In any group, a certain section of people always try to be different while some are born different. During my architecture years I found certain people belonging to altogether different category called –Special mention category. There was one such girl in our class who qualified in this category. Her name was Pratiksha.
One of the most important subject of our 4th and final year was our Thesis topic. Different groups were announced along with announcement of the Thesis master. I too was put in one of the groups and our group leader was Mrs. Neera - a through disciplinarian who would always expect sizeable amount of work and research to be produced in group meetings. Our group had Aditi , Veena , Shrutika, Prajakta , Rajiv , Pratiksha, rohan, shyam myself and couple of blokes who I cant recollect.
We had 3 category of people in our group People like aditi, veena, shrutika, Prajakta belonged to first category, who slogged for researching matters for their topic and produce it in systematic manner on Wednesdays. The second category belonged to people having unlimited fun, last minute research and who took pride in commenting sarcastically on others topics. Myself, Rohan and shyam qualified in this category. Pratiksha sat pretty in third- special mention category with competition from no one. Our entire thesis sessions were fun with lots of memories especially when 3 jokers- myself, rohan and shyam were put in one group. But one incident stands out widely debated till date. This occurred in the first 2 sessions of our thesis.
It was our 1st thesis session and we were asked to choose our topics and present in front of our group about how we are gonna go about the topic. Everyone in our group started presenting their topics. Aditi was the first one to present he topic. We all listened to her carefully. Next was Veena, who presented her topic of set designing. It followed with shyam who presented the same topic by changing the title line. I always wondered shyam had not done his homework and just picked up the topic at last minute from Veena. I never questioned him about this as his answers were inauthentic, complied with comic timings and PJs. Next was Rohan whose topic was F1, followed by me (Lakes in Thane and restoration) and followed by rest of the group. Some peers often complimented me on how i care for my city lakes and its restoration that i have selected this topic but the matter of the fact was that i was too lazy to move my ass out of Thane for doing research. City pride came secondary. We all had selected topics in and around Mumbai so we all would avoid travelling out for our own selfish comforts except one.
Then came the oscar moment we all were waiting for, the joke of the century. It was finally Pratikshas turn to reveal her topic. Pratiksha said-“my thesis topic is Architecture on Moon.” There was a huge silence in our group followed by winking of eyes within members acknowledging the joke. “And how are you going to do the research my dear” said Neera with a confused look. Then came the second oscar moment for best dialogue “I am going to chat with nasa people on net to find out more about the topic”. We had laughter & giggles amongst us for the second joke of the century. We never knew that Nasa astronauts were having free sessions on net chatting to people and discussing issues about feasibilities rather than working on space programs. Neera got more confused. I didn’t blame her as she never knew that she was interacting with someone who belonged to special mention category. “This is impractical, be ready to change that topic” replied Neera and she lifted her bag, gathered her belongings and left. We all tried to talk to pratiksha about her topic but she was adamant on her topic. While getting down the stairs I explained to pratiksha how impractical this topic was and she could have a better scope in other topics. “Ok I will think about it” she said and left.
Next Wednesday we all came up with improvisations in our topic and got ready to present in front of Neera. Almost everyone finished with their topics and we all awaited for the 3rd oscar moment of our Thesis session. Neera turned to Pratiksha asking what is your topic. Again a confident Pratiksha delivered with her voice full of confidence- Architecture on Moon. Neera replied change that topic with a bit of argument and left. This joke spread around class slowly. While going back home I spoke to jimmy regarding this. Jimmy said last week Pratiksha was considering changing the topic until she met jimmy. Jimmy said “I always liked the way you are. You are different as compared to others. World will discourage different people for doing different things, but you should stick to your topic” I realized that it was because of jimmy that the topic still persisted.
That day I hated Neera, not for discouraging Pratiksha to change her topic, but for robbing all of us a chance to read a hilarious topic made by an equally hilarious special Architect.
