I still remembered the day I entered my intern office for the first time, all nervous, all worried. Never knew that this place would be the one I’ll be carrying a bundle of memories with me, the day I leave.
Jaipur, a city I have been to many times but never lived in for a long time. Imagine a girl who has always been with her parents in her home city for all her lifetime, suddenly to live alone in a whole different city for 5 months. A bit scary, right? So was it to me.
Office training is the turning point of all the architecture students, a period where the majority of the students’ changes in their thoughts, characteristics, physique, and their overall behavior. Just like the teenage is the time where a child grows into an adult, similarly, after the internship, an architecture student grows into an architect, finally.
The first day at the office started with a humorous introduction to all the staff members. Each architect had their own identity being the one created by their jokes or the ones created by their actions. Morning time used to be the most serious time of the day. Every Monday everyone used to come in the hope that when would the Saturday come!
Writing this I remember in the second semester at the beginning of the architecture course, this senior respected professor who used his dark humor in all his talks, postponed our pre final jury, and canceled our Holi break. He further said, ‘if anyone wants the vacation (all the students getting in the hope), they can go on a permanent holiday.’
Sharp at 1:15 all the screeching sounds used to come in the wait for the clock to tick 1:30 and the lunchtime to begin in the office. And just after the lunch break there used to come in that deadly sleep to all the interns because it was the first time we had to sit in one chair in an office atmosphere which was so unlikely in the architecture school, where we used to bunk in the most hateful lectures like advanced computer techniques and get into the canteen, the most favorable place of an architecture student. At any time of the day, you would get to see one or the other sitting with a cup of coffee, and a messed attire which was unlikely to be seen in a professional office.
One of the incidents took place in the college when I was having a bad day as the design comments were not as expected and thinking about all the hard work I will have to put in to redo the assignment, I was trying to get out of the class from the front door while the teacher was sitting facing the opposite side and the students around him. This professor always used to pull my leg for one or the other reason. And that day he had to catch me through his third eye. The moment I took a step out of the class he called out my name and started to say that “This girl, I don’t know when she gets in and when does she gets out, just like a mouse, she rushes in and out the class, so Diksha today you have to sit in front of me and I am not leaving the class for the next 1 hour.” There came a loud sound from the class cursing me. Well, this professor was the best one of all, pure with his heart, and always treated the students like his own, but never left a chance to pull anyone’s leg.
The evening time was the most cheerful time of the day at the office—Tea time—the most joyful time in the mundane routine of an architect. At this time the number of jokes cracked in the office was maximum. Everyone used to get in that comfort zone at this time and used to crack jokes and share their experiences followed by musical sessions. Every time I used to come back from Ahmedabad on the weekends I used to bring a packet of khakhra for the office and everyone used to jump in and eat it. Imagine a big packet used to get over in seconds. Trying their best to speak in Gujarati, but to no extent, they used to imitate the most famous character “Jethalal”.
Getting prints was the most favorite thing for me. Changing the rolls and getting the view of the full office and noticing the minute details of the actions of each member was quite humorous. Some used to be busy into themselves and the others busy chit-chatting with others who are trying to concentrate. The moment it turned 6 in the evening everyone from the office used to get vanished. Well working from 10 to 6 continuously on the software is a task, isn’t it? This never used to be the case in architecture school. No particular time to get in and go out of the college.
In the end, I would just like to conclude that the whole office experience was one of the most important and cherishable moments of my life. Both the experiences of the office and the architecture school were diverse but can be related well and had humorous memories with them.
