While going through the presentation, I couldn’t help but wonder how can something so personal

such as choosing/building a house become so insignificant it in today’s world. Has the value or rather
the meaning of ‘home’ changed or lessened than what it used to be before? And is ‘convenience’
such strong driving force for individuals that the activity of choosing a home is almost an equivalent
to any other daily chores, such as grocery shopping? And even though the ways of production of
houses has changed over the decades, does that necessarily have to lead to be an impersonalised
affair?

In the fast-paced world that we live in, it is rare to observe or be a part of small, and so-called
‘insignificant’ activities that used to take place before, such as instances of going to a chai - ka -
gallan with friends or siting out in the veranda with friends and family in a hot summer night; these
have merely become stories to be told.

Now, undoubtedly, new innovations and technology has improved our life style and living standards
immensely, it has also somehow resulted in taking away the ‘personal’ touch from various things.
The incessant pace has made people completely engrossed in just their own lives. Everybody is
trying to be the best, which gave more and more importance to the idea of specialisation in various
fields that we see now. Even though specialisation has played a vital role in development of
numerous sectors, which would not have been possible otherwise, it would be hard to oversee the
somewhat ‘negative’ impacts it has brought upon peoples’ lives, specifically speaking the lack of
involvement from the people, as there is always a specific person to perform a given task.
However, in the case of housing, it could be said that amount of involvement is directly
proportionate to the level of attachment to the process of selecting a house, thus, higher
involvement also induces higher value or significance to the act of ‘home-building’.
Nevertheless, the word ‘convenience’ has a lot of weight, as it does allow people to avail almost
everything with a click or a tap with a finger, willingly.