Shirish Beri is a veteran Indian architect, urbanist, painter, academician and poet known for his work that focuses on the aspects of nature and incorporates them elegantly into architecture. Apart from designing and having built works as an architect, Beri, who is based in Kolhapur in Maharashtra, has published the book Spaces inspired by Nature, created the film The Unfolding White, and has also been producing abstract paintings that reflect “the collective unconscious of the society”. With his various passions and creative channels, he has also been a lucid poet and has published his poems through various mediums over the years while his sketches are an awe-inspiring marvel that make one enjoy the pen on paper intricacies in an otherwise digital world.

In the video above, STIR presents an excerpt from his upcoming book Wanderings and Ponderings, which specifically discusses the idea of ‘Pilgrimages’. This poem, as Beri narrates it to us in his own voice, expresses the idea of ‘pilgrimage’ as perceived by him over the years. The poem is an insight into his journey as an architect and a creative professional for having derived inspiration from various visits to architectural marvels such as the Kailasa Temple at Ellora in western India, Padmanabhapuram Palace in southern India, Alhambra palace in Granada, Spain, Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey and Sagrada Familia in Spain among others. Through the poem he subtly redefines the meaning of what a ‘pilgrimage’ destination may be for the creatively driven and that inspiration may come from the most simplistic beings. He also resonates with and re-visits his impressions of the ruins of Petra in Jordan, the Adalaj step wells in Gujarat, India, and the hilly slopes of the Greek islands, the Stonehenge, in the UK, all of which have emphatically been illustrated by his powerful and intricately detailed sketches.

Read articles authored by Shirish Beri here.