Riya's Riyaaz

 Life has been full of clutter lately, actually since the beginning of this year. There has been something or the other that has kept me extensively busy, not by my own choice. In this chaos, Savan was sweet enough to plan our first long weekend, on the second holiday of the year; the mighty 4th of July. We knew schools are closed for the summer and any popular place we decide to go will be busier than usual. Having said that, it was a good to take a break. We planned to leave early on Friday, I whipped up some blueberry Jam from scratch and packed PB&J sandwiches with fruits for snacking on the road. We started driving up north as the plan was to stop at Ithaca to grab lunch. This time I shared the load of driving long distances so that he can equally enjoy the break, plus it saved me from getting carsick. We had some time to spare, so decided to drive around the large Cornell campus, eventually ending up at Beebe lake. We parked near the Botanic garden parking lot and walked ...

You must be aware of the thin paper lamps made quite famous by Ikea. Well, a few years back I came across a video ' Production of Akari Sculptures, Isamu Noguchi, 1951 ', this is when I learned about the man behind these lamps. Isamu Noguchi hand crafted these lamps aka Akari out of Shoji paper wrapped over a bamboo skeleton. Throughout his life, he kept reinventing Akari, as a result we see a variety of these lamps. I have always been interested in craft, whether it was a new project in high school or model making in architecture school. Learning about the world of craft is something that I am interested in, so when I stumbled upon this video, I wanted to learn more about Noguchi's work.  Noguchi was a sculptor. He believed in making with one's own hands to create art, using materials like paper, stone, clay and wood. He created many sculptures during his life in the States. On the day of Remembrance, the Noguchi museum was open for a free visit. My friend Tam and I ha...

Last year during the beginning of Fall, me and my friends decided to take a road trip to FallingWater, designed by F. L. Wright. Even though it was my second year in the States, it was the first time I paid attention to this weather. The change in the color of leaves on the East Coast has its own charm. Our trip couldn't have been scheduled at a more perfect time. The weather was transitioning beautifully (aka leaves were turning every warm shade on the palate); it had only been a few days since I bought a new phone and was excited to see the fancy world of Apple, goes without saying I took over 200 photos and videos. We drove from NJ after work on Friday and reached PA right before midnight as our tour was scheduled next day morning. At the end of our tour we had extra time, on recommendation of some people visiting from Pittsburg we decided to grab lunch near Carnegie Melon University and check out the neighborhood. FallingWater is one of a kind. It is one of those masterpieces i...