Thursday, December 11, 2008

Young Designer

So after a LONG (but also unbelievably short) 2 years, I've convocated! :) YAY!! Now I am a young designer with all those wonderful ambitions of changing the world and influencing the one I live in. Lovely thoughts :) The whole event was wonderfully done and very unlike other graduation ceremonies that you'd have seen or been a part of. Very quaint and a desi take on the traditional graduation ceremony. Whats more is that I had my mom, dad and my adoring grandmothers cheering for me while I collected the certificate. And not just that, my whole class and my juniors and the seniors and basically anyone who knew me was there :) Thinking about it still gives me the goosebumps. The whole ceremony is one that I believe is a tribute and testimonial to all that we had done and been though during our stay in the institution, both academically and outside of it.

But the damper of the whole convocation was that each graduating student has a panel dedicated to themselves (mini advertising for the young graduate). Traditionally, super juniors (i.e. students who are junior to me by a year) make these panels as a way of understanding practical design and as a way to get to know those who are not immediately senior to them. This year, unfortunately, the administration decided to step in :( We all know what happens in this kind of a situation. Needless to say, our disciplines were deemed unworthy of these panels. Funnily the students were told that since it was optional work and that since they had their plates full with course work, they need not bother too much. So I don't/ didn't have a panel to show off to my family :(

That being said, the institution also publishes a directory/ yearbook of the graduating students. Like the afore mentioned panels, each student has a page about them and their thesis project.  Again here, I didn't get featured except as a footnote at the end of the book. Now this has apparently happened for the first time in the history of the institution. Why this happened? I was told that it was because my jury was held later than the rest of the crowd and that therefore my page didn't make it to the deadline. This was something that was not mentioned ANYWHERE!! Funnily I, just like everyone who got featured, gave in my info the same time that they did. Another prick in my glory bubble :( No permanent record of me except as a footnote. When asked about this bit, I was told to show everyone the website where I had gotten featured. Now how would I be able to show this page next year when all of this will be removed to make way for the new graduating batch!! 

I have half a mind to sue the institution for what it did to me and my friends. Very upsetting to know all this on the day of the convocation. Atleast if I had been told about this earlier, I might have done something about it. Now I cant

Anyway follow this link to find out more about me and my project. I hope you like it as much as I did while working on it :)

No comments: