Vikas Aman Architect

The office is right here in Bassi Jalal near Tanda, tucked away in the V.P.O. area. It’s a quiet spot most days, though the road gets a bit busy when people are moving through Hoshiarpur. Vikas started things here because it’s where we belong. Most mornings begin with opening the shutters and letting the dust out from the night before. There is a lot of paperwork on the big table, mostly site plans and local maps of the surrounding villages. It isn't a fancy setup. We have some old chairs for visitors and a computer that hums a bit too loud when the afternoon heat kicks in. People from around Tanda drop by often, sometimes just to ask about a wall or a roof they are thinking of fixing. We spend a lot of time looking at blueprints and talking about how things actually get built on this soil. It’s honest work. Sometimes the electricity goes out and we just sit by the window and wait for it to come back. The neighborhood knows us by now. We don’t really do big advertisements or anything like that. Most people just see the board and walk in. The air in Hoshiarpur has a certain way of sticking to everything, especially the old files we keep in the back corner. Every day is pretty much the same, drawing lines and checking measurements. It’s what we do here in our little corner of Bassi Jalal. No one is in a huge rush.