Design Education- The story of K

“Be open for anything and everything”

oh, wait! before you start thinking about possible meanings related to this line let me give you a context.

“CONTEXT”

Isn’t it the most important thing we should seek for before putting forth our judgment for others?

This simple yet most impactful line I have ever come across was quoted to us in one of our classroom session by Mr. Krishnesh Mehta to make us understand the value of coming out of our defined ways and comfort zones in the learning process. And also, how being curious and open always adds to your knowledge and growth.

I have known Krishnesh for past 2.5 years and have had innumerable classes with him during my postgraduate course. These classes would usually last for 3–4 hours and sometimes more than that. What made us sit for those long hour classes was not the mandatory attendance requirement from an academic point of view, but it was the structure of the class and how his class was a platform for group discussions, sharing of Ideas, encouraging people to speak to put forward their opinions and interact with each other.

Isn’t this the core of creativity and learning wherein you grow on various levels of knowledge by unlearning, learning, sharing, collaborating, co-creating and evolving together? Now when I am working and facing real professional challenges, those are the classes which are helping me in creating an impact.

I remember people from various disciplines at NID used to attend his classes too and on a count, there was a minimum of 20 students sitting in a circle, asking questions and as a faculty, Krishnesh would never deny answering our doubts. He would answer our queries which were supported by books, research papers, scientific experiments, and any relevant data to make it more clear for us.

When I came to NID, I always thought that Design is all about problem and solutions, but Krishnesh has shown a different perspective of Design Education through SDM as how it is more about setting the context,
identifying right gaps, connecting dots and making meanings to give infinite consumed Experience to people. He has constantly molded our mindsets by his innovative and out of the box ways of teaching.

The sad part came when he could no longer take our classes and give feedback in final evaluation juries. But we did not know whom to reach out and raise our concern on how not having his classes was a big loss for us. Who should be blamed for the internal conflicts happening within NID? This continued and we could not get him back for our classes.

One day while sitting in my office in another part of the country, I came to know that K has resigned and is no longer a part of NID wherein he has spent 20+ years of his life. This was a shocking news for me and I came to know that situations made him leave NID.

What has exactly happened? What made him take such a strong step? Was it a choice or a forced one? Or was it a desired and planned outcome of situations within the Institute?

Well, Nobody knows!

He is not there in NID to help us, guide us and mentor us. We are going to be designers but at a cost for sure. We feel a loss which is very much evident across all three campuses of NID and students are paying for it in one or another way.

To my surprise, I came to know that people missed out on the context of the situation happened and followed only the last two process of connecting dots and making meaning with their own biases. Are they not supposed to understand “Why” of anything before jumping to “What” of it?

Is this how we are going to learn and evolve to build a Design Society?

Who is going to set the context here?

#DefineContext

#DesignEducation

#SaveTheClassroom

#NotMe