Hey .....i am back ..no- not with a bang, more with a whimper ...tired and feeling low (not my usual peppy self )and why ? all because of a VIVA ,yeah guys you read it right and no ,i was not the one conducting it I was at the receiving end ...please save your pity for some one else .I asked for this .Natural isn't it ... a student has to be tested ....and this was the first VIVA of my life and i wanted to make the most of it. Let me get to the details before you all blink in confusion.
Here I am a student of interior designing and after spending 5 months of drafting sheets and sheets of plans and elevation and sketching objects and figures and giving umpteen presentations on glass,wood and textures ,twisting myself out of shape trying to discern the different colours and their characteristics ....there had to be a test.....and there it was ,the writing on the board(sorry... wall ) ....a viva to test your knowledge .The news sent shivers down our backs .I was not in this alone, there were seven others ....who experienced the same shivers .and worst of all we had to redesign our folders to look like (like ......what ???ahem left to our imagination .?well ..not exactly ...it had to represent the subject of our studies ...interior ,designing and architecture
The further few days proved how secretive human beings can be .Each of us went about acting as though we were just going to cover our folders with a local news paper as we had no ideas (and we called ourselves creative !!!)My idea was to buy a suitcase and roll it in with my portfolio inside and I let every one know that ... but my mind was working on an overdrive for an idea which was easy to do but simple and attractive and of course ....cheap as my funds were low. Till the last moment the secrecy and pretension continued and the day came and each of us walked in with our portfolios ....guess none of us were really surprised ....cause everyone had worked hard at it .There was a model of a three storey building which housed the folder and a kitchen with complete utensils and chimney ,a room with velvet curtains another one with satin curtains and so on and so forth .and of course there was mine .a paper collage affair .....simple in comparison of course but conveyed the idea...so i thought.And slowly the cats crawled out of the bag .....on how long it took them ,how difficult it was and so on .....well that was about the folder .and now about the viva
As i was the seventh one (lucky for some )i cooled my heels refreshing my memory on things i had learnt so far. Any one looking into the room where we were parked would think that we were or some of us at least were getting ready for a bout in the ring.A couple of us were doing the calisthenics ,(to jog the fickle memory, of course ) the dancers were taking deep breaths as taught in their dance classes and another had her eyes closed and was in deep communication with the maker .The game began ....
Each candidate was questioned minutely as he or she came out after their stint with the interrogators ... to get a hint of what was going on ...but the feedback was not very encouraging ....they all had the same answer ....nothing was asked ...i wondered if we were living in the silent era .the external was a architect .....was he ahem! ....challenged in some way or better still struck dumb by our talent and knowledge???? The latter thought was the better option . Then , my number was called...I walked in with a feeling akin to that of walking into the proverbial lions den (there were two in there )
"Introduce yourself please"
"Ahem" (i unglued my vocal cords....it had got stuck when the sixth one had gone in )"my name is......."i began and as a after thought added my age as i ended my intro
(did i detect a surprise???)
"oh okay ...but we do have to question you , you know ".
"sure ..go ahead "(Okay ,so i lost the first round )
And then the scrutiny began My sketch book with my juvenile sketches was commented upon and duly appreciated which almost embarrassed me .The examiner even alluded to MF Hussain ( i was not quite sure if it was complimentary )and then my portfolio ...oh well that did me in .He took pains to point out the bloopers in my drafts.....okay..so they were repairable and as for the questions ....they were actually subject related, which indirectly summed up to a politely worded concerned enquiry as to whether i knew what i was doing there at this age .
and so ended the viva .We parted on a happy note ( so i d like to believe )
The result is not out (thank god for small mercies at least my weekend was saved ! )
