Architecture is hectic, is an understatement, every architect and architecture student can vouch for this, but a premiere university is a new level of perplexity. Every Indian student knows the significance of getting into the esteemed IITs and NITs, we knew it too. Getting into our dream university is one thing, working for it relentlessly preparing to breach every exam on our way to that institute is another.
On July 30th of 2018, fifty students who knew nothing about each other ended up in the same studio in the hottest district of Tamil Nadu, with a unified dream of being an architect and thus began our story. Here’s a way for all of you to experience the same, a day of an undergrad architect at NIT Trichy.
Zzzzz…zzzzzz…..
“Ma, 5 minutes ma…please”
Zzzzz…zzzz.
“ Dude turn off your alarm !”
And you fall on the floor of your messy hostel room, all the while reminding yourself that you are not at home and hoping to god that you didn’t squash a submission that was due today. Well, today’s not your lucky day! Following a string of curses and an apology to your half-asleep roommate, you pull out your tracing setup. Shoving your conscience away by saying that you already drafted the sheet once and now you are running out of time. Of course, you are running late, who asked you to stay up last night till 3 binge-watching “money heist”? Your conscience pushes right back.
With a meager 30 minutes left to class, you rush to the common restroom across the other end of the block for a swift shower, after all, it’s been three days since your last one. 15 minutes to class and there goes breakfast again!
Pedaling your way through one and a half kilometers from the hostel to the last department on the campus, chiding yourself for not being fit enough to be able to go top speed to class, you realize you have missed this class’s attendance as well. Annoyed with yourself, you park your cycle sweat dripping down your face, run into the department praying to god that the professor isn’t there yet. But lo!
Pleading your way into class, you settle down in your seat on the last row and share a sigh with your friends who snicker at your late entry and get ready for a two-hour long lecture on a theory course about reinforced cement concrete. You think of catching up on sleep but then are pulled into that class with interesting questions and information.
Pushing yourself off your seat and stumbling into the studio for a three-hour design course, seeing that you still had a few minutes before the class, you join your friends for a fun game of “I haven’t started yet”, it’s a game of lie. The best person to convince that he hasn’t started the submission after actually having done the entire thing is the winner! Enters the prof and fifty students hold their breath anticipating the next assignment’s due date. You look around and see faces that hold hope, hope that this weekend we would have enough time to go home at least this weekend. You see faces that hold pessimism, with surety of having to pull a couple of all-nighters to complete the upcoming assignment. You see faces that clearly say that they have no clue of what’s happening and feel right at home among all these people.
At the end of the hour, you sigh realizing the piled amount of work for the weekend, and start from the department to that north Indian chat shop with your friends for a good cheesy paneer roll that is served with grumblings about the day and the work. Kicking your shoes off and hitting the bed, with a video call to mom. Your mom speaks about that aunty who she proudly paraded to about you being in one of the topmost universities in the country, doing one of the most difficult courses in the world! And that right there, that is your salvation and motivation.
Smiling to yourself, you walk around to the mess for dinner and catch up with a few of your engineering mates and exchange convos about who has it worse! At half-past nine after that long queue for a biometric roll call, you throw all those things on your table onto your bed and clear space. Turning on your Netflix for season 2 setting up the sheet on your drawing board thinking to yourself, “it’s going to be a long night.”
And, this is our classic day at uni!
