It’s Been Long

 As good as it looked when we started out, working from home just is not the same. We had a whole batch of interns come and go and it feels like I don’t know any of them! Of course that could also be because I was sporadic in my attendance of the zoom meetings but when I asked Sai and Ananya about it, they felt the same. 

So this term, we put extreme caution aside, trusted the interns to be responsible and decided that we’ve had enough of work from home and constant checking of our phones! It’s been a week and the studio is buzzing again, there is a palpable energy and there is laughter and jokes and big huge smiles! 

We had a long discussion in the morning today on art and architecture and life and all the connections between them - all of us standing in the kitchen and pondering over it all and that’s when I realised how much I had missed this camaraderie and easiness and these discussions. 

In a week I feel like I know them and can connect with them. On zoom calls, it took almost till the end of term for everyone to get comfortable and then again, I still don’t think we got to know anyone as they really are. Biggest surprises are Vibha and Prithvi who decided to continue the internship with us this term as well but this time working from the studio. 

We met Vibha at Mysore a few days before she was to join and I couldn’t believe the amount she talked! I had developed this impression that she was quiet and serious. And Prithvi who probably even trumped me in missing zoom meetings has been regular to office for a week now! What’s more, he seems to be opening up a little! Saptangshu is a whirlwind of never ending stories - most of which land him in Ananya’s ‘what-not-to-assign’ list, but the stories are super entertaining nonetheless! 

Even Mathew is more cheerful and talkative! When he had interned with and then joined as an architect, he was quiet and focussed only on what he is supposed to do. Now it feels like he has decided to let himself a little loose as well! 

I started writing this in the morning and took a break for lunch. That break just reiterated for me everything I was enthused about after the morning discussion. Lunch was almost 2 hours long or more because Saptangshu had stories and stories and the rest of us couldn’t stop laughing! 

More interns are supposed to join next month and if this mood is anything to go by, I think we are going to have an awesome, productive new year filled with new ideas and thoughts! 

Cheers to that!