Being in Architecture College, the fun quotient isn’t always equated to what we call a college life, and yet it stands to be the best and worst phase of our lives. Looking back at the 5 years, despite missing out on most of what is called a social life, with the overworking and the quarterly breakdowns, it is described as unforgettable. However, most architecture students probably won’t be able to pinpoint one particular moment as the most memorable one, but always name a few small things that in hindsight are what defined our entire experience. This is one such experience of mine which I surely share with everyone reading.
The last few weeks of every semester are nothing less than chaos. This sem-end was very similar to all others and yet slightly different. For the past 2 weeks, I had been working day and night without a single full night’s sleep. Finally, it was the day before the BTM submission. I, along with 3 of my friends, were working in my living room, with two sheets mounted on either side of the glass-top dining table and the other two people were using their drafting boards. The completed sheets, stationery, snacks, laptops covered every surface in the room. We were completely depleted yet running on the stress of deadlines and caffeine. At 6 pm on the previous day, two sheets were yet to be completed. I immediately calculated the submission was at 10 am, The bus arrived at 7:40, I had approximately 13 hours, so 4 hr/ sheet, 1 hour for corrections and finishing and I could still have 3 hours of sleep.
The patience and energy were going down by the second and the panic had begun to set in. The evening began with a giant mug of coffee because the red bull is for a bit later in the night. Linkin Park is blasting on the speaker. Laser-focused for the next 5 hours and for once in the entire semester 1 sheet was completed in one sitting. A little behind schedule but still, the deadline was attainable. At dinner time the exhaustion was at its peak, the appetite was lost and the conversations had gone from senseless to absolute incomprehensible rambling. The quality of music that was playing had gone from ‘Imagine Dragons’ and ‘Linkin Park’ to singing along to ‘Laila Majnu’ from ‘Aaja Nachle’ and continued to deteriorate further; which made us think whether it was worth it to complete the last sheet. I mean if the rest of the portfolio was completed, how many marks could one lose for one incomplete sheet? But then again all these efforts would be for an incomplete mark. So getting back on track and gathering all the motivation and with every inch of sincerity, the last sheet completion begins. Two of the four people had already passed out, as though they had embraced their fate with the incomplete mark. With hours passing by like minutes, the last sheet was finally completed at 4:30 am. I crashed on the bed and fell asleep even before my head hit the pillow and managed to get 2 hours of sleep.
The alarm went off at 6:30 am and still unable to open my eyes, I dragged myself out of bed. Everybody brushed their teeth, chugged some more coffee because submissions are more important than our health and ran to the bus stop without finding the need to shower or even have a change of clothes.
In college, while we were taking our time with the masking of sheets and filing of the portfolio, few others were panicking and struggling to complete the last sheet. The chaos in the studio can’t be described. When a few students were checking the sheets for corrections, others who had accepted their fate with a lower score had resorted to topo-ing their final sheets on the glass window. Their ears were more alert than their mind to check when a professor walked in. Unfortunately, when the sheets were almost done, nobody noticed our class teacher walk in and quietly watch my poor friends glass tracing an entire sheet. The noise of the rambling, hustling crowd totally masked the presence of a faculty member in casual attire.
Very calmly, the teacher tapped on my friend’s shoulder and of all the things he could have said, the words that came out of his mouth were “The sheet is well done.” Within 2 seconds, a chaotic class of 40 students went silent all at once. Every single one in the class had imagined the worst scenario and everyone including the students who were caught stood in a freeze-frame with their jaws to the floor for the longest two minutes of their lives. It was almost like an involuntary mannequin challenge. After the long two minutes, the professor took a stool and sat next to him and said “Come sit. Let’s have a chat.” He continued to talk about all the topics under the sun from global warming to politics for half an hour before the deadline. The entire conversation took place between a professor and a mortified face, a face that was scared to death of what might become of his submission. The rest of the class slowly and quietly got back to working on their folios while the professor very calmly continued the conversation ensuring the sheet was never completed. Finally, the folio was submitted with one incomplete sheet with a crippling fear that he might fail the subject.
All folios stacked roll no. wise at exactly 10:05. After weeks of hard work, sleep deprivation and anxious completions, the submission was finally done. All stinky students in the same clothes as last night crawled back to different corners of the studio. Every single one was inches away from a caffeine crash, which would take at least a week to recover from. A few students who still had retained the red bulls and the coffees in their systems started playing ludo on their phones. On the other hand, we had 4 hours until the bus took us home. The relieved students that we were, did the next logical thing that came into our hopped up minds,- We joined two drafting desks to form a v shape with the boards and proceeded to sleep on it like there was no tomorrow.
