A fork on the road with riches on either side.

This is an article I wrote for my college newsletter describing....um.....well, you'll find out when you start reading.

PS - I bullshitted a lot when I start praising what I praised.

August the 6^th, 2007. I had just returned from a very rainy holiday from the serene beaches of Goa three days before. A beautiful day this day was, not for the fact that the sun suddenly smiled down on India’s carnatic land that day considering that it hadn’t presented itself consistently since June ended; but because it was a new day for me, a new experience – for I was to start my first full time job in an architectural office. Somehow, I didn’t feel the butterflies that one would normally associate with new experiences, though I did see a few of the beautiful creatures fly by my window. I remember I had told Architect XYZ that I would be able to show up to work on the first week of August, tentatively on the 6^th; and this I had told him sometime in May. The thought that he might have forgotten crossed my mind, so, due to this reason (partly) and partly because I didn’t know what else to do, I called him, at 8 in the morning. I think I woke him from his sleep. Why he was still asleep is none of my business.

So I was expected to show up at the workplace at 9.30am. Unlike college, I DID show up on time. As a matter of fact, I actually arrived there 5 minutes early. Again, unlike college, there was no one and the door was locked. I waited a full half an hour before anyone else showed up, and it was my new colleague who led the way into the office (more like a residence, but anyway). I had seen the “office” before during my interview, but now the workspace seemed somewhat weird. Maybe because there were a lot more people then and the silent absence caused an eeriness in me. Then the day went on, with my other colleagues showing up (I knew them from college, they were my seniors), and later with the principal architect making his presence known by giving his first words in the office to me- telling me that that I should watch how work goes on in there for a day or two before I was assigned anything so that I was acclimatised to the situation.

The day went on and on and on and on till dusk arrived. And the next day came and went, so did the next, and the next, and after a LOOONNNG time it was two weeks. I was beginning to get more work, and I had “acclimatized” myself to the office. I went on my job duties as regularly as an architectural employee would, and then, with a warning time long enough for me to go to Alaska and back, it struck me. WORK WAS TERRIBLY BORING!!! I just couldn’t imagine how monotonous work could be before I joined there, especially because I always thought work would be my liberation from college. How wrong I was. It was not fun- it never was. The thought didn’t only strike me once, it struck me again and again till it began ringing in my head. Why was the feeling that all software employees get felt by me? This isn’t right, it couldn’t be. The reason I didn’t do engineering was because of this insane boredom of a desk job. I pondered on, and I just couldn’t imagine why I felt what I felt. Earlier, I had friends to block monotony from creeping into my life; now I had nothing, save my downloaded movies.

I speak for myself when I talk of this boredom. You’d think it this is a one off case. No comes the answer. Judging by what my friends told me, I can safely say that they went through the same phase with little or no difference. Some say they had fun, some didn’t – but then fun is a very loosely used term these days. Yes, sure, we don’t have ANY college work this semester, no design, no ACM, no submissions, no reviews, no internal tests, no exams and only one jury questioning us what we did at work. But still, the work just lacked that teeny weeny bit of character, that little unexplainable thing that could be compared to what makes you like a certain someone - romantically or otherwise - for no obvious reason at all. At college, one has the liberty to take off (read bunk) anytime they want. Not the case here. Maybe the grass is always greener on the other side. If that was the case though, my colleagues wouldn’t be telling me that college was always more fun than work. How could it have gotten so undesirable?

But then again, come to think of it, WORK was not ALL that bad. It was just a little uneventful – like I said, it lacked that oomph. Let me take for example – the amount of time freed up every evening because you don’t have to work on that first floor plan that will be reviewed the next day. Or like the sites you visit (trust me, in college you’ve learnt NOTHING). Or like the times you tell your working engineering friends you get to wear anything you want to work (they have to wear formal attire, for the most part). Or like how you can show off to everyone that you’re working on the airport/supermall/skyscraper/celebrity’s house. So, work at an architectural office is not bad at all, not as bad as it began to sound here at least. It just takes a little getting used to, after all the times you had with your friends. After all, everything good normally has a tiny evil side to it. J

Anyway, its just a matter of a few weeks before I quit work and live a happy holiday for two months (no exams remember?). It feels good and bad at the same time that I have to leave work, and eventually get back to college. Maybe in the future I will look back at this day and laugh at myself. Good (and bad) things always come to end , and pretty obviously, I will miss work and my new friends.

But like most amateur philosophers say – you have to move on. Cheers.

My Job - A quick Description of the Frustration

This semester takes me away from college for three and a half months. It may sound like a brilliant thing, and let me tell you - it is. It surely is one hell of a time to be away from classes and lectures and exams and all things undesirable related to studies. There is so much to training under a qualified "architect", so much to know, and I have to experience it in person to understand. There is a reason why I enter this post today - and it is not to celebrate the happiness about my being away from college, but is to tell everyone about my work related disease.

Surely, and obviously, I am NOT frustrated by how my "colleagues" are. They are nice people and considering that they used to study with me once upon a time, it makes things even more comfortable for me. It is not that the principal architect treats me bad either. He's a nice fellow, who has never ever raised his voice against any of us (sad to say that ain't the case with his wife) and has even allowed me to take leave off the office for two days so I could participate at jipmer's spandan. Office hours are also favourable, it doesn't demand stress on me, and the number of breaks per day exceed the number of fingers on any one of your hands. What the fuck am I cribbing about right?

Again, i say, the office is not the issue. It is not the people. It is what they ask of me.

What they ask of me may seem make a layman react - "SO WHAT?". You know, being asked to render images - thats OK, it ain't a big deal. Being asked to detail out drawings - OK. Being asked to estimate values - is OK. Being asked to draw elevations - is also OK. --------------BUT, and a big big but at it, being asked to "design" interiors of a building referring to images downloaded - that is NOT OK.-------------- The worst part is - I could risk saying NO and get myself fired. The frustration of not being able to say "no" to the "design" assignment is something that is undescribable, but obviously thats not what causes my work related disease, and is actually the refer part that gets onto me. Though the word refer and design sounds quite normal to anyone reading this, it sounds more like copy to me. This illness will probably die down after I'm done with it, but finishing this assignment is going to be like flogging my own arse.

There is absolutely no design ethics in this office - and though this sounds like an absolutely chauvinistic remark, I say that women can't design (again - there ALWAYS are exceptions). They can't expect other people to design either, just like whats happening now. Design involves creativity, not just good aesthetic sense - a lesson I want to teach to all students of architecture. If the creativity in an architectural project goes missing, then from it the label "art" is going to be struck off, torn and mutilated. Which - by the way - I hear happens in most offices. :-( But let me give due credit where it belongs - the designs that enter this office from elsewhere - i.e the building plans that come here from other offices to let us finish the interiors, are absolutely gruesome. It is a shame that those plans are even approved. So - the "designs" of this office aren't THAT bad either. Somehow, I am in a place thats at the bottom of the design ladder - at the feet of this design being if i may call it that, and the others around are below in the shit thats stuck onto the chappals of this design-being.

Nobody in the office will realise my pain, because I am going to hide it. It is not an easily comprehended situation. Anybody related to the field of design - ANY sort of design - may just be able to understand how and what I feel. When will this world change???

Another one of my posts describing what I loathe. :-) Until next time, Bye.