Memories can be a melodious hum in one’s ears and most times we just don’t want that hum to stop. It’s a lane that guides us into a familiar abyss and then the trail we leave behind can be that of cradled happiness, recognizable pain or it could be enlightening moments of humor disguised variedly in plain sight. Students in their school of architecture have many small instances that amount to significant learnings or memories to cherish all their lives. There are always a few quirky instances that are worth mentioning in the hope that they can stir meaning and amusement.
Once upon a time not too long ago, (well why not stick with the cliche for once) an enthusiastic set of ruffle heads for students of architecture wanted to be a part of an event that solely represents the monument of “nerds having fun”. This was more than institutes gathering for exceptional events, it was where stories were crafted as part of people’s experience. The NASA – National Association of students of Architecture is a gathering that happens on an annual and quarterly basis. Here is where students across the country (India) and the surrounding seven sister countries are deeply involved, in creative expression, human engagement, skill development, and enveloping architectural perspectives in a new light. Alongside all that, it also opens up opportunities of fabricating incidents that forever can be something, you roll on the floor laughing about because that just has to be a part of this journey. One such incident that I and my friends had experienced on this trip is what I am going to muse you with, so read along.
Ever caught yourself telling stories of horror for pure amusement whenever you found you and your friends in a place where the cookbook of all witchery could have been created. Well, this Incident that did happen could have been also considered very subtly an episode from Harry Potter. Humor me and jog those memories from the movie series. All those times when we were mesmerizingly engaged with those evergreen characters who were seen walking through those magnificent halls and the dark arenas and simply mysterious spaces that could be defined as iconic architectural anecdotes. Those were the memories that became associated with this incident for me and friends because the college we were going to spend the next few days had a similar tone in its ambiance and experience in quite a few nook and corners.
The accommodation for women and men was separate and the classrooms and corridors were our dwelling hubs for those days. All of the students had the tents and the cool breeze with jungle whispers as accompany for most evenings. Our batch was given accommodation in such a way that almost all of our friend groups were clubbed with proximity even though the girls and the guys were quite orthodoxically separated by a cage(dramatically speaking, it was actually just a foldable metal gate that was locked) and even so all those circumstances started adding up to scenes from Harry Potter as I mentioned before.
Taking advantage of that situation, we thought this was a good time to stimulate our minds with ghost stories and moments of horror that many of my friends and I experienced personally or personally decided to cook up one that very moment, either way, it was quite an amusement. We were talking through the gate and pretended it did not exist (for a third person that was probably a scene from the eighties) and so in no time, we were neck-deep in horrifying stimulations. There is always that one friend that is hilariously scared at a drop of a hat and that cliche can be checked out in this scenario as well. I was enjoying this friend’s reactions more than the stories he had to say and was secretly plotting to scare him during this conversation and was very eagerly waiting for my window.
As our bodies were cautiously observing the environment and appropriately reacting to that, simply put goosebumps and as the cool breeze glazed our backs making us aware of the words that were shared and as the cold flooring had strong grips on our legs, a beat dropped. It was a loud and horrifically profound sound, as though it was an orchestrated moment only to serve as an affirming reality to all those horror stories and descended to that very moment as very real. It was a gush of strong wind and thudding sounds that later we grasped as something that had flown into our corridor from the opening and hit the tent that I and two of my friends were sharing one of whom was inside already asleep. This very moment our very scared friend bolted upright into a standing position from the floor and ran faster than flash, into the classroom, and locked the door.
On the other hand, I and my friend were busily refocusing our eyes in an attempt to search for the protagonist of this narration, the source of the beat drop, and to our astonishing surprise, it was a wise majestic owl that had just flown in from Hogwarts and instantly I and my friend knew what we were thinking and this moment had to be something we froze in time, also note that at this same point our dear friend who was in the tent asleep, where the owl had just landed was still snoring away to glory.
This beautiful beast of an owl glided along the corridor of the girl’s section and spread its wings that did stir a lot of the screams but left me and friend in an adrenaline-rushed reality of our childhood fiction. As Architects, our attention to passageways and what it can passively deliver into human experiences brought in new possibilities about space and its roles. We still do sit down to remember that very moment and our flash friend and our snoring friend to this date.
