Ever since the "Vorlehre" (Foundation Program) of the Bauhaus—a preparatory course in 'basic design' has been a standard part of the curriculum of most art and design schools in the world. The objectives of these basic design courses are generally stated as providing the student with a 'grammar' of form—giving a 'vocabulary' or 'alphabet' of form which could be used to create 'words' and 'texts' in later 'real' assignments. The assignments typically revolve around pure formal exploration and skill training. Surely the objectives of a course in BASIC design have to go beyond syntax training. The present courses in basic design end up actually freezing the attitudes of the students towards form-making their formal vocabulary so selective as to exclude many kinds of expression. The following articles are included in this edition: Truth is a Pathless Land by J. Krishnamurti; Kohsei: Basic Art and Design as a New Professional Genre by Naomi Asakura; A Humanistic View of Things by K. Munsi; Notes on Visual Relations by Ravi Poovaiah; On Golden Things and Other Meanings by Gui Bonsiepe; Thinking About Design (Book Review) by Gui Bonsiepe; Structure of Form : A Series Based on Perception and Information Processing (Part 3) by U.A. Athavankar; Charecteristics of Architect- Designer by Sthapathi -lakshanam. The cover of this edition of Abhikalpa had diagrams for the construction of various lotus flower shaped 'Yajna-kundas' ritual fire pits.