jury at panvel . tanays birthday party

The first of the four university juries that I have been assigned was the furthest. All the way to panvel to look at a class of 38 of which we did 30. our fellow jurors seemed to not want to take the long ride to the southernmost point of new Bombay. The range of the work was incredible. From incredible models and beautiful 1.50 sections with lettering in the traditional sense to rough tracing paper and absolutely no models. 5 students were fantastic, most all right and some awful. The projects themselves were better than those I have otherwise seen. the ‘urban’ project was a redesign of ‘center one’ the only mall in vashi to make it ‘sustainable’. As in most cases the concept of sustainability was itself never really analysed. Merely by making the building fragmented it was assumed that the projects will be eco-friendly. Which I assume they will be – more than the current glass boxes for sure. But how are they better environments was the question left unanswered- because most of them were not. Why would I give up inorbit artificial smooth glistening cool of the dusty grimy and sweaty courtyards that so many of the students had made. landscape, such an important element to address was left completely disregarded. The ‘rural’ project was a series of 4 programmes in a village in tamil nadu- a panchayat, a weaving center and two kinds of education centers. While one or two kids in particular were able to break the trap of the sloping roof hut, and do something interesting only one was able to do so much more within the type. His skill in taking an existing language and making it so much more was jaw-dropping. Extraordinarily sophisticated.

It was along day and we finally got done at around 5 and I drove back in a rush all the way to Andheri for tanays birthday celebrations opposite infiniti mall. the ‘party hall’- essentially a slightly larger room than most with a toilet attached and some fancy lighting was decorated with balloons- black, white and red. A lisping emcee propelled us all willingly and unwillingly to make complete asses of ourselves playing silly party games. ping pang pong / make your group into a circle, square, z/ lower and lower the bar / divorce, marriage/ proposal... and in the middle of it all the emcee goes "i will make you.................OUT!".. the silliness went on and on. it was great fun as we relinquished the responsibility of being sensible and made complete asses of ourselves. he made us do it. he gave us a license to be ridiculous.. by being slightly ridiculous himself. fun.