prices and thereby higher profits.
It is high time awareness about proper construction methods and procedures are known to potential buyers.Most of the bigger players in apartment business do not do anything other than marketing and reaping profits.They simply subcontract entire work on smaller players to earn huge margins from buyers who simply trust more advertised names.For them it is very easy to build lakhs of square feet within the committed delivery period.After all who bothers about quality?
“With painting and finishing works nobody will be able to notice defects initially.After purchase the apartment society will worry about quality problems and manufacturing defects”

Laying of concrete-Kerala practices

Having worked with many workers in different work sites in Kerala,I can tell you one fact which is common among all these workers.They give only lip service to quality of work.
When you ask them about quality of work,all of them tell that they are not like others and they do the work in the correct manner irrespective of supervision or lack of supervision.But this is  just a  hollow promise,without any intension of following it up with action.In reality they will do only that which has less physical strain and they will try to make the owner of building believe that what they are doing is the correct manner of doing work.
While laying concrete usual follies or mistakes done by workers are the following
1.They add more water to the concrete so that it is easier for them to level the concrete or compact it in case of beams and columns even though more water in excess of allowed quantity will reduce strength of concrete.
2.They reduce quantity of coarse aggregates(3/4 inch metal if I use usual terminology) so that it will be easy for compaction especially when compaction is done manually without use of vibrator.They increase quantity of fine aggregates like river sand,again for less physical strain in mixing and compacting.
3.Cement quantity will be reduced only if material supply is also being arranged by the contractor.Otherwise cement will not be reduced as it is not affecting physical strain of concrete mixing and laying.
4.For beams and columns they talk as if concrete with more water is essential.After hearing it for some time any one will start thinking that columns and beams require concrete with more water.
As majority of houses and other buildings in Kerala are being constructed without professional guidance and supervision,there is also absolutely no structural design by a qualified Engineer forconcrete parts of these buildings.
Workers will lay steel as they feel comfortable so that steel tying and fixing can be the minimum possible to reduce steel work.





I will tell you about two events among my varied experiences in dealing with unrelenting work force in concrete work.
We were laying concrete somewhere near Angamaly for a convent building.Suddenly mother superior of that convent wanted me to meet her.I went and met her
“Why are you concreting without sufficient water in concrete?”She asked.In fact I literally had to fight with unrelenting workers to reduce water in concrete to desired level and now this lady is finding fault with me for that.See how these workers have misinformed general public to believe that the follies narrated by them are correct.
At Ranny at the time of first roof slab concreting my client has called a few of the local contractors of building work who were quite unhappy for not getting work of this house as my client has chosen to get me for the work from far away Cochin.He called them to be present at the time of concrete to check whether the Engineer from Cochin and his workers are doing the concrete properly.After the tea within half an hour of commencement of concrete laying all of them left the place saying that ” now he will do it correctly as we have come”
I asked my client-“What do they say about steel reinforcement work for roof concrete?”
He replied-“They say that you have put steel for four houses in this roof”





I have put steel only sufficient and essential for the work.Of course this sufficient and essential is four times according to worker as more steel means more work for him.As the work is taken up on square feet rate basis more steel work means lesser profit for him as the labour wages will increase due to more steel work.

Who is bothered about structural stability of the house?The concreted roof should not fall down immediately after removal of supports after curing period.Whatever happens later,the worker will not be around to face it.Even if he is locally available,he will wash his hands saying “You gave the work to me knowing very well that I am not an engineer?If you were so particular about stability of the house,you should have engaged an Engineer for the work”
At the time of negotiating to get contract for the building if you ask him “Should we not go for an Engineer to design and supervise the work?”
He will reply like this-“Why you have to waste money on an Engineer?I have built hundreds of houses without any Engineer.Nothing happened to any of the buildings.If you have more money to waste,get an Engineer'”
Concrete mixing practices are different in different parts of Kerala.
In Nilambur they use a sloping wooden case where they keep cement and aggregates at top side and as these are brought down mixed with water using hand tools,concrete mixed is received at end of sloping wooden case
At Alwaye they  use long spade to mix concrete.This make movement of spade and mixing easier.
At Cochin and many other places there is a bad habit of dumping aggregates one above other and trying to pour water and mixing whatever is available at one end.This practice prevents proper mixing of concrete.But here again who bothers?
Worker will vouch vehemently to the owner who does not know anything about concrete mixing that what he does is the correct and most appropriate method
Many people think that by using a manually operated mixer machine concrete is mixed properly.First of all workers will not put aggregates in proper proportion to reduce their strain in levelling and compacting concrete.Secondly the operator of mixer machine will not turn it sufficiently for proper mixing as he want the work to be over faster ,mixing or no mixing.




The best way out in recent time available in major towns like Cochin are ready mix concrete.As the mixing and laying is done mostly by machine without much man power involvement,worker introduced excuses for low quality work will not come into play.Only precaution required is that ready mix supplier should be given instructions about quantity of water as they will again try to increase water content for easier pumping of concrete.
Vibrator is the best option for proper compaction of concrete after laying on roof or beams.The old method of using hand compaction with steel bars is likely to be affected by worker laziness and fatigue.
Another advantage of using ready mix concreting is that you can avoid too many workers running around roof to be concreted with all sorts of confusion and shouting at the time of concreting.In some places there is a practice of giving continuous run of  food and drink to these concrete workers including liquor to make them happy  for doing a lousy  irresponsible job for concreting roof of your house to be built only once in your life time
Another important aspect to be noted is curing required after concrete laying.Many worker turned contractors will advise house owner that spraying water once or twice is sufficient  again to reduce his labour charges.
Concrete laid will have to be kept under water for minimum two weeks.In case of slope roof,jute bags will have to be kept above slope roof with frequent spraying of water on it to keep concrete surface wet and cool.

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