DEV MENON
The Public Lecture with Dev Menon was an amazing one. Mr. Dev, a friend of Ms Sue, or more accurately known as ‘rivals’ has given his sharing on his journey through life. Somethings could be related to him such as errr… life itself! Mr Dev begin talking about his childhood life from being an exchange student in Poland and ended up at the base camp of Mount Everest. As we listened intently to his sharing, taking down notes and trying to remember what he was talking about, something occurred to me. What am I doing with my life now?
From Mr Dev’s sharing, I learnt that slowing down is important. To put it into my life context it would be those times where I take a chill pill and just relax a bit. Something that I always do to pull down a notch would be heading to the mamak after 3am where the walk there is quiet and serene. This is my way of getting a temporary and cheap way of slowing down. Once I’ve gathered my thoughts I’ll head back home to my work and pick up from where I left it. To me this is a very very very important part of my life. Not the mamak part, but the relaxing part (both actually).
As we progress through the semesters, things got tougher and tougher but I know that if I persevere through the challenges, it will pay off. Just last semester break, I was thinking to myself, if you can make it through 3 semesters, you can make it through the last 3 (no choice also). Dev also mentioned nothing meaningful is easy and I would have to disagree to that. Sometimes the simplest thing that you do for a love one, can be easy yet super meaningful at the same time. Though to relate this to architecture, I would say that all this hard work and projects that we are given are for the better of the future. They hold a very significant meaning to our built environment and yes, it is not easy :p Well no pain no gain.
Besides that, from Dev’s adventure to the base camp of Mount Everest, he has shown us many pictures of nature from the group of 8k mountains to the beautiful reflections on the lake. It comes to show that Mother Nature is so raw and powerful and we as humans must bow down to it. Without earth, humans won’t exist and without humans, earth will still exist, prosper and flourish. Therefore we as architects should pave a good example to keeping our Mother Nature healthy. We really need to practice the 3Rs which are Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
From his sharing, he said that home is a feeling, not a place. This is very true indeed especially when I’m studying away from home. The feeling of being around family members and close friends does feel like home. Regardless of where we are at be it in the car or at a playground. I could be sitting by the beach with my loved ones and I would call that home. To me a home doesn’t necessarily mean a house because it takes hands to build a house but hearts to build a home. For instance, if the studio is filled with my friends I would call that home too! But that would be like my 1st home. My 2nd home would be my rented house if you get what I mean xD
Lastly, moving forward is the only logical choice. Mr. Dev shared his gruesome experience of hiking the ring at Mount Everest base camp. Every second up there felt like hell even though it was cold. The mental torture that was going through his mind while he takes step after step is excruciating. The same goes to my life. Sometimes I face difficulties in coming up with good designs and this can be a very thick retaining wall like imaginary barrier. As hard as I try changing my design over and over again, sometimes it is always better to just move forward. It may not be the best design in the world or to the lecturers, but it is definitely more important for me to get my work done no matter what the grades and outcome would be. Once I push through that stage, things seem to get much better as I won’t feel so stagnant with the same of problem. Things start improve as we innovate new ideas and solutions to solve the problems. Therefore we should not stop for too long and just carry on.
Throughout the few years being here at UCSI I would say that there was never a boring or dull moment. There was always something around the corner to look forward too. Many fun things weren't planned for and sometimes those are the best times - the unplanned meetings and outings. Back in 2013 I thought that I would miss high school but man, now before my degree is even over, I can say that I would miss this period of time in my life. I guess life is filled with surprises after surprises and that is just how it works. Whatever storms that I faced, I believe that in the end either a rainbow will shine or I would just be me and enjoy the walk in the rain (Ps. more fun than looking at rainbows, Trust me). Lastly, this journey of architecture could not been possible without the crazy friends I've met. They are what make this whole experience worth while and memorable.
I would like to take this moment to thank Mr. Dev for his wonderful sharing which has inspired me. To Mr. Dev: You should climb Mount Everest one day and hopefully be the tallest man to have stood up there :D Keep up the great work of charity as well as giving back to the younger generation of Malaysia. God bless.
 Watercolour Painting |  Skypark |  Penang Site Visit 2015 |  AIS Cream Day! |
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 Design Studio 1 Exhibition |  Design Studio 2 |  The CraCrazzz |  Random :p |