It was November and time for our second trip, which was to Jodhpur and Jaisalmer (in our first trip, we were taken to historical places and made to do sketches). We were all very excited as this was a one-week trip, away from home, with friends, so everything was discussed and decided as to who would be sharing a room with whom, flight partners, etc.
We were told to bring our TD bags with us because we were all going to be drawing in the evenings, what we would be measuring in the mornings. This was going to be our first-ever hands-on experience! The sense of being someone important, that elated feeling that we are now “would be architects” was also sinking in!
Finally, the day arrived, we reached Jodhpur and were taken to the hotel and allotted rooms, then we were given an hour to keep our luggage in the room, freshen up, eat breakfast and meet the teachers again in the lobby as we would be visiting the site.
Promptly we met the teachers at the designated time. From there, we were taken to a chowk in the old city of Jodhpur and told to measure the area around and including the chowk. Our class was divided into five groups and each group was assigned one part of the area (which included streets too) to be documented.
Being our very first experience of “on-site measure drawing” a city, we all wanted to do our best and make our set of drawing correct and crisp, basically, we all wanted to make an impression. So, we split up and started working in our groups, we divided the work further by assigning two people each for plans, sections, and elevations, etc.
We had two and a half days in Jodhpur to capture each and every detail and put it on tracings. Since it was a chowk, it was a busy area. We had to put our tape down on the ground (as it was not feasible to retract it every time), when measuring streets, for traffic which included scooters, rickshaws, cars, and even cows.
The old city of Jodhpur was very mesmerizing and the people there were used to seeing students around the year and were very sweet. A lady who lived in the street, which our group was measuring, took us inside and offered us tea and biscuits, after some polite conversation, we thanked her and took her leave. We all worked diligently day in and day out to measure and draw the streets.
It was the second day, at the end of which, we were supposed to show our work to the teachers for review… our deadline was 9 pm. In the evening, at 9 pm sharp, we all assembled in the teachers’ room, ready to show our work.
We all wanted to prove ourselves and were feeling very proud as we had done a good job, our drawings were neat, every detail was in place and we were expecting a pat on the back… That is when the teachers said, “Please pin all your works on the wall, put all the plans together and join them up for a more holistic view of all the groups’ work and also we would like to see the chowk as a whole!”
We started joining our sheets overlapping the extra part of the streets (and then something which we had not imagined happened). When we joined, overlapped, and pinned up the sheets aligning each group’s sheets… we realized to our dismay that the north did not align… and there was a full 10m wide gap between two drawings in one street. One of the group’s North had to be wrong… but who will budge and admit… what a goof up. We could just forget the pat on the back.
Discussions turned into defensive arguments with no solutions. Frustration was setting in, as we were all very tired, working continuously for the past two days with little sleep and now we were worried that all our hard work was going down the drain…. I realized then, that the mind and body when tired, can come up with very interesting and innovative solutions (pun intended)….only two options were looking very clear and evident at that point… either one group admits, that they made a mistake (which at that point was not possible) or (and this is the best part)… we make our own new street in Jodhpur to connect and fill the gap, the latter seemed easier and also started looking good after a certain point of time.
The teachers just watched, at first, with amusement and then with shock (I think) when they realized that we were seriously considering “the making of a new street part”, that is when they intervened and asked us, if all the groups had coordinated with each other while taking north. At that moment, realization dawned on us, for, till that moment we were so immersed in being good, best, and whatnot, that we had totally forgotten the meaning of working together, sheepishly we said “NO”.
In the last 30 minutes, we had put all our friendship at risk just to prove ourselves. I think at that moment we also understood the importance of “North” and its alignment! So, the next day, one person from each group volunteered and went to each and every site to check the North along with one teacher!
Finally, the problem was solved and there was no gap in the plan. But we learned some very important lessons that day, the first being, intergroup communication, and coordination. Till date, the unity of our batch is loved and hated at the same time and for the same reason, I am not going to mention who or what went wrong. The second being, in any such future assignments ALWAYS ALIGN THE NORTH FIRST!!
