Contrasts and Growth
2015 was my final year at Srishti, and the work itself was a study in contrasts. 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 I think that is 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. The growth was real too. I was learning to adapt, and to keep reflecting instead of just reacting.
I also tried, with my friend Prakhar, 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 carrying both halves of it, the disappointment and the genuine progress, without pretending one cancelled the other.