There is nothing that wasn’t said about architecture school. We are all familiar with the workings of an architecture school; Sleepless nights, long working hours, evil professors, horrendous juries, and coffee-fueled students running around like zombies the day before jury making hostels difficult to differentiate from a post-apocalyptic world. But still, currently grinding in an architecture school I would like to try my hand at telling you the same old story from a different perspective.
This is the tale when I was in my first year of architecture school. Ahhh…!! The time of bliss and ignorance, lugging around a t-scale on one shoulder and a backpack of ideas on the other, Aspiring to be the next “Le Corbusier” or any other architect you googled the day before. You squeal with joy at the sight of your peers suffering under the burden of books, thank your lucky stars that you pursued architecture, and talk their ear off about how you are doing something atypical and innovative and are not just some mindless robot. But little do we know what thunderstorm lies ahead of us and little do we do to prepare for it. This is a tale of that time of my life.
This all started when I came to know about a thing called “topo” which is basically putting an empty and a drafted sheet on a glass table, sticking a bulb under it, and tracing the drafted sheet on the empty one. This was almost illegal in our college (as it is in most colleges) which made it all the more exciting. I heard stories from my seniors about how they were too busy making building construction sheets and would pawn them off to juniors to have them traced. It even got to a point that there was a whole black market in our hostels where some students would charge money from other students to have their sheets “topo-ed”.
I, as a first-year student used to worship my seniors and would try to copy everything they did or said. I was fascinated by the way they were defying the system, breaking rules left and right. So one day, I decided that I was more focussed on my design rather than doing labor work on these construction detail sheets. So I decided to try out this “topo” thing. We were given a weekend to make this sheet but since I was “too busy” I was determined to try this out, have my sheets made from someone else while I headed home to enjoy my weekend. I had heard rumors about a classmate of mine skilled in the art of “topo” who used to charge a “mere” of Rs 500 for one sheet. I contacted him through a friend of mine since I was too embarrassed to ask him on my own. Ultimately, the deal was done and the transaction was made.
As soon as I started towards home, these questions started coming in my mind …..What if I am doing something wrong? What if he doesn’t make my sheet at all?….What if I get caught?….how will I bear the shame?…This spiral started eating at me through my two day weekend. I was scared and nervous-wreck as the weekend started to end and didn’t enjoy the weekend at all. I couldn’t bear the pressure of being an “outlaw”.so I decided to make my own sheet but alas…!! It was now too late. I didn’t have any of my drafting tools at home and it was too late to go buy a sheet from the store. So there was nothing that could be done. That night I didn’t sleep at all. I was preparing myself for the scolding of my life as I was sure I was going to be caught.
The next day I reached college, received my tainted sheet, and without even looking it quietly sat at my table. Suddenly a man with beady eyes, with broad spectacles, scruffy-looking beard ready to pounce at any student who asks a stupid question enters the room. I realized that my time has come. I waited for my turn as the professor who I think has never smiled once in my life, came to each desk to check the sheets of each student, howl at them for one thing or another and leave their sheets with a rainbow of red markings.
At last, came my turn, my spine shivered, my hands went numb and I struggled to muster two sentences together. Time stopped still, he stared over my sheet for a whole two minutes then out came a bursting blow. But I wasn’t what I had thought … turns that he didn’t realize that the sheets were copied but instead he felt that it was the most incompetent sheet he had seen. I let out a sigh of relief as he marked me zero. In the end, I had to make my sheet all over again and all my savings went to waste.
Therefore I advise you never to take the easy way out because it will bite you in the ass at some point.
