Its good to be skeptical.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Why individual and society has to be receptive and resilient. 

So how these individual idiosyncrasies which is sometimes projected as values and sometimes quoted as part of tradition, takes shape and gets reinforced forming an inseparable character of individual? 

Its a complete self gratification cycle backed by pseudo-scientific assertion as a social proof, which permits an individual to act in same way time and again and ultimately end up being an integral part of its persona, which neither they themselves question ever in their life, nor they allow others to do so, and when bitter life sometimes put them in a situation when their such idiosyncrasies are questioned they end up being emotionally sore and fragile and sometimes intellectually paralysed. 

In the process of evolution of mankind they seem to forget what differentiate them from animals, they forgot to pose questions to themselves and to situations before acting or concluding. They forgot that being skeptical and questioning was the only thing which differentiated them from primates and wild beasts. 

An individual and a society which shows the mindset to listen to new ideas and opinions and mobilises the courage to question their own opinions and idiosyncrasies grows by leaps and bound those who cant gets hurt and get perished. So how these individual idiosyncrasies which is sometimes projected as values and sometimes quoted as part of tradition, takes shape and gets reinforced forming an inseparable character of individual?

Why urban infrastructure O&M system needs increased autonomy?

An exemplary case of PPP project - surface transport !

Though there are already provisions which suggests autonomy in O&M contracts to certain extent at present, but apparently there is further need of functional, financial and decision making autonomy in operation and maintenance (O&M)plan including concerned O&M agency, regarding any given infrastructure project, specially were public safety is a concern, an autonomy to the extent beyond conventional scopes of O&M contracts.

Why this thought even worth consideration and review? Because lack of autonomy can restrict O&M agencies to take prompt critical decisions or can encourage them to unnecessarily prolong, manipulate or ignore some of the important decisions and actions demanding urgency and which are vital for health of project and safety of users and which might otherwise get delayed caught in the complexity of paperwork. For instance, an expressway O&M agency can escape from taking responsibility of mishaps and causalities blaming it to faulty road design by the original infrastructure design agency involved, while design agency can shy away from responsibility saying safe operation of system is in scope of O&M agency or may be it is due to bad maintenance, meanwhile life of commuters would be constantly at stake. But with higher level of autonomy O&M agency can take vital decisions and actions on their own like- post functional design modification in case of expressway, infrastructure retrofit, conducting safety audit and associated changes, life safety installations and safety enforcement measures which can prevent those traffic accidents for example. Also autonomy comes with implied accountability, so now the O&M agency while enjoying the autonomy will also feel a sense of responsibility both morally and legally towards minimizing and preventing those expressway mishaps and can be held accountable in case  such events occur and their performance can also be linked to their monetary gain/ penalty provisions, credit rating ranking, pre-mature termination of contract etc. hence creating a scope of active, innovative and higher performance standards in this new O&M environment.  

There has to be increased level of autonomy for O&M agencies to innovate and to take certain fiscal decisions on their own, which might be vital for public safety and absorption of unperceived growth, autonomy of technology integration to leverage technological opportunities which might have been unavailable at the time of conception and design of project, autonomy to conduct required design changes and retrofit based on peculiar first hand regional experiences gained in course of operation. Of course this strengthened decisive power of should come with certain administrative supervision and stakeholder’s say.

This allocation of autonomy seems justifiable because no one else knows the actual functional and fiscal health of said project, regional and local constraints and infrastructure gaps etc. better than those who are operating and maintaining the said project and assets 24X7 and are in constant contact of end users, knowing it better than even those who originally conceived and built the project. Autonomy if constrained or hampered or for namesake, specially at policy and post functional level, scope of O&M assumes a mechanical and procedural significance and restrict itself only to the often under-perceived operational efficiency and safety level just to the rigid, predefined performance standard with little scope for innovation in terms of physical infrastructure modification, procedural and strategic retrofit and scope of maintenance remains only limited to restoring the degraded infrastructure to its somewhat originally perceived state. O&M will have to be much more than the established notion of routine work as prescribed in the O&M manual or as described in present scope of contract. A wholesome O&M process specially in urban and regional infrastructure projects has to be a dynamic process, a learning experience, continually reinventing itself as per dynamic regional growth, absorbing economic changes and technological advancement, streamlined to the long term vision of regional growth. 

A to Z Satellitexted : Urban Planning Text

Satellite view or architecture and planning resembling English alphabet 

Its took one bright idea, couple of days, several dozen cities, hundreds of Google Earth rotation and thousands of zoom-in-out to compile this piece of work for you. Enjoy Satellitexted* urbanism!    

*Satellitexted : Building plan in satellite view resembling Alphabet!

The only sustainable retrofit whether it’s a product or city environment

To leave scope for future retrofits in the moment you conceive the idea of product or vision of a city.

Today you realize after 5 or 20 or 30 years that this product or system or infrastructure which you had planned back then with the most sophisticated tools and technology available at that time, with the best brains at disposal and the best hands available, that robust system of past desperately needs a technology overhaul and efficiency retrofit today, just to validate its contemporary relevance and to drag itself for few more miles in the tomorrow, but it would have been quite difficult for you to confront and accept this apparently unpleasant fact that this product, infrastructure, system or even strategy which you claim to be the most advanced and avant-garde today is very soon going to be outdated, very soon indeed!! Acknowledge it or not, that’s how it works, especially when technology, planning and policy is concerned only thing which remains eternal is aesthetics and nostalgia associated with such technology, possibly that’s why many people still prefer analog watch over digital one, that’s totally a personal choice.

Change is not only an integral law of nature but equally a law of technology, inevitable like growth of humanity, because humanity is curious and that’s why innovation and hence need to replace and retrofit old technology. Problem with the contemporary approach of planning and product design is that we tend to conceive and create a system or product which is 100% complete in its form and design “today” leaving no scope for future integration except few exceptions, even knowing that need for retrofit is waiting only at the next turn of system or product life-cycle  You see those overly stuffed embedded products, jam packed conduits, circuits and channels, overcrowded service corridors, saturated underground utility trench, suffocating right of ways (ROW), chaotic narrow streets, thousands of unventilated unlit city rooms and residences, all of this have two things in common, one, is the shear lack of vision and second, ignorance to change. Change which is inevitable, but we are happy and content with what we have planned today, who cares for tomorrow? Meanwhile, you enjoy all the attention and praise because of your new product and system. They might even have bagged few awards for best innovation and work in the field, but it all doesn't really matter if that product or vision fails in next couple of years. The single largest criteria of product or planning judgment and evaluation has to be sustainability, which means your product or system or vision have to have an inbuilt scope for absorption of future technology and efficiency integration for sustainability, to keep up with future pace of life and lifestyle.

Lets talk something about "sustainability" here. The word "sustainability" has been exploited much in recent years  increasingly assuming a very narrow meaning just revolving around "anything green". Lets keep in mind that being or doing green is just a piece of sustainability. Sustainability is much more, it is vastly inclusive a phenomenon, it is about the whole life cycle of product or system or plan. if you make a greenest product on earth which has a life span or tech-viability span or people-acceptance span of one or two year that is not sustainable when compared to a product which is though not so green in its DNA but which has a larger life span or acceptance span of may be half a decade or so or more. All the resources  which has gone into making of that short lived green product goes to vain at the end of its functional or acceptance span but the similar resources  which has been consumed in making that not so green product with a much longer life span seems more sustainable an option.  Using 5 most "greenest" products of same use one after another in just five years is much less sustainable than using 1 single "not so green" product for 5 years.

Now today you realize that environmental laws have become more stringent, people have become more educated, aware and choosy  technology has become more and more complex and sophisticated, every coming tomorrow product or system of yesterday is becoming obsolete, what to do. We can’t really plan for something which has not been invented yet, but we can always try to leave some scope for future integration, for the time when it is invented. It might add to few percent of capital or man hour but it’s worth giving a thought. Acknowledging the need for future retrofit and leaving some scope for it today will make our life easy tomorrow, products more relevant and cities more sustainable.   

Sometimes you appreciate unintentional grunge architectural experience!

Even architects refrain to talk about the darker intuitive side of architectural experience.  

Looking through a dirt clad window glass pan on a rainy day at  your half a century old sparingly used ancestral house, mysteriously thrilling fog and  street light setting as viewed from the window of a motel room in no man’s land where you stayed last weekend on your way back home from a road trip,  flickering interplay of light and shadows projected on the walls and roof  of your bedroom by the light of traffic passing by on the adjacent street,  bizarre abstract patterns on the under maintained damp bathroom or subway walls,  grunge white noise of much awaited rain pouring on the garage tin shed,  looking at the engulfing silence of valley from the balcony of a remote hill resort experiencing the shear lack of artificial urban sound of which you are used to or an experience of strange inquisitive damp smell while you are getting down the basement stairs in a dimly lit surrounding, you at times experience unspoken, unperceived, un-designed and unintentional side of architecture further accentuated by the time of year and day, your mood and company or absence of other people at that particular time.   

At times you feel so tiered of popular architecture, popular formula of architecture, formula of what should be and what not and all the glorification and stubbornness around what is popular, those are kind of beautiful, but they are every were, architectural orders, theories so much overvalued so abundantly repeated, interiors so much commercialized so much in order, so much restricted, so much formalized, you are left with no choice but to live in an environment which appeal to neighbors, your housing society and society at large, even You don’t know what you really want to experience. Spoon-fed architectural experience of what is good and what is bad being taught to architects as well as future prospective clients in the school. They are taught to create wonderful architecture but no one encourages them to create wonderful personalized architectural experience no matter even if its eccentric on conventional benchmark, experience of space which you can’t really create with the popular architectural tools, styles, mass education, thumb-rules available and being used widespread today. For example if you have already decided that a particular room, should have a particular lux level of lighting, particular illumination level,  uniformly distributed across the room with slight variation here and there as prescribed in the architectural bible or bylaws or general practice or as limited by the market availability and client’s choice of fixture, you can’t create an architectural experience which is thrilling, mysterious, inquisitive and even hauntingly sticky at times even for a moment, which are human psychological needs and part of their personality to experience such environment, at least just for sake of fun. No wonder at times you cherish that moment of darkness in the rainy damp evening or moonlit night when suddenly there is power cut for a brief period, because you have just experienced the dimly lit darker side of architecture which was never intended for you to experience in its original form, but only you know that how much it means to you to experience that very silence of spatial darkness, that mysterious view of dusk from the dark corner of your room, that stillness of ambiance and lack of bright LED light, that passionate experience in the beautiful and diluting sphere of space and light created by that single candle lit on the dining table, that momentarily grey sheds of otherwise bright and warm colors of interior walls. We are talking about darker side of architectural experience which induces a momentarily feeling of introspection to the occupant through its very silence, stillness darkness and grunginess, many writers, directors, photographers, architects, and artists will be able to relate to such experience. Grunge architectural experience which in thought provoking and inspires you at times and which is innate human psychological need somewhere buried in the subconscious under the monumental load of popular architectural experience!  

By: Anoop Jha

Real Estate price at user’s end: Transparency is the way to win-win situation!

When demand is so high there is no point keeping hidden costs and policies. 

Planning to buy a home? For some, it's joy of their life, for some it’s a mission, for some their livelihood but for many, it’s a pain. Pain of market research, confusion of what to choose, whom to trust, struggle of monetary arrangement, fear of being cheated, horror of future encounter with inevitable unpleasant surprises associated with real estate deals in constantly changing landscape of real estate market, volatile banking and public policies, unstable political and people’s affair and so on.  

There are so many places where your real estate judgment might go wrong no matter how smart, how educated and how networked you are. Forget about the traits and circumstances which are beyond your control. So volatile this whole affair is that at times it feels like it's a game of luck to finally secure a place without any conflict of guesswork and reality, which you can call your home sweet home.  

Long completion cycle of real estate development especially in case of housing and apartments, makes it more vulnerable and susceptible to volatile market and changing policy environment, susceptible to changes in policies and contracts leading to additional fiscal burden, majority on customer’s side and some on developers as well and to monetary losses occurred mostly to buyers who failed to understand the fine intricacies of initial contracts and hidden policies.

In midst of all this confusion you either hire or get channelized through someone or a firm apparently specialized in real estate dealings to make your life easy, only to realize that they have their own hidden policies and excuses to add to your frustrations.

Acknowledging and understanding the inevitability of market dynamism and inevitable growth in housing demand with little bit of fluctuation here and there time to time, a whole new approach is needed in the functioning of real estate affair.

You are a customer; you want to buy a house rather home, you know your financial condition, you know your aspirations and limitations. You see a home advertisement at fabulously low price in local newspaper or on internet with an assumed star (*) or applied conditions, you are already comfortable with that, you match your budget, you find out more just to realize that there are considerable hidden charges, you think for a while, going ahead seeing the same prevalent story everywhere, you go to bank for monetary help, they have their own complex structure of policy documentation difficult to fathom right away, leave it aside for a while because you urgently need loan for your sweet home, you do the deal formality with developer  while realizing that there are secondary and even tertiary level of hidden charges. Finally your deal is completed, but someone just comes to you and tells you that there are additional visitor parking charges subjected to availability, really high annual club charges you can’t escape, Monthly fixed or accelerating maintenance charges for several amenities you won’t be using ever, not to speak of the security and other welfare charges which issues would occurs later in future if you want to live there. And unfortunately you can’t hold developer liable for many of these things because they will say these monetary activities are beyond their scope of contract and deal. Oh, and don’t forget recently revised property related tax policies which is going to go increasingly taxing on your already demanding fiscal health.

Now, you are a developer, you are in this business for long, you know the intricacies very well, you adjust your position as market and policies change, you see that your business in not going to go down ever in future due to insanely high housing and real estate demand apart from occasional dip, you are in a position to dictate the terms so you don’t have to worry. Of course changes in real estate laws and public policy as well as volatility of politics and people’s affair are going to affect your business, but you are sure you will be able to recover what you want from those existing or prospective customers.

For every single customer who can’t afford the price you are offering for a piece of real estate work you are creating, there would be dozens of willing customers to buy the same piece of project. Acknowledging the strong and more or less stable future real estate growth, as well as abundance of customers, it’s your responsibility as a developer to be as transparent in your offers, deals and policies as possible. It will benefit both customers as well as developer. Customer will know early what is within their reach based on their financial position and assessment of realistic real estate offers and their search for house would be less painful and more fruitful, speedy and less frustrating. Developers should declare every possible instance where an additional cost burden can occur to a customer along with its tentative quantum, should declare every possible project constraint and policy in big bold font, emphasizing every liable policy changes and unexpected future charges based on their industry and regional experience. What worst can happen by this approach? You might lose a customer or two, but with such a huge customer base, who cares! It will sure have advantage both ways. Developers will get real customers rather than ghost customers, their transaction turnaround time would reduce considerably, their dealing process would be smoother, more transparent and honest and they can reinvest that saved time and money back into customer service, building repeat customers and word-of-mouth publicity as well as providing better customer service. Not to speak of huge value addition to company’s brand image. Customers will have in tern fair choice of selection, without any hidden fiscal or psychological burden, after all one can only buy a house with a price tag which he or she can afford.   

Public agencies would always be there to help, assist and control the exceedingly high real estate prices to keep the ball rolling and to keep it within reach of a city dweller, common or exclusive. Considering the positive effect it’s an option worth exploration.

By: Anoop Jha

So that you never run out of development ideas again!

Wonderful list of vision script for urban development,

Have created a list of possible vision statements in snippet form for your quick reference, just to keep your creative thinking wheel running. 

Reshaping city, Re-harmonizing urban clusters, Recasting city silhouette, Re-energizing spirit of city, Re-establishing magnificence of old city, Revisiting the glorious past, Re-engaging population, Re-engineering city infrastructure,  Reconnect to past, Rethinking city, Repositioning city, Recreating       history, Reinventing urban mobility, Reorganizing urban growth, Rebuilding city aspirations, Reintroducing urban techniques, Redeveloping business hubs of city, Rerouting transit veins of city, Re-knitting city fabric,  Reuniting city fragments for better functioning, Urban rezoning for optimization, Reintegrating smart urban technology, Redesigning mobility grid, Re-envisioning historic city, Re-proposing mobility, Reimagining urban future, Redefining boundaries of urban innovation, Repurpose  city finance, Reorienting city growth direction,  Rebuilding city governance structure, Re-linking destinations, Rearranging development priorities, Realigning development objectives, Reprioritizing urban development avenues, Restructuring functional hierarchy of city, Re-exciting life in urban public spaces

It’s Art if you can prove it…

Beauty lies in the description of subject not in the eyes of beholder!

We all have seen those classical photorealistic portraits, landscapes and still-life paintings, those precisely chiseled anatomical sculptures as well as those scientifically calculated complex structural building forms and the moment we see it we unanimously conclude that it’s a piece of art. We visualize, appreciate and interpret those art subjects as it is. Here we are talking about something different.

Let’s talk about art in the context of contemporary abstract and modern art, symbolic sculptures, concept based product designs, landscape and urban design installations and to some extent architecture. Let’s face the biting truth of contemporary art and design, i.e. “Abstractness” in art and design and other creative fields has become an easy escape for majority of artists, designers and likeminded people in the contemporary world due to its low-labor-low-skill-fast-production nature and high perceived intellectual and monetary value. Though there is psychological interpretation and justifications of “abstract art” as well but let’s focus here on the whole gimmick of art and commercialization surrounding art and design industry in the name of abstractness.

  

Let’s see how it works. Let’s be clear in the beginning that it’s not “Art” which is being sold, it the “Story” which they are buying, story of struggle of that artist and designer, story of making of that art and design work, story behind that abstractness. More the abstractness more the flexibility to weave a convincing story around that art, more the vagueness more they are capable to defending their artwork. So it’s not the art but the descriptive and convincing power of the artists and designers which all matters.

If you are not convinced yet let’s see few examples, suppose you see a particular piece of modern abstract contemporary art or installation which is beyond your perception, and your first reaction is “what’s the point”!! Then someone comes and tells you that this is a master-work of some renowned artist or sculptor or designer and then you unsuccessfully try to derive some meaning out of that art which was greek and meaningless for you a moment back, because you don’t want to challenge the authority of that renowned someone, because you know he or she will tell you a very convincing story to prove the meaning of their art. And they can do it very well, they are expert story tellers. That piece of art might be a genuine feeling and true expression of that artist or designer but there is an equal probability that it might be a story fabricated by that artist or designer or sculptor or others, around that art work to manipulate and convince you of its greatness and one can do that very easily if needed. And why not, if people are willing to spend fortunes to buy stories, let’s tell them stories, that’s what they are doing.

Still not convinced? Do it yourself then. Take a large white canvas or paper and few bottles of acrylic colors; put the canvas horizontally on ground and pour those colors randomly here and there on the canvas, use your creativity, instinct and any or some of the tools at your disposal, your hand, your old toothbrush or comb, kitchen utensils etc., just anything to roughly spread and partially mix those color on the canvas. Your painting is ready, now let’s weave an interesting story behind the painting subject, whatever comes to your mind first just go for it. 10 minutes and you are ready with an abstract masterpiece; rest up to your descriptive skill, now “if you can prove, it’s an Art, if not it’s a crap”. Best part is that you don’t have to be an artist or designer to do that, if you want to do a reality check, put this just emerged master art work in your living room, let people come and describe it for you or alternatively describe a different theme to different guests, just for fun. You will be surprised to see the positive responses; someone might offer you a good price for that as well!!

By- Anoop Jha

Do we need structural reform in education system?

One education does not suit all.

We have created a template of education system based on our own idea of what an ideal educational curriculum and growth path should be and we want everyone belonging to different economic strata of society to follow the same path. Whether they are kids of millionaires or underprivileged children they are supposed to go through the same education structure. This phenomenon of standardization is more visible at elementary and secondary education level. Sheer number of children to be educated makes an excuse for standardization of education.

What makes us think that educational needs of poor underprivileged segment is same as prosperous segment of society, while their priorities and their skill needs are way different from each other. Their average educational lifespan might significantly differ; they might need a different curriculum, different educational structure and different style of teaching. Are we trying to pave a path for children of a incredibly poor migrated family living in squatter of city up to the graduation and post graduation and doctorate level, can he or she afford to invest so much of their life time earning education while their parents are struggling for their livelihood throughout their life and searching for a descent place which they can call home? Isn’t it that the educational needs of these special kids are way different from the middle and higher income segment of society? Don’t they need a kind of education which will allow and help them earn some money to fulfill their personal needs and help sustain and support their family while they are getting educated? This is something which standard education system fails to provide. School’s prime focus has remained on providing knowledge while what these marginalized kids need is skills which they can immediately put into practice and help uplift their socio-economic profile, they can’t wait to get a job or start their own business till they graduate from an engineering college. They have to act now to get out of that mess; they can peruse their education at any point later in life in their area of interest to further enhance their skills.

Talking of middle class segment, look at the majority of first-generation entrepreneurs who choose to become an entrepreneur due to increasingly tempting business opportunities of modern world and technological advancements in-spite of any family history of business or entrepreneurship, but majority of them are apparently lost or clueless about how to move forward. What an irony, throughout the education ladder these kids were prepared for corporate job and they choose to become entrepreneur and found themselves struggling and lost in the big business world, dominated by family business houses, whether a business house of a small shopkeeper or  empire of well known business family. Take a case of any city in India, majority of middle segment business owners have only basic elementary education from generations to generations, and they are surprisingly doing well, they didn’t feel the need of further formal education so they voluntarily dropped out from the school, their parents taught them the skills they needed to run the business, they inherited the knowledge which was needed to run the show. They would have never learned these skills in the schools with present education structure, because present education system doesn’t treat them as a special niche group at elementary and secondary education level who need customized education. Hence the first generation entrepreneurs feel lost while business houses run their business smoothly.

Imagine the growth potential of individual and communities with the targeted education, imaging the growth potential of a kid who gets targeted training in his family business (whether its pottery, metal works, furnishing or anything else, at elementary to secondary education level which he is witnessing through generations, and compare it with the collective loss of potential due to flat “good for all” education structure. Loss seems to be monumental. It’s time that the fundamental structure of education need to be revived and should become increasingly skill oriented starting right from the elementary level. 

Defying purpose of sidewalks: its story of many developing cities

They sleep, they socialize, they play, they construct, they're born, they die, they live, they beg, they sell and they do everything on that thin and broken strip of exposed sidewalks, but walking. They defy the very purpose of sidewalk.













Apparently It’s not their choice; for some its fate, for some its livelihood, for some its entertainment for some its greed. Sometimes it’s the only piece of land available in a big crowded city for those poorest of urban poor, sometimes it’s the most accessible everyday market place for those returning home from work, sometime its paradise for street food lovers, sometimes its playground for street kids, sometimes its breeding ground of crime, sometimes abandoned sometimes encroached sometimes its provider and sometimes victim of business greed, used for everything, but walking. It’s the story of almost every city of developing countries. In the absence of regular, appropriate, continuous and user friendly sidewalks and footpaths across the city and without better livelihood opportunities and ample urban housing, this phenomenon is going to inevitably present itself in different forms.

Deprived of design aesthetics?

Politics of Design and need of Design democracy

Apart from invention of wheel and some other similar historical or contemporary breakthroughs or design innovation which have served humanity to achieve better life and lifestyle, design has evolved in a very controlled manner at least in recent history and apparently it’s not by coincidence, it’s by choice, the choice of few able hands and minds who have manipulated the evolution of design for their personal monetary benefit. Design has lost its freedom and meaning since the commercialization of design has taken place. Contemporary design process has become less of necessity and more of luxury, apart from those which are for advancement of mankind like computers, rocket science and all.

Apparently designs are manipulated across the length and breadth of product industry to skew and control the market demand and trick the customers, whether its car or washing machine or laptop or handbag or any household product. You see, every item has a line of product to cater to every economical strata of society, that makes perfect sense – something for everyone! Story doesn't end here, it’s just the beginning, beginning of whole gimmick of manipulative product development and market control philosophy. Have you ever questioned why the product “X1” that you bought at cheaper price is average in looks, in its aesthetic appeal and in design than the similar high end product “X2” with its classy elegant look? Ever wondered why the products of same company has different aesthetic appearance across its product range, though its same materials, same product DNA, same manufacturer, same factory, almost same production time, same technology? Is it coincident that if you pay less you will get an inferior looking product no matter what is the product and higher you pay better aesthetical products you will get, no matter what is the product or is it that they have purposefully handed over average design to you and deprived you of the great design of the higher range product so that you will come back to buy the better looking product next time? We are not talking about imbedded technology, of course technology comes at a price.

Is it that we have accepted this hierarchy of design aesthetics as an integral part of business and our daily life? This is true for any product; let’s take car, for example.  Is it a coincidence that the same designer or company who produces that strikingly beautiful design of highest segment car with those passionate and careful curvatures of car body also produces average looking box like cars with primitive decades old design sense in its lower price segment? Is it a natural process of design or this vast aesthetic gap between cheap and expensive product has been created purposefully so that people will appreciate and crave for higher segment product? Otherwise what is holding back companies or designers to give a wonderful design and aesthetics to each of its customer irrespective of their economic profiles, with products prices varying primarily due to its embedded technology or robustness and uniqueness of inbuilt content or additional functional features?

But after all how does it matter, since there is no sense of design ownership and appreciation left in all of us after centuries of design exploitation and manipulation, since we seem to have accepted the fact that design and aesthetes are for rich and ultra rich and average person has no right to ask for a better designed product on an affordable price. Design democracy is only possible when people will feel the need for "right of design aesthetics". It’s high time that design community and product development companies should come forward and liberalise the covert design process and shed the design monopoly, which will only help them accelerate product growth process and a common man will get a better designed product in their budget. 

By- Anoop Jha