My Introduction -Part 2
Dear Reader,
Thank you for your time and reading the post, I appreciate it. Would love to know what went in your mind when you read about this very first post, like it made you feel nostalgic or took you back to the 90’s or anything.
So, I completed my 12th with 76% marks and 6 subjects in place of 5 as I was also motivated to take up BIOLOGY as my father had hopes that I may pursue MBBS as well (which however I wasn’t interested too much into!) and did a crash course for 2 months in Kota- remember the series- Kota Factory! Well, I can say I was there to study in the initial years of the making of this factory! I went for my RPET (Rajasthan Pre Engineering Test) and for my drawing test (had started that year if anyone wished to pursue B.Arch.) I reached the venue 30 minutes late as I wasn’t sure about taking up a field which I wasn’t aware about!
Scored 94th Rank in Drawing and 1091 in RPET, I do wish to mention here that the girls rank was much higher and I didn’t choose to use that rank for better opportunities as I believed in equality then also. Though it takes hell lot of efforts in sticking to that if I may say so but its all worth it! I went ahead and saw a college in Jaipur which had just been established a few years ago for B.Arch to get a better perspective of what to look for in an Architecture college. I also visited MREC (now Malaviya National Institute of Technology) Jaipur for my counselling and when I chose NIT Trichy, Tamil Nadu, everyone in that counselling hall just gave me a good stare. A few also came to papa and me to suggest that we change the college or branch of Engineering as for a small town girl like me who had never been out of her town whole of her life, who has never spoken even a complete sentence in English, who have had only roti as her main staple food, never even gone to the shops let alone a bank, it seemed only obvious and safe to pick up a college that was in Rajasthan only.
My maternal grandfather, my father and I, we spoke about the pros and cons of taking up B.Arch in Trichy or may be pick up leather technology in another NIT. Nanaji that time had retired from the post of Chief Engineer, RSEB, Jaipur and he suggested that for quality education, South was the best and the rest will follow if I got stuck anywhere. AND HE WAS RIGHT. My mom and the rest of the family was against the idea of sending this girl this far just to pursue a basic graduation however I was very excited and a little scared as to what was in store for me! Now I find it so funny and courageous……one must wonder why? That’s because for that small town girl in 2001 I wasn’t even aware that there is an entirely different language that’s spoken by the whole population in Tamil Nadu that’s Tamil and most of the education was in ENGLISH yet I just went there taking 3 different trains starting from Bikaner till Tiruchirappalli travelling for 3 days just to pursue my B.Arch degree!
Kiriti Sahoo
Still remember Akanksha as my junior in B.Arch. at NIT Trichy. First impression of her was like, she was beaming with confidence and of course had a big smile on her face. As a student , she was disciplined and focused. I must say one thing, she was made for architecture and could adjust to the culture of Tamil Nadu. All the best