So here’s a solution – Gandhi guerilla style. It’s a quiet guerilla movement that will be driven by the consumer and will eventually end up becoming a validation system for autos. Atleast that’s what I want it to become. It’s pretty simple really, print these stickers (or take them from me) and stick the relevant ones anywhere on the auto when you finish a ride. Slowly but steadily these stickers will become more visible as more people take to this movement and the auto drivers will also aspire to have these “auto-friendlys” on their autos. The friendlys will become like what badges are for pizza delivery boys. A rating and a validation system that at a single glance will tell the customer that this auto driver is a good guy and will not cheat you. Here are the intial three stickers – the meter friendly, the people friendly and the traffic rules friendly.

And here’s what autos may look like with these friendlys on them.

A Friendly Auto

Ofcourse ideas for more friendlys are always welcome and maybe I’ll put out the template so everyone can make their own friendlys. Let me know what you think about the campaign. Whether this will help people or will drivers take advantage and print fake ones? Let’s organize an “Auto Friendly” tweetup to distribute these stickers sometime!

Here’s wishing everyone a very happy and prosperous OH10!

It all started with me wanting to become a product designer quite a while back. When I gave my CEED exam the year I was graduating (2008), I was not aware of the procedure of admission at IDC (Industrial Design Center) and presumed it would begin after the results were declared. To my shock, I find from the day the results are out, I have only a week to prepare my application and send it by post all while I was working at Cisco doing my internship. “What logic is that?” I said to myself and dismissed IDC as a bunch of people who didn’t know logic. I was ignorant, forgive me.

Cut to 2009, I am working at a design studio run by an ex-IDCian. I now know a lot more about it and I consider it to be one of the top design schools in India (or atleast my research told me so). I was more keen on applying abroad – but decided at the last minute to give it a shot. My CEED score from the previous year was valid this year too. So I fill in my application, complete the three “tasks” allotted and send it in. During this application process I discover that the CEED is merely a qualifying exam for IIT Bombay and a host of other colleges. The colleges then conduct their own tests to shortlist candidates for admission. No logic here either, the CEED is a good exam! According to me, it is a pretty good indicator of your aptitude for design. Anyway, I am noone to decide this, so I went along with the process.

One month later, the list comes up on the IDC website with my name on it along with 300 others. I am supposed to receive a call letter confirming my selection for the next round but I get none. A quick phone call to the IDC office and they say it’s ok, come along anyway. So me and my friend (who incidentally also got selected) book flight tickets for Bombay for all the three days of the selection process.

Cut to today – 18th June, 2009. Reached Bombay early in the morning and reached the IIT campus just in the nick of time. Had a tough time finding our way to the Convocation Hall (the venue of the test, considering IDC is part of IIT – they should do something about their wayfinding signage – it’s pretty pathetic!). The test entails designing a vegetable carrier to be mounted on a bicycle. According to me I had a pretty good solution and I had presented it well. I noticed that the table in front of me (bearing roll no IDC-067 – if you’re reading this, congrats you got selected!) was empty – ABSENT!. Results were to be announced at 5 PM.

Off Topic: One warning to people joining IIT Bombay – Hostel 6 is pretty sad. Manipal hostels rock!

Back to the topic: We decided to drop back into the main IDC building to check it out and look at our future department and the kind of work that’s going on. To be frank, I was very very impressed with the Visual Communication dept. Swarna – the design degree show was on all the work done by the grads this year were on show. Again VC was impressive. Most people designing mobile applications seem to be over inspired by the iphone icons though – no originality in that respect. Product design was not too impressive and I shall leave it at that. Outside there were posters of each department (there are 4 – product, visual, animation and interaction) with a one liner tag line for each. Anim said: We not only move lines, we move people. Interaction said: Let the two halves of your brain interact (or something to that effect). VC had a good line too. PD said “Aesthetics with practicality”. Hmmmm, now PD is not only aesthetics is it? and who does copy for things like this! Totally put me off. Back to the main topic, I seem to be straying a lot.

A First List was published with selected candidates and was immediately withdrawn since it contained gross errors – candidate’s name appeared twice etc etc. After another hour long wait, the next list came out and to be frank I was pretty confident that I would clear the test atleast. I didn’t. Neither did my buddy. I went through the list a couple of times, checking each name twice just to make I hadn’t missed out. Surprise! Surprise! Roll 067′s name is on the list! Wow!

Ok now here’s the deal. If the profs who conduct this selection process are reading, then listen up! You don’t call 300 people to Bombay from all over India just to give a test (300 in PD, I’m not sure about the numbers in the other depts). If you’re calling them to your city, atleast give them a chance to talk to you, give them an interview. You don’t send 210 people back on the basis of not clearing a test. This is the design field, you cannot judge somebody’s design capabilities by what they do in a 1.5 hr exam. You need to look through their portfolio, see their work and talk to them about their ideas. If you had to conduct a test to reduce numbers, do it in the major cities, or do it as a part of the application, or do it online!

I am quite relieved that I was not on that list. Because joining such a design school would be quite a waste of 2 years (You may think this is a case of sour grapes, it probably is). If you read my previous post it talked about design education in India and the problems with it. Now the confusion is gone – it is “to go”.

India:
After I complete 2 years of my Master’s, I would work somewhere for a year or two and then I would have a big enough network when I start my own practice. Education is cheap here and most designers do it for the sake of validating their work in the future. People in India don’t usually take you and your work seriously unless you have a degree to prove it. So, I save on time and money but at the same time I probably don’t get a quality education and exposure that I would get abroad.

Abroad:
Here’s where real education happens. Where you are encouraged to explore and go crazy. Spending two years in University will be like a lifetime given the amount of work required, but at the end of it, you emerge a better designer, better manager and a better human. Downside is that I do want to come back to India and settle down. Starting my practice would require a lot more time then – by my calculations atleast 5-6 years more after the degree. I will work abroad to recover my tuition fees for atleast 2 years and by the time I come back to India, I would have lost touch with the people and the places. Hence another 2 years working in India to develop my network all over again.

Arrgghh… dilemma dilemma! Someone have any bright ideas?

[EDIT] There was a mistake with the schedule on 22nd April – Sorry! Here are the updated ones.

“My four years in Manipal have been nothing short of a crazy roller coaster ride. From late night screaming in 5th block, to playing Command and Conquer on LAN in 7th block, talking about life in MIT is never complete without talking about life in MIT Hostels. The experience of living in MIT Hostels is one that you will remember and cherish for the rest of your life. In first year, when you are a freshie, the first few days in hostel are spent in introducing yourself to others and attending intro sessions in random rooms. It takes a while to find your set of friends and as I discovered, I found the perfect gang only at the end of the first year. At the end of the first year, there is a crazy rush to find the best rooms to move into in 2nd year, and for us that was 7th Block. Life in 7th block was great fun. Time was spent setting up LANs, ultra late night BC sessions, and gaming that would pass the hours very fast. Waking up in the morning would be quite difficult, and as a result, most of us would miss the first few classes of the day, everyday.

Being in E&C, attendance was never an issue. Proxy groups would operate throughout the benches, silently and swiftly giving proxy attendance to their friends who couldn’t make it to class. People would take turns coming to class. In class, most of my time was spent in the 2nd last and last benches with my friends. If the teacher was worth listening to, I would take notes and pay a lot of attention in class. If he was not, then time would be spent playing cows n bulls or some other fun activity that would not involve anything academic. Class hours were also used efficiently by those in E&C to copy assignments and complete lab journals.

After class hours or during free hours, the rest of Manipal would be explored in order to satiate our hungry stomachs. From MR to Vikram’s, Basil to Prax, there was not one restaurant in Manipal that wasn’t explored. Prax Burgers was the staple diet of everybody during exams and during all those lazy days when going out was not an option. God Bless Prax!

Now I am at the end of my 4 years in Manipal and I cannot begin to comprehend how life will change. Now responsibilities are more and I cannot live as carefree a life as I have lived in Manipal. I can hope and wish that my time at Manipal never ends but time waits for nobody and life moves on. I will miss all the crazy parties during placement season where there would almost be a party thrown by someone or the other every weekend. I will miss the back bencher’s association of E&C Section B where every class was not just a lecture but much much more. Of all that I miss, I will miss living in Manipal, where I have learnt that life is about having fun and as long as that is there, life’s always worth living.”