jury duty

had a call for jury duty at an architecture school in bandra today. only two students and four jurors. more than a little ludicrous. over and above that the work ranged from the mediocre to the awful. that is – one mediocre and the other awful. don’t really know whether it was the students fault.

the projects included a ‘cultural center’ that was meant to be a prototype for any site in any situation. international style at its most inane, i would have thought- but even that would mean that some thought had been put in setting the problem. the other i.e. rural project was a ‘vocational training’ center at kamshet. every alternate contour of the site was removed for no apparent reason but to let the students make rcc frame structures that want to look like huts. the worst possible architecture in the world. in spite of this, we had to pass one student and fail the other. why should the kids suffer for the blunders of their teachers?

one of the poor girls was the only girl in the third year. she had no class because that year the college was allowed no intake. she had an attendance register and a classroom all to herself for the entire year. poor thing- such a surreal situation- if she bunked- it was a mass bunk.