14th of February. Been a while, but what better occasion that good ol’ Valentine’s day to take you out once again. This time we’re in some fancy eatery in Qutub Market: our feet tapping to live Prateek Kuhad Covers. Welcome back to Date Night, here’s what I’ve been upto.
Re-Imagining the Delhi Metro: The Life of a DMRC Stan
As a project inspired by a strange college supplemental essay, I set out on an adventure to re-imagine the map of the Delhi Metro.
Every day, two and a half million people adventure through the enormity of the Delhi metropolitan area through the Delhi Metro. It's the most economical, reliable, and traffic-less way for most to get to work, to see their families, or to seek creative inspiration in far corners of this ancient city. For me, it's been all of those things, a giant metal box into which I enter a passenger, and leave a true Dilliwaala.
But the same paths that these giant metal boxes zoom through at 70kmph were not so long ago traversed by Mughal war elephants, Rajput camel cavalry, and Suri knights. Delhi as we know it today, is actually eight cities built on top of one another, with each dynasty, empire, or sultanate, leaving its distinct cultural mark on the region's 3000 year history.
What would the Delhi Metro look like if parts of the city were frozen in these eight different eons, and each culturally diverse region coexisted in a larger ecosystem? That is the question I set out to answer. These cultural marks are not lost in history books and museums. A trip north on the Yellow Line will take you to the neighborhoods of Shahjahanabad, where Mughal food, architecture, and faith remains a prevalent part of life, and a crucial element in the larger narrative of Delhi. At the intersection of the Blue and Yellow lines, the British-built Connaught Place features distinctively white European buildings repurposed to house entire fairs of hawkers.
The hour long journey from Majlis Park to Shiv Vihar would have to be embarked upon with 7 different modes of transport, starting with the metro, switching to a palanquin, horseback, on a bullock cart, and so on. As you move across the citadels/forts of each of these cities, you encounter people from various walks of life. Flying chariots populate the skies above Indraprastha: the mythological capital of the Pandavas from the Hindu Epic Mahabharata. All along, the Metro’s mascot Maitree thanks you for traveling with the Delhi Metro, reminding you in her metallic voice to please mind the gap.
No, you WC!
Over the past couple of months, I’ve been heading social media efforts at the UWC India National Committee, creating content and hosting live conversations with students and alumni. It has been an honor giving back to the movement that has completely transformed my life, and also speaking with other people whose lives have intersected with UWC in different ways at different times.
An archive of all my work can be found at https://www.instagram.com/uwcindia/
Learn more about the movement/get involved at https://www.in.uwc.org
Killing Contaminants, Not Communities + a bunch of other cool TKS stuff like working on projects for multibillion dollar companies?
Participated in my first ever hackathon at The Knowledge Society (TKS). Won.
But it was about so much more than that. Working at all the wrong hours (it was my fault for teaming up with 3 people on the other side of the Atlantic), Timothy Washburn, Samay Bhagat, Rudransh Arora and I put all the mindsets we've been exploring to action to develop Killify, a transgenics and CRISPR fuelled solution to the world's most polluted rivers. Made some dope merch, some great friends, and learnt a lot about my capacity to function on no sleep.
70% of industrial waste enters water bodies untreated in developing countries. And so does 80% of sewage. This hurts not only aquatic plants and animals, but also humans. Unsafe water kills 1.2 million every year. Governments across the world have failed to develop energy-efficient and economic ways of rejuvenating them, and policy changes that seek to tackle the issue are at the mercy of influential industrial lobbies. Our innovative approach sought to mimic naturally accuring processes and take on this behemoth of a problem head on. Our accompanying deck can be found here!
ALSO: worked on a consulting project for CIBC, one of the Big 5 Canadian banks that sought to revolutionalise how banks interact with GenZ:
Interviewing stakeholders, conducting consumer surveys, and doing thorough literature reviews barely scratches the surface of the work that went into this project. At the end, my team was chosen out of 40 to present our work to senior executives at CIBC where we fielded questions about implementability as well as strategy. Hoping to see our work make a difference in the approaches that banks adopt towards younger customers! Our 3 step-processes follows the journey of a younger customer starting at age 10 — the average age a Canadian gets their first bank account — all the way through tertiary education and beyond, identifying specific moments of flux when engagement is particularly important. Working with the same team as the hackathon, this was also an opportunity to strengthen both work and personal relationships!
Doing Something Unholy
If you’d asked me at any point in the past 18 years what I’d be spending 30 hours a week doing at 18, my answer would most definitely not be dancing! Upon being invited to join the team at Delhi’s largest dance studio, I’ve been working towards improving my relationship with my body and performance, but also growing the dance community across the city!
I’m learning from the best in the business, dancing to songs by Sam Smith, Tyga, Classical Ballet music, as well as instrumental versions of hits from the 80s for contemporary class! There’s videos of a couple of choreographies over on my Instagram, with more to come soon! I’ll miss dancing when I’m in Cape Town (more of that next time we meet;D)
Books, Movies, and More!
Here’s what I’ve been reading/watching over the past few weeks. I’m curious to know what ways people find most effective to discuss books/media online — I would love to join communities where things I’m reading are being discussed.
I’ve also started a calculus course with Professor David Easdown on Coursera + a OpenCV course at Murtaza’s Workshop. Looking forward to having reviews for both as well as cool projects to show off in the next month!
Phew! It feels like I’ve been talking forever — your turn now!
p.s. i’m working on some dope computer vision projects right now — reach out if you wanna jam in the interim before our next date!