(If you find the title repulsive and vulgar, don’t read on, because its only going downhill from here!!!)
Stepping though the doors of an architecture college, one hardly imagines the love, the passion that slowly works its way up, inside you, for the projects that you do. Irrespective of the criticisms, the humiliation, the sleepless nights and blood-sucking group members, the pride you feel inside when the final plots have been taken, and you are putting the finishing touches in your model, bear no parallel. An average mother gives birth once or twice in her life time, we architecture students (impregnated with great ideas, of course), are in virtually in labor, on every Monday, every week of the semester. Such, is the love for what we do.
The Annual festival, is the one event that brings together the students irrespective, of our batches, mutual differences and submission schedules. For a college which is relatively unknown, it is the one opportunity we get to scream out loud: “WE EXIST”. For the one month, that leads up to the festival, students ‘camp indoors’ in their studios working on tasks as diverse as, Lighting, Structure, Art exhibition, Architecture exhibition, etc… Of the lot, arguably structure design is the most prestigious of the lot. Students get to design a structure which forms the center stage during the three day fiesta, which for most is really their ‘first erection’.
Structure Design is perhaps one of the most taxing jobs a student could take up, as it involves great responsibility, bunking classes and meeting tight budgets. But I knew Rakesh wouldn’t let us down, because he is the sort of guy who never lets anyone down. A model student, who grew up first assembling Lego models, then graduated to Aeroplane models, and finally found his love in making models of buildings. A shy and reticent fellow, I was glad he rose up to the occasion, and set out to prove himself by making an actual 30 foot high structure.
For days, the fellow toiled, skipping classes (a first for him!), working through nights, making straw, wood, steel models, till he was ready to make the real thing. When I saw the final steel model which would be duplicated in a scale 20 times over, all I could muster up was a chuckle. It bore uncanny resemblance to, which in gentleman’s language is called a phallus. That would be the symbol of our college pride this year!
I being a supportive friend, congratulated on his achievement, and went of to oversee what everyone else was upto (if you are thinking what I was doing in the preparations, and why I am up to no good, its probably because I was MR. PRESIDENT). The final structure that came up, was better than I could have ever imagined. I had seen Rakesh’s impressive portfolio, but this time had truly out done himself. Every one who came to festival appreciated the unique design and the intricate detailing. I, keeping my perverted thoughts to myself, joined the ranks, admiring it (bewildered why people couldn’t get the joke!!!!).
Two months after we were done with the festival, after Rakesh had completed photographing his baby from every angle possible, under every lighting condition possible, came a heart breaking blow. The college authorities had decided that the new building coming up on campus would be on the site where the structure was located, and it would have to be dismantled. Rakesh was distraught, as he ran pillar to post, trying to come up with any way it could be saved. He posted advertisements on the internet, even tried to squeeze one into the A+D magazine, but to no avail. The structure was going to be felled on 2nd February around 6:00 P.M. (I had forgotten these details and had to refer to Rakesh’s somewhat personal diary which he keeps in the second drawer of his desk).
All of us, his friends gathered on the fateful day, most with beer bottles in hand, I with my Appy Fizz and sat down on the hill side (its barely a mound actually, but hill sounds more romantic) just outside of the campus observing the arrival of the ‘executioner’s truck’. Tears welled up in Rakesh’s eyes, as the first hack-saw’s blade made its way through the metal section. I too felt sad, knowing well that I too will miss this ‘structure’, the glimmer of stainless steel, the tension in the taut cables, with its head (sorry, the apex!) tilted at an awkward angle, as I walk into campus each day, with a mischievous grin buried deep inside…
