Category: Kharcha paani

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Expect cold nights this weekend

Weather bureau pegs expected minimum temperatures at 17 degree Celsius for Mumbai. No major departures in temperature, humidity are expected.

After hot days and nights last week, precipitated by warm Easterly winds, Mumbai is back to having some seriously cold nights and cool evenings. As per the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the city and its suburbs will have minimum temperatures of 17 Degree Celsius for at least the next two nights.

The IMD anticipates that “the temperatures will not fall further.” The current cold weather is seemingly a result of western disturbances, which are low pressure weather systems originating from Central Asia. Temperatures yesterday were as follows: Colaba, maximum: 30.6 degree Celsius, minimum: 21 degree Celsius; Santacruz: 32 degree Celsius, minimum: 17.8 degree Celsius.

Clear skies are expected over the weekend as well.

(Picture courtesy sacbee.com)

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Trends

Dadar’s Kohinoor Square is India’s tallest building

Report certifies the under-construction building as tallest commercial structure at 203 metres; 12 other Mumbai buildings figure on the list.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The under-construction Kohinoor Square located at Dadar, has just got a good distinction – it was recently listed as the country’s tallest commercial building by the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats (CTBUH). Standing at 203 metres, the building is a 52-storey diamond shaped tower that is currently in the last stages of construction.

The CTBUH report was released in October 2012, and lists, apart from Kohinoor Square, such buildings as Sunshine Tower, Marathon Futurex, Parinee I, MVRDC, Phiroze Jeejeebhoy Towers, IDBI Towers, Express Towers, Air India Building, CG House, Haj House, 247Park and Century Mills Tower as the city’s tallest skyscrapers. Of the 22 buildings listed by CTBUH, 13 are from Mumbai, while three each are from Bangalore and Gurgaon, two are from Noida and one is from Kolkata.

Kohinoor Square is said to be the only mixed-used development project in Mumbai, offering 40 floors of commercial space, 50,000 square feet of retail space and about 64 residential apartment spaces. There will also be a luxury hotel on top of the commercial tower.

“It enjoys a strategic location, with proximity to Dadar railway station and it is close to western and eastern expressways.  So, apart from being accessible to people travelling by train, it is also close to the Bandra-Worli sea link and both the expressways,” said Nathan Andrews, Chief Marketing Officer, Kohinoor Square.

Other plans for the building include 48 high-speed elevators along with 12 escalators, a car parking for 2,000 vehicles and an intelligent traffic management system, double height landscaped sky gardens and double height terraces with floor-to-ceiling glazing on every alternate floor.

“In order to have a green building and reduce our energy consumption by over 25 per cent, we have used double glazed reflective glass facades, which restrict the energy from coming in, but let in natural light, thereby reducing consumption of electricity,” said Nathan.

Measuring tallness

The CTBUH does not measure ‘tallness’ based on a building’s height alone – such parameters as height relative to the building’s context, proportion and technologies used for tall buildings (such as vertical transport and structural wind bracing) come into play when determining whether a building is tall or not.

(Pictures courtesy kohinoorsquare.in)

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Learn

AAP Pawar pe chup kyun hain?

While Aam Aadmi Party’s ‘black paper’ on Maha irrigation irregularities tears into Sunil Tatkare, it says nothing on Ajit Pawar.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Yesterday was clearly Ajit Pawar’s day. The decks were cleared for his return to the Deputy Chief Minister’s post he resigned from on September this year, owing to his name being mired in alleged irregularities in the irrigation sector, and on the other hand, the ‘black paper’ submitted by the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) vehemently tore into Water Resources Minister (WRD) Sunil Tatkare, but did not name Ajit Pawar.

The AAP presented its black paper to State Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan yesterday, following which, Chavan had a meeting with the party’s activists Anjali Damania and Praful Vora, among others. In the paper, AAP has called the white paper on irrigation brought out by the Tatkare-led WRD a “total farce” and demanded for Tatkare’s resignation, but does not name Ajit Pawar anywhere.

Like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the AAP has also demanded for an SIT-level probe in the matter.

In black and white

In its black paper, AAP has countered almost all of the white paper’s claims, starting with the area under irrigation in the State. While the white paper claims that the area under irrigation increased by 5.17 per cent from 2001 to 2010, the black paper calls this as an attempt to mislead people.

Further, the black paper says that water was illegally diverted from irrigation projects to non-irrigation purposes, and that there were plans to approve 71 new water-intensive thermal power projects in the suicide-prone districts of Vidarbha.

The black paper blames the WRD for rampant corruption and violation, and calls for Tatkare’s resignation, an SIT probe in the irrigation scam and action against politicians, officials and contractors responsible for the mess, apart from demanding an immediate stop on projects that have committed violations. The paper also criticises Chavan, adding that the white paper presented by the WRD to the Government was merely a ‘status paper’ that toed the coalition politics line.

AAP will most likely bring out another black paper on irrigation soon.

(Picture courtesy forbesindia.com)

 

 

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Trends

Blow hot, blow cold

After a week of pleasant morning weather and night-time chills, the temperature’s rising in Mumbai. Warm weather will persist awhile.

It’s probably true what they say about Mumbai never really being very cold. However, last week and the beginning of this one brought a welcome respite both from this notion and hot mornings. Mumbai began its mornings in a cool breeze, and went to bed with the mercury dipping to as low as 15 Degrees Celsius.

For the last two days, however, the heat is on. The cold winds from the North that had made Mumbai’s weather such a delight to be in a few days ago, have all but disappeared, and have been replaced by warm easterly winds. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) contends that these warm winds have combined with low humidity levels to make temperatures in the city rise to as much as 35 Degree Celsius. Minimum temperatures recorded have been in the 24 to 22 Degree Celsius range.

What’s more, the temperatures are expected to be in the higher range this weekend, after which, another wave of cold winds may hit the city.

(Picture courtesy sierrasentinel.com)

 

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First, the transfer. Now, modifications

The Centre will hand over the Indu Mill land. The State will now seek the necessary modifications for the takeover.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Yesterday, the Centre announced that the Indu Mills land in Prabhadevi would be given for the setting up of a Dr BR Ambedkar memorial. While the announcement was welcomed by all quarters, with the State Government pushing for the issue over meetings in the last few days, the next task for the Maharashtra Government is to oversee the takeover process for the land.

First is a proposal to amend the existing CRZ norms to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) – a modification to this is needed because prevalent rules do not aid the Transfer of Development (TDR). Also, a special clause will be invoked in the city’s Development Control (DC) rules to allow the TDR to be used in the island city.

An MoEF approval is also necessary for the plot of land approved for the memorial by the State. Furthermore, Union Textile Minister Anand Sharma will have to push for a legislative proposal to enable the use of land for a memorial – the land was originally a private land which was under the National Textile Corporation (NTC).

The State plans, apart from a memorial, a social justice university, a museum housing Ambedkar’s belongings, a meditation centre, a residential space for visiting pilgrims and a library on the site.

(Picture courtesy jaimaharashtranews.com) 

 

 

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Become

‘Feed your mind as much as possible’

Graphic designer Soumya Mohanty talks about the joys and the perils of working freelance, and how you can follow suit.
by The Diarist | thediarist@themetrognome.in

Soumya Mohanty (27) used to work full time as a graphic designer, before branching out on her own in 2009 and cracking the work-for-yourself code. The Bandra resident has done a wide range of work since then – she’s designed brochures, home pages for websites, company logos and even business cards. The self-taught designer tells The Metrognome about being a freelance graphic designer, and about finding the thing that makes you happy and doing it forever.

What prompted you to take up web designing as a line of work?

I always loved well-designed things ever since I was a kid. When I was in class eight and we got our first computer, I saw an interface related to Disney. I cannot recollect if it was a website or an application, but I thought to myself that whoever has done this, is so lucky to get to do this, it’s so much fun! I thought, I’d love to do this myself!

Of course, I never thought of it seriously then, because Graphic Design as a career was unheard of then. So, I researched and considered other options, never really feeling truly happy about any of those choices. Then finally during my graduation year, I saw an article about Graphic Design and I knew that was what I had been looking for. It turns out, the thing that excited me the most, which I then did not consider seriously, was the only thing that truly made me happy and I now had found a way to do it forever.

Where did you study to be a graphic designer?

In design, I’m self-taught with the help of online resources and books. There are many who benefit from classroom teaching and others, autodidacts like myself, who prefer to study on their own. I think the key is to follow your interest, so it is up to you to decide whether a structured programme can give you what you want or you would rather directly learn by yourself if you have the passion and discipline.

I did not find any programme which would have allowed me to practice the exact skills that I wanted, so I learned by myself. You’ll find many resources online and books as well from other professional designers themselves. It feels like being directly mentored by the people whose work you admire the most.

How long have you been in this industry now?

For about four years.

Have you noticed any differences in the industry now than the way it used to be before?

Computer-aided design is now almost a necessity. Of course, there’s a lot more demand for it now and it is increasing as companies slowly realise the importance of design as an approach altogether.

Who have your clients been?

As a freelance designer, I mostly work with small and medium-sized businesses, though I have done a few small projects for Radiocity and Viacom18 amongst the known ones.

What are the biggest challenges as a freelance designer?

Challenges appear phase-wise. For example, while starting out, the biggest challenges are finding clients and maintaining a steady stream of work, not knowing your own working patterns, and deciphering how to appropriately choose, estimate, and price projects.

For finding clients, these three factors help: 1) Applying to listings on job boards like Naukri and TimesJobs (having the ‘Freelance’ keyword) and on specific freelance related sites such as FreelanceSwitch Jobs and Elance or oDesk.

2) Promoting your work through an online portfolio (preferably your own website as that helps in search engine rankings), actively displaying your work samples on other portfolio sites such as Coroflot and Behance, and staying active on Linkedin. Facebook page and Tweeting will also help if you really promote yourself there. So, clients find you.

3) By referrals from your existing clients. You don’t have to do much there other than focusing on making sure your clients have a good experience working with you. Whatever you do, the key is to remember that you’re not just working on a project. You’re building a client relationship. So, the same clients frequently come back with more projects thus adding to the work stream.

Establishing a working pattern is important to estimate scope of project and pricing better. If you don’t know how long and how much effort something’s going to take you, fairly accurately, then you might over-quote or under-quote. If you over-quote, clients run away. If you under-quote, you feel like running away! Also, you might end up working all the time if you don’t draw a line regarding when to stop working, especially if you also have international clients in another time zone. So, keeping a work log helps identify patterns.

Please describe the one project you worked on that made you truly happy.

That’s hard to choose because every project I work on makes me happy. I try my best to create a more than satisfactory solution. However, I recently worked on a Music CD cover for an artist abroad, and I really loved doing the cover artwork for them because of having to convey an abstract emotion through my artwork.

What are clients’ expectations when they entrust a project to you?

Everyone wants something that ‘looks awesome’ and ‘great’ and ‘oooo wowww.’

Do you have a team (other designers, developers) working with you?

No, I usually only collaborate with a couple of developers when clients need the HTML/CSS done too.

What other things do you design, apart from websites?

I design logos, brochures, ad banners, emailers, business cards/stationery, CD cover design, and Power Point presentations.

What are your future plans?

Apart from Graphic Design, I’m interested, rather very excited, by some related disciplines such as Matte Painting, Digital Painting (commercial artwork for book covers, game covers, etc.), Architectural Visualisation, and Concept Art. I’m looking forward to sharpening my skills there. I’m also excited to be working on a couple of personal projects for sales and see myself taking that direction more along with client work.

What are your expectations from the industry for the future? Also, what is the level of competition among your peers?

Graphic Design is an all pervasive field from print to web to now mobile. With growth in the web and mobile sector especially, there’s a growing need for more interface designers. As long as information needs to be communicated through various media, this industry will only grow. I don’t have any expectations other than to just keep doing what I love doing and continue building my skills in Graphic Design as well as Commercial Art.

The design community is driven more by sharing and inspiration than competition. So, you could say it’s a very healthy competition. Designers constantly keep sharing valuable information and techniques on myriad sites such as PSDTUTS+, Smashing Magazine, Noupe, Web Designer Depot, Dribbble, A List Apart and many, many more.

Any tips for others wishing to pursue the same profession as you?

To be a Graphic Designer, I’ll say the clichéd: study, practice and get inspired every day. You need to feed your mental library with as many marvellous images and ideas as possible whether on print, online, TV, your environment, books or music. To be a freelance Graphic Designer, do all that AND set a financial target for yourself every month and plan ahead to fill in projects worth more than your target, as a buffer. The world of design is all about creating new, better, useful, and remarkable things that make life so much better. Have fun!

Check out some of Soumya’s work here:

(Pictures courtesy Soumya Mohanty) 

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