Dessau

Ethos India organises a quiz for students of architecture every year and a few years ago they started one for professionals as well. My former teacher and boss Abhijit De and I decided to team up and participate this year so I started to prepare for it.  Reading about art nouveau and modernism reminded me of a hilarious story; though hilarious only in retrospect!

It starts in 2003 when I was in my second year of architecture college and was preparing to be a part of my college delegation to the annual National Association of Students of Architecture (NASA) meet. That year, a college in Hyderabad was hosting the competition and the theme for it was 'DESSAU'

I told my father that and he asked me (with seriousness and the slightest bit of suspicion) - 'why would anyone want to name it Dessau?'

Now, just to give you a background, Dessau is a place in Germany which holds the utmost relevance for us Architects as it was the site for the relocated prestigious 'Bauhaus school' which was one of the pioneering places for modernism in architecture, art and craft to grow and proliferate. So understandably, I was super thrilled, while my father seemed to have some serious reservations about it. We were at odds... I explained to him as to why I thought Dessau was a very good idea for a theme for a gathering of said nature and he told me why he thought it wasn't... 

A career military man that he was (also a huge military nerd) my father told to me that Dessau was an important base for the Nazis during WW-II and also the site of a large concentration camp. And something about an important battle towards the end of the war which I can remember nothing of. 

What I can remember is that none of us spoke for a few minutes... Till I asked for money for my train ticket to Hyderabad and back, which he handed to me promptly.

And this was just one of our typical military dad - architect daughter conversations. 

If you're wondering about the quiz, we finished at a respectable third position with a prize money of twenty thousand rupees in our kitty!

My father would have said 'Good. Just wish you'd have dressed better for the event'

No complaints there...!