National Institute of Design — An Adventurous Voyage
--
Hey! I am Yash Shenai from Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, and this could be the story of how my life shifted upside down at a very unusual checkpoint.
For some of you, this story will be an inspiration. Personally, all of the things mentioned below took innumerable hours of effort and support from my family. None of this could be achievable without the same.
This is the story of how I got into NID Vijayawada. Here is how it goes.
Cutting history short, I was destined to be a software engineer due to misinformation and lack of awareness. Not to mention, we all know the dreaded institute that is associated with this degree. I was admitted to PACE integrated coaching classes, where I was spending most of the time ‘studying’, which mostly included doodling on the last page, reading fiction books, and basically, not paying attention to the class. The message was clear.
I was not passionate about this.
The first few weeks were miserable, being the social person I am, I was separated from a lot of my friends who continued school. There were not only new faces, but the new faces knew the other new faces. I was pretty much left alone.
Being alone was the least of my problems. The workload suddenly increased and I had to burn ends coping up with the losses I had when I felt lonely. I was doing pretty well, but not up to the mark.
I fell on my tailbone on Independence day, fracturing it. that was another two weeks of leave, which meant two weeks of immense backlog.
My life, however, never stopped giving me messages. Neither did I stop accepting them. I remember coming home, throwing my bag wherever it landed, taking my tools and watercolours, and painting. I soon became interested in manga-style character design, which led me to explore anatomy and composition, which in turn helped me later on.
This wasn’t taken like a hobby. I used to sit for 7 to 8 hours of the day, forgetting about lunch and the normal routine of a human being. Mom used to declare war in between my penance, but that served as a cherry on top.
This continued for the remaining 11th grade, and this is when my parents sensed an abnormality. I shall mention it before, but now from a different point of view.
I was passionate about this.
Here is how, people, destiny smiled from light years away.
That leads us into the chapter of ‘12th grade’, where when most people charge themselves up. Here we were, jumping on new lanes.
Time swept like a thunderstorm and I took an aptitude test. I would call it a legal piece of paper that mentioned in strict words, the truth.
I was passionate AND capable of this.
That, in turn, led to a series of phone calls, countless hours of discussions, and an overwhelming surplus of thought processes to finally pick me up from the engineering track and put me on the new track — Design. Very heartfelt thanks to all the people we met who gave us their bits of value to help us build this bridge in such a short period of time. To be more precise, we are talking about a time six months before the date of the exam. To look back, it is quite a surprise how things arranged themselves to clear an overcast sky stuck on me.
All that was left was building a ladder into the open sky. Guess what? I did it.
I joined these coaching classes for design entrance exams, as anybody would normally do. I made some major amends to my daily schedule, which included completely shifting tuition and integrated coaching classes out of the picture. What it put in my pocket was a tremendous amount of time, to be used wisely.
A lot of things were at stake. The money invested by my parents in the IIT coaching classes, which nevertheless bought me this time, respect as a person who took a decision late into the race, the very little time which rested in my fists, even though I had left doing everything else, and finally, my own pride.
It was definitely a risky card to play. Saying this, I’ll put light on my every intention of writing this blog post.
It is that you can always make it, regardless of adversity, if the fire to achieve burns in your heart, no matter how many storms you pass through.
A race had already begun.
I found myself competing with talented people who had also realized their dream late, with me.
I found myself competing with people who had their direction set from the very beginning, and were deep into building their foundations strong.
I found myself competing with a plethora of talents in the country who could be far ahead of me than I could imagine.
Still, I stood strong, riding on the support of my loved ones and my own voice.
I can make it. I will make it. I have to make it.
It is said if you strive to achieve the position of your role models only, the maximum you can become is them. You cannot go ahead.
Likewise, I did not completely rely on my coaching classes. I don’t recommend you to do the same too. With the tremendous efforts of my father, we dug into the vast internet to find information which could be asked in the exam.
We toiled day and night, learning new things as time passed by. We left no path not trodden in the efforts we were putting in. Wikipedia and numerous other anonymous sites were repetitively browsed through, and drawings daily practiced. Hundreds and thousands of words read and repeated every day. Most importantly, I trained my presence of mind.
The fun part, here, was that I never found this ‘study’. I never felt the burden of the overwhelming surplus of knowledge I had to grasp and memorize in such a short period. It was all amusement to me.
Because I was working for something I was passionate about.
This is the magic of passion. Nothing can rival the burning desire to achieve. It was only, and only my physical limits that barred me from studying 5 months at a stretch, or else I would have seen no boundaries. It was a wonderful experience and a struggle at the same time.
This undulating and concentrated effort gave me a rank of 38 in the first round.
Round two preparation started likewise, and the first-round-clearing students were grouped into collective NID-oriented classes for the second round.
You should have seen my living room, there wasn’t a square inch of space to rest your foot. It was either accommodated by thermocol sheets, mount board pieces, A4-sized sheets, glue, tape, wire, rubber bands, newspaper, and whatnot! Numerous models and stacks of sketchbooks were filled. What a grind!
Let me make some things clear. The presence of mind is your most important weapon for clearing the exam. Most. Important. Classes can maximum direct you on how to solve known questions and how to use the material. How to make, is totally up to you.
The second round was a fun adventure, and an experience worth taking.
The effort landed me a rank of 98, which in turn gave me admission to NID Vijayawada.
End of the story? I achieved what I wanted. Now comes the most important part of this post.
Dear parents who don’t know about this field, yes, you can get paid to do things like this. Please talk to professionals and students to get a clear idea of what goes on inside the commercial world.
To the parents whose children want to pursue design but they don’t want him/her to, please, they are humans after all. They may survive in the field you want them to pursue, but they will, in no circumstance, achieve any greatness in it.
To the parents who have been falsely convinced by misinformed people that other NIDs are not up to the mark of NID Ahmedabad, please talk to the students who study there. Education is important, not Sharma ji ka useless opinion.
Finally, for the students who could not get into NID. Asking ‘how to crack NID in one year?’ or ‘Is it possible to crack NID if I could not this year?’ on Quora and Facebook will get only two answers. Yes, from people who made it, and no, from those who didn’t. Else, people will just tell you it’s difficult.
The question flips back to you. Do you want NID more than the people you are competing with? Are you ready to put in the effort? Do you have enough dedication? Can you carve through your failures to turn them into success? Do you have the guts to take a drop and oppose the obstacles for the greater good?
Let me remind you that it can be done in 5–6 months. I did it.
Students often choose this field as a substitute for engineering. Most of them fail that way. In an exam that judges you on your thinking and knowledge of this field, which lies mostly in the grey area than the regular black and white, you and your passion for the field pushes you through. The law of attraction heavily applies here.
Remember, there is no straight way to get into NID. This is a good as well as a bad face of the exam. Or rather the field of design itself.
It is intimidating at first, but the mist of uncertainty can be cleared only with the confidence that arises due to the passion burning inside you.
For an outsider, even a person who has already cleared the exam, this might seem a very small thing. Most NIDians will tell you to chill out and give the exam, and that is true too. However, I advise you to not take this lightly. It is not an exam to be underestimated.
I can spend so much time typing about this exam and my experiences that I will lose all the flow of what I am trying to convey here.
All I can say, to conclude this blog post is that you need utter dedication and willingness to work hard when preparing, and patience and composure when giving the exam.
It tests your strengths and weaknesses on various fronts, show yourself as who you are and don’t try to be someone else.
Also, there is a very bright future for the students truly interested in making a change and solving problems.
Mankind, at this point in time, desperately needs individuals who know how to apply empathy to the instruments that influence and guide our daily lives.
Believe in yourself and triple down on your strengths, good luck with your future endeavours. See ya later, have a good day!
