IF
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

RECYCLING IN ARCHITECTURE

This is how one thing led to another.........
Aayushi said we shud do a seminar on recycling in architecture....
Amrita and I were only too happy with the idea......
the research part was fun.....
it was so much fun that we decided to break from the mould and went ahead and did a skit on the seminar stage, made a model out of recycled ciggie pacs,screened vedios and submitted a report on gobar plastered recycled paper.
the fun did not end just there.....
our report got published in the Council of Architecture magazine.....here is the link.....
http://www.coa.gov.in/mag/Sept-08-Lowres%20pdf/20-22-Neelakshi%20Joshi-Web.pdf
whatz more.......
i went ahead and participated in Indin Green Building Council's Create with Waste competition to make a dwelling completely out of waste..........
that was good and i got the jury commendation award and a chance to attend the IGBC congresss in mumbai....
things did not end here......all this has led to a great deal of awareness not only for us but for our entire looby mates as they get to see everything from recycled book racks made out of packing material to building models from old cartons..........
currently we are obssessed.......and hope to remain so for a long time.....