how i chose architecture

Achitecture...a course that changed my whole perspective of looking at things. 5 years ago as i dragged myself towards my tutions far away in hyderabad i wondered where my life would go after 12th. Everyone around was going for iits and bits (Indian Institute of Technology and Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences) and all i could think of was....nothing! 12th does make you a mumbling troll who doesnt know where the world is going or where he is going except in the case of Thermodynamics or maybe how A C generators work. By the time one can differentiate and intergrate their thoughts, they have their mothers hanging on to their necks saying big things like "what are you going to do with your life?!"

So on such a perfect sunday, i walked towards my tutions thinking about some crap which would make me forget about the hyderabad heat. Lo Behold! There it stood! A one in a million wonder! The house of every dreams envy. Having the name "Arch. Ramesh Rao" etched on it. Finally i had a plan! I wanted to be an ARCHITECT!

Now that the tough part seemed over everything else seemed easy! All i needed to do was to design buildings. I wondered then what was the difference between an architect and an engineer. My parents seemed to be more enthusiastic. They visited a few colleges of architecture around asking people how the curriculum was, how long was the course and how tough was it. I could see from the first time they came back from the ordeal that they werent impressed! I smiled as my mom and dad sat telling me about the characters they had met in the college. Some guy with a pony tail and the other wearing shorts and a sleeveless tee which later turned out to be a girl. They werent very enthusiastic about me joining up after that, not atleast in that particular college. This was the time i realised that i should look into things. I trusted my parents "skills of persuasion" and knew immediately that they would carve into me that i should go into some other course. Here began my struggle to find out what architecture really was.

A little breif about me first, i am an army officers kid having a sister and one set of parents who have been happily married for as long as i remember. My father is a scorpion and mother a cancerian and they have left no stones unturned in nipping me and my sister, now and then about the truths and rights in life. I love them for their keen sense of understanding and for their trust in me to make me learn from my own decisions. My sister a tauras all throughout is the only one who can closely relate to me, was in 8th then, which was a itsy bitsy age for all the turmoil coming up. She could least understand what was going on in her brothers life. What was so much in 12th? Why was it such a big thing? She follows the strict principle : you study, you get marks; if u dont, u get sharks! I truly beleived in that principle too but somehow never got around to following it! To me studies was a insipid thing you do when you are bored with all the other stuff! It wasnt as if i was going out to play some sport or busy drooling over girls like the other guys around me for i had already done that in my former years. It was just that i was more interested in things like drawing and reading and listening to music. Music seemed to fill me wid wonder. It filled my mundane head with fantastic thoughts and seldom encouraged me to sit through nights of maths and problem solving. According to my dad music was the only distraction i had, for everytime he would come out to drink a glass of water he would find his son gawking over some female in a song when he was supposed to be completely engrossed into maths. Maths has always been my worst cousin who i had to relent with for a very long time. One thing was always clear in my mind that i couldnt take anymore of maths so engineering was slowly getting out of question.

Drawing interested me. It made me realise the value of lines and curves. It evoked different feelings in me. It gave me a deep sense in volume and spaces. I wasnt much into drawing buildings then and never thought that i would be. I used to do portraits and objects. Never could i have imagined then that drawing buildings would be the only thing i would be doing in 5 years time. I still have a whole collection of portraits, cut out from magzines and newspapers which i have to draw. I hope that someday i would get the time to draw them. For five years i have been collecting so the collection is huge but the only problem is that it would never relate to the people around. Their is a very thin line which divides an artist and a pervert, same as it does in a mad person and a very intelligent person. Both are two ends of the same puzzle, but both are important to complete it.

I read a lot too! Though i really craved to read some good novels, but then novels were a strict taboo. No novel reading until the vacations after 12th so i resorted to reading other comics like conan the barbarian. I must say that conan the barbarian has an excellent caricature artist, who doesnt only make the character alive in the book but in your heart too! I cannot live without fantasizing and conan gave me the right outsource for that. The fantasy of having a rightful barbouous character who follows his will and wishes and does what he wants. The whole good part about conan the barbarian is that he always wins, which makes you think that maybe someday you will too! Isnt it every human's fantasy to live conan's life?!

Finally, a few things were clear...i was going to do architecture because it involved lot of drawing, With just that thought in my mind i searched in my school lab the best college of architecture in india....Sir J J College of Architecture came up. It seemed they held their own exam as well as the cet (common entrance test) which everyone had to give. I got a new fantasy to dream about....what if i did end up in this college? Wont be wonderful to be in the best college atleast once in life?! Wont it be wonderful to have the best for yourself? I smiled to myself as i dreamt over my maths books!