Yearly Note 2015: Contrasts and Growth
2015 was my final year at Srishti. My thesis pulled in two directions at once: a field investigation of Chintalayyagarepalle, a remote off-grid village, and a material study of piezoelectric crystals, specifically Rochelle salt. One sent me toward how off-grid communities actually live, the other toward how a crystal might help power them.
My feelings about the program were genuinely mixed, and that's the honest record of the year. The frustration was real. Our work was poorly represented at the grad show, and the program's wide, lateral spread kept leaving me short of the depth I wanted in any one place. So was the progress. I was learning to adapt, and to keep reflecting instead of just reacting.
With my friend Prakhar, I also tried to teach Processing to other Srishti students. The momentum faded, but the attempt taught me something about how collaboration works and where it stalls. I finished my postgraduate years holding both the disappointment and the genuine progress, and I saw no reason to pretend one cancelled the other.