Amongst many of the reasons of staying on, one that has been a constant is that of a ‘team’. I am a team person, a person who gets her energy from the dynamics of a group that is catalysed into thought and action by and through discussion and working with rather than working for.

I realised my calling early on - where I want to go, what I want to do. These goals cannot be carried out alone. What is required is a team, a group of people who dream and work together for the same goal and everyone puts in their different bits to realise that dream.

And even though I was asked by the editorial board of this newsletter to talk about the ‘disappearing ducks’ I would like to write about some of those ‘team moments’, moments which are etched in memory for the dynamic energy they generated just because at that particular time the whole was in sync with the parts. You could stand outside your body and watch the team at work and move as in a wave towards a common purpose – when the energy in the space was palpable and the electric current was touching all the bodies present in that moment.

All these moments have been moments of creation, a la eureka, of a solution and of tremendous learning and, most of all, of feeling both powerful and humble at the same time. And many of these moments have ended in a celebration of togetherness with the team.

One of the earliest memories is in 1990 during the construction of the IGNCA building in Delhi. It was an ambitious project and my first on field. The main structure was complete and the staircase was under construction – time pressure was upon us (as always).

The formwork from the last arch of the staircase was to be removed, the arch was yet to be built and lay unsupported on one side. Gandhi mason was on the scaffold, hammering gently at the formwork. Suddenly, to my horror, there was a loud noise. I saw Gandhi leap from the second floor formwork to the terrace below - the staircase had come down! We rushed to count heads, any injuries, any casualties. Fortunately, there were none. One learnt the hard way that all forces have to be resolved! And arches require adequate top loading before de-shuttering. We also learnt the value of being together in turbulent times.

Another memory surfaces. IGNCA again. November 20, 1990, The IGNCA wanted to ensure that the central core would support the load of the dome – the largest of its kind at that time. The theoretical calculations all pointed to a satisfactory result but there were cracks in walls that had to be tested in real time. So, with barely a month to go before the opening, we decided to load test the structure, to destroy the same if required, and bear the consequences – just one of the many risks we have taken together. With the open skies over our heads making work more challenging and a torrential rain that soaked us to the bone, we loaded sand bags on the central slab across the yet unfinished bridge. Working alongside the labour force, carrying sand bags, calculating the loads on the slab and the walls below, checking the growth of cracks if any – it was an eventful night – a culmination of intense preparation for a process that ended with sighs of relief when the loading more than surpassed the design loads. Celebrations were due. Under the staircase, GC Aggarwal lay drunk and exhausted, along with the AC DC carpenters. Dr Ashok Khosla, who had been with us through it all, dropped off the women – three of us at Pat’s place where he celebrated his first wedding anniversary with us while his wife was waiting at her father’s house. He will certainly not forget that day in a hurry. Pat has been a constant presence in many of the team moments…

TA3.2 – Budgeting and project development – Excel sheeting - Where is the baniyan? This question always draws a smile from Subroto, my guru in Excel. And what a way to learn! This was the first ‘large project’ that we were developing in 1995 with SDC. The Building Materials Project, which has laid the foundation for our work in energy efficient building materials, innovation and enterprise models, was popularly known as TA3.2 – its file number at SDC. It has given us much learning and, most important of all, a bonding and learning to work together. Conceptualising the project was one thing with all our wish lists put in, but designing it practically for operations was quite another. Five days and nights of working on detailing the budget, working through without going back home – I learnt how to use the software and connect the worksheets and files and connect with my colleagues – is a bond that has stayed since. The sweaty odour of Subroto’s baniyan (vest) finally drove us home to bathe and change!! The logic of budget preparation for a project has stayed on, a tool I still use and which has stood the test of time.

ESTF – Understanding material movement – TA3.2 again! Our work on energy in building materials and our understanding of embodied energy in construction grew by leaps and bounds in the process. The surveys with Geeta and Sriraman to understand material flows in Bundelkhand – the mapping and analysis of resources and skills and discussions on the intensity of resource extraction, decentralised production, local economy components, resource intensities and financial paybacks and, of course, the nexus between truck drivers and aggregate units and brick producers between Kanpur and Jhansi. The learning from the ESTF, as it was then popularly called (ecological, social, technological and financial), sustainability indicators development, has been the base for many of the building technology projects since. It has become a filtering method for selection and development of enterprises. It also laid the base for us to absorb and take on the sustainable building practices methodology that SKAT introduced later.

Incidentally, SKAT and SDC have often been part of the DA ‘teams’. The learning and bonding with the two agencies were so intense that we were like seamless single project entities. These friendships have stood the test of time and today, even if we are not sharing the same projects, we share the same jokes, the same concerns and call upon each other when we need sounding boards.

basin-South Asia formation - The basin-South Asia 2004 conference was our first mega event planned with 200 people (now appears small in comparison to the much larger events since).This was a beginning. A young team that had decided to take the shelter programme to a next level – from technology to habitat and livelihoods. We had decided to scale up and were convinced that partnerships and knowledge exchange through dialogues with multi-stakeholders on neutral platforms would provide answers to ‘scaling up and scaling out’ of good practices. What followed was one year of planning, fund-raising, detailing and logistic management by this team which was sometimes whipped and sometimes cajoled but often just too excited to be on the same journey together to pull of a show that is remembered today for the flawless arrangements, quality of discussions, nature of the partnerships it catalysed, the relevance of the cultural evening – that of artisans migrating into a large city for work / livelihoods and losing their shelter - Ghar ki Chhat ki talash mein perho ki chhanv se bhi gaye. And of the various conference materials that were developed and the quality of proceedings and media coverage we received. The partnerships formed and changes brought about resulted in the basin-South Asia platform that has brought information and knowledge about good practices in habitat to many practitioners and has played a major role in influencing policy formulation process for the Indian national rural habitat policy. The conference was also a turning point for the shelter programme that metamorphosed into the DA Rural Habitat programme and, in the coming years, was built up by this team into a visible force within and outside the organisation.

From 2004 to 2007, the habitat team remained an exceptional partnership in solidarity. Often there were moments when I would walk into the demonstration room at the Ghitorni campus that was our office then and just soak in the energies from the intensity of discussions and hum of activity. There were many parallel projects and the different sub-teams would appraise each other during the breaks. The rural housing in Bundelkhand where the teams in Orchha would be, the DWL initiative in drinking water in Jodhpur, the basin-South Asia multiple programmes, the reconstruction projects in Puthukuppam and Karaikal – yes, we were together through the thick and thin of it all. Dolly, Mona, Pankaj, Ramesh, Anand, Usha, Sadhna, Priyanka, Abhishikta, Vinit, Ranjeet, Aparna... the list goes on.

The basin-South Asia team across India and South Asia and its many team moments also come within the cherished memories. The solidarity that the platform has brought about and the new friendships it has helped consolidate are gifts as important as the knowledge sharing and learning it has fostered.

The rural housing policy debates were a two-year-long process that brought together a larger team with and outside of DA. The habitat team, the basin-South Asia partners and the PACS Programme teams worked in sync with great complementarities. The process has, amongst many other things, given us the confidence to take on large initiatives and build trust across all our organisations. I remember the preparations before each of the many consultative workshops, the rush of the adrenalin that seemed to flow each time over a hundred grassroots agencies, government and banks would come together and debate on policy clauses. We have developed quite an expertise in workshop management and consultations in the process. Sharad, Poonam, Sanjeev, Rakesh and Kiran – the habitat team - had reached out and held hands across the organisation. And, how can I forget the many friendships that we have made in process!

Karaikal – this project had its own team moments. I would credit General Merchant and Pat for fostering a core team and a team spirit that has pushed us to do our best in this challenging project.

There have been many similar ‘team moments’ during the training programmes in Jehanabad and Kashmir, the Azadpura project, the Gujarat reconstruction and the Orissa BMSB formation, the Sustainable Building Practices workshops in Pune and Gujarat and the trainings where we learned to work together (the grid training and the networking for multiplication discussions in particular).

The Habitat team has broken up – a natural and inevitable result of the re-structuring process that has marked our transition to the next wave – the next 25 years, the team spirit lives on and new teams are being formed with every project, every new initiative taking every new germ of an idea to its logical conclusion.

On a more theoretical mode, if I analyse this ‘team moment’, it is not one moment in time but a sharing process that could be a day, or an event over many days. This was a coming together of a people who are able to trust each other with their dreams and aspirations, where each one feels responsible and accountable to the other, respects the inputs that each brings in and puts in his/her best for that common aim. And when that common aim becomes larger than the individual aims, we get that terrific energy that comes from a process of learning and creating something together.

The challenge before us today, as we catch the surf and climb onto the next wave, is to continue to recognise and value these team moments, to build upon them, for these are the stuff that relationships are made of, the glue that holds us together, the building blocks that take us to new heights and the strength that give the confidence to take on the many challenges that have brought us together in the first place.