Contributed By: Dr R.V.Boradkar
I
was of the firm opinion that the environment in which the children live
influences their choices later in life. Now I feel that this is only partially
true. We lived in Surat’s medical college and hospital campus but none of my
children showed interest in medicine, and did not choose it as a career. I
learnt this when my daughter was in the twelfth standard and we wanted to find
out what she intended to do. She was quite certain that she did not want to
become a doctor, and we started to think of possible options. She had shown
some interest in the fine arts, and while we supported that, we also wanted her
to choose a discipline that offered good job opportunities. We believed that
women must be economically independent, they should have a source of income
based on their own skills, and should have the potential to earn a living.
In
thinking of other options, one of the possibilities that emerged was
architecture, and she showed a real interest in it. The government of Gujarat’s
technical college offered a program in Architectural Assistantship and she
chose that as her career path. She really enjoyed this course, worked very hard
on all her projects, and got extremely good marks as a student. We also
discovered her desire to achieve a high level of perfection in everything she
did. This streak of perfectionism paid rich dividends to her later on. She fell
in love with architecture, worked tirelessly over three years completing her
projects and assignments on time and paying attention to every little detail of
the work assigned to her. She appeared for the final and when the results were
declared, to our profound joy we found that she had stood first in the state of
Gujarat. This was moment of triumph for her and boundless joy for us. This also
led to another remarkable achievement. She was offered an internship at
Sangath, an architectural office run by renowned architect Balkrishna Doshi in
Ahmedabad.
Now,
of course, there was no stopping. We started looking for institutions that
offered further training leading to a diploma in architecture. In Mumbai, an
institution called Rachana Sansad accepted students into the second year of
their program who had training in architectural assistantship. We approached
the authorities with a request to admit her in third year rather than second considering
her rank in the state of Gujarat and the prestigious internship. And though
they typically did not do this, considering her achievements, they admitted her
into the third year of the diploma program. This was another triumph for her
that really pleased us. In due course, she got her diploma and became a full
fledged architect. We felt happy, content and fulfilled. At that time we did
not know that something else, equally if not more exciting, was to follow.
She
worked with an architect in Surat for some time and then decided to go to Pune.
She had got a job with another well known architect Christopher Beninger who
had worked in Ahmedabad and had now opened an office in Pune. It was here that
the perfectionist in her blossomed and her working style really paid off. Soon,
she became a favorite of Mr. Beninger and later he recommended her to an
architect friend of his by the name of Dolf Schnebli, who worked in Zurich,
Switzerland. Manisha got the wonderful chance to be able to work in his office,
and we were elated, or rather ecstatic. Getting a visa to Switzerland took a
little time, but with a little assistance from Mr. Beninger, that too happened,
and and we booked a direct flight for her to go to Zurich.
In
Zurich, she stayed with Eberhard and Barbara Fischer. The Fischers had adopted
two girls from Gujarat, and as Manisha knew Gujarati well, she took the time to
teach them the language. The Fischers were so pleased with Manisha that they
more or less adopted her as their third daughter. After her tenure of a year
before returning to India she traveled through parts of Europe, England, and
then to the US where our son Prasad was doing his master’s degree. From the US,
she came back to Pune and continued working with Mr. Beninger again.
We
learnt that in everything she does, Manisha is able to express her desire for
perfection and attention to detail. Her achievements and pursuit of excellence
make us happy to this date, and continues to fill our hearts with joy.
Dr
R.V.Boradkar and Mrs N.R.Boradkar
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