I wish I was on campus right now

I had my first class of elective today. The elective I was allocated is called Transversing Ahmedabad - Sites and Sights. The elective is basically about discovering and exploring Ahmedabad, the history, culture, folklore, the renaissance movement that came about in Ahmedabad. I love history and exploring new things (I was kind of trying to exploring Ahmedabad on my own while I was on campus. I had compiled a list of places that wanted to go) therefore, I picked this one as my first priority. But immediately after registering, I regretted it. The reason I picked this studio was that there were 2 studios that were about Ahmedabad. One studio particularly said that it was a walking studio. So, I assumed this one wasn't. I knew there was a studio that was about walking around in Ahmedabad because a friend's sister had opted for it last semester. But unfortunately, the one I picked as my first priority was the one she took. 

I know it'd have been better if we were on campus and we could walk around but I still think my elective is pretty cool. In the first class today, I learnt many new things about Ahmedabad. I learnt today was that Badshah Ahmed Shah was an emperor who lived a very simple life. Folklore is, he used to weave Muslim prayer caps and earned money for food by selling those caps. Also, at one point in time, Ahmedabad was called Gardabad (city of dust) by Jehangir. The city was a desert with camels and pine trees. Also, Ahmedabad was a city where people of all faiths lived and flourished together. Bhatiyar Gali that is known for its non-veg food market is located near the kitchen of the Bhadra Fort. Bhadra Fort was the emperor's residence. 

Gardabad - The city of dust

I tried getting a class photo.

The faculty seems really nice. To be honest, I have mixed feeling about my classmates. There are 19 of us. 3 are from my batch. There are a total of 5 faces that I've seen on campus before. There wasn't much interaction today. The faculty presented her screen and spoke about Ahmedabad. It was nice but not as good as yesterday's session.

The batch '18 students of Bachelors in Urban Design (my program) have started an initiative called Urban Powwow. In CEPT, students in their 7th semester, go for internships in various locations. Seniors from my program have interned in Nepal, Seoul, Bangkok, Banglore, Mumbai, etc. Every Tuesday, in the Urban Powow session, 1 senior talks about his/her internship experience. In today's session, 2 seniors who interned with my studio faculty in Banglore spoke about their experience. My friends and I were eagerly waiting for these seniors' session. 

Urban Powwow is lit.

These sessions are very helpful in getting an insight into how internships work. The question in my mind when I heard we have to do internships in our 4th year was, "What do you exactly do?" I think today when I think of it, I have a pretty clear idea after attending all these sessions. Though I miss Mysore dearly, I don't think I would have the kind of exposure I get in CEPT in Mysore. Faculty of Architecture conducts sessions called Architecture with Architects (AWA) which is another cool thing. While we were on campus, we used to visit architects' homes or studios or sites and talk to them and get to know the kind of work they do. Only one session of AWA has been conducted since the pandemic and in that session was conducted by 2 Portuguese architects. These are certainly some of the "perks" of being in CEPT. 

P.S. I don't think I'll have many pictures to add other than Google Meet or Zoom call screenshot. I wish I was on campus. I wish I had other pictures.