Srishti Sarfirapan

In 2025, Debjani invited me to speak to M.Des, HCD students (folks who were moving into Year 2) at my alma mater, SMI. She wanted me to talk about my experience at Srishti, and also a bit about life after Srishti, in the corporate industry.

After having faced a robust rigid curriculum during my Computer Science Engineering undergrad, the way of life at Srishti was an absolute breath of fresh air! I ended up working on weird, fun, and weirdly-fun projects as part of my coursework. Hence, it felt opportune to title my talk Sarfirapan—a reflection of the crazy, occasionally unconventional sh*t that I pulled at Srishti.

For example, for almost all of my submissions, I’d attach a cover page with a meme-like image encapsulating the vibe of that assignment.

Then, there was this one time where we were speculating about products that could exist in the future. I thought about a contraption that could mimic a human hug. It would also have the ability to chemically-recreate a person’s smell. The product would essentially give the experience of hugging a loved one. I designed a poster that could be used to potentially market it.

What I tried to convey through my talk was for students to explore their identity and have it come through in their work. For me, that was humour; clearly.

I found college to be a safe-ish test bed. One that allowed me the freedom to figure things out, to falter without judgement, and to find my voice.

I also spent some time taking classes that weren’t directly tied to digital product design (my area of specialisation). One class that I took required us to make something with images and [extremely-minimal] text. The idea was to be as creative and resourceful as possible with finding and using images from the internet. I chose to build a story around how Christ the Redeemer once took an online session for other buildings on how to pose!

SMI also has a super trans-disciplinary research culture. So, the goal for students was to make the most of it. I for one, built a web-app that lets people use any device with a camera (phone/laptop) to play a guitar using gestures. It began as an experiment in a class, as “The Hand of Bithoven” and quickly became “Movzart—Ek chutki ki keemat tum kya jaano”. This was a play on the famous Bollywood dialogue and the fact that the gesture was a pinch.

Point to note: there was music, tech, and humour—all brought together through this thread called design.

I closed the talk with the hope that people could pick up some relatable bits and pieces from my time at SMI, and, most importantly—have fun while they’re here.

It was also incredibly kind to have me plant a tree on-campus, for my batch. Fun, fun!

Indebted to Debjani Roy, (Head of Studies, Design and Technology) for inviting me and trusting me with her students.