Gendered Spaces

As August arrived, last year, the day to go on the study trip was getting closer. The fifth year students were grouped with the fourth year students in accordance to their research questions (the fifth year's according to their thesis). I was to do gender studies on educational campuses of Vijayawada on basis of the information collected by fellow fourth year students. My interest in gender studies was near to zero, as gender is a sensitive subject and needs much more effort and research on the field than the 5 days time that was given to us. I was nervous, annoyed and skeptical about the days I would have to spend in Vijayawada doing research. 

We landed in Hyderabad on August 15, '18. After a long 6 hour bus journey we were in our hotel, resting and anticipating the affairs of the next day. The universities to be visited were sorted, the applications were prepared and we four girls (Charlie's Angels, as Rohit Mujumdar enjoyed calling us) set out, looking for answers to our questions. 

Without getting into much detail, I will share a few unsettling experiences. One of the universities that we visited has separate entrances for men and women (Note - These campuses are huge unlike Mumbai where space is an issue). They were suppose to sit separately in classrooms and canteen as well. The campuses has women hostels at a rear end which were not visually accessible or identified easily while walking around the campus. The only place both genders got together were college festivals, events or a garden fully covered by trees. A new student i.e. a first year student is asked about his/ her caste, not because a student is biased about caste but since it has become a ritual/ tradition to do so! "Aye Aye Aye!, What are you doing? Women must leave their hair down". - Something that we were told while tying a bun from the tiring heat.

I found the hostel culture appalling. A girl we were speaking to narrated an episode of herself being ragged by her cousin sister (She had to propose to a senior boy in college)! It is unimaginable, the shame and embarrassment she must have endured in a culture where women do not speak to men or are not allowed to. The common spaces in the hostel were unused, they were instead used for drying clothes. Rather, I observed that the spaces away from the warden's eye were utilized. The very place that one has to live-in for four years of college, the very place one gets to call 'home' felt dead to me under unreasonable rules that were disguised in the name of "discipline and care". I thus decided to propose a new hostel type for the women. In the process, I asked my women friends I made in Vijayawada and also my class-mates the type of hostel they would like to live in. I archived their responses and wrote a poem out of those, from which I derived the house types. This was a different experience as opposed to my former years in Architecture. It provoked a poetry that was within me, waiting to be found.

POEM OF FEMALE DESIRES

She sits cramped inside a tiny space,

in a room that feels like jail.

She comes back before dusk,

or faces the scorn of the warden.

She can't go home on the weekend,

mobile phone is her only friend.

She is not allowed to meet male friends,

in a hostel that feels like a trap.

She wishes a house with terrace

to see the rising sun,

to watch the street affairs,

to gossip with fellow friends.

She wishes a house with balconies

to enjoy the evening tea,

to look out into the courtyard,

to see the ground from different levels.

She wishes a house wrapped around trees

to pluck a flower whilst climbing the stairs,

to sit under a tree in her verandah,

to stroll on the mowed grass of her house.

She wishes a house to cook

to trade the taste of different cuisines,

to savor a feast under the sky,

to cook together with friends.

She wishes a house with a garden

to grow roses for friends,

to watch the flowers bloom,

to walk through the garden into her house.

She wishes a house with a sky view

to view the starry sky,

to sleep under the sky on a summer night,

to be alone and with friends as well.

She wishes a house with solitude,

to have her private place,

to read a book in her court,

to feel calmness around her.

She wishes a house that changes inside

to enjoy with friends but also with self,

to shift the walls inside,

to use the house as multipurpose.

She wishes a house for visitors

to party with friends on the weekend,

to hangout in open and closed spaces,

to meet her parents and siblings.

The house types derived from the poem