"Unlike other students, who follow a specific syllabus and textbooks, our students study design, their creativity is honed here," says Suvarna Patil, head of the designing department of MVP Architecture and Designing College. "Whatever they build, no matter how good or bad, it's their own idea, hence they have the sense of ownership towards it. That's why architecture and designing students tend to be protective about their exhibitions. After all, it's their hard work spanning the entire year," Patil explains.

No pictures, please

Almost all the architecture and designing colleges in the city have organised their year-end exhibitions in February. These are open to all, but if you think that you can take a selfie with some of the colourful exhibits, you are wrong. The demonstration might be very artistic, but you are certainly not allowed to click a photo inside the exhibition hall.

"Photography is prohibited in all the exhibitions of all architect and designing colleges, because, students from other colleges visit these exhibitions and you don't want anyone to copy your idea," says Chandani Parchani, a fourth-year product designing student. She adds that although she is sure that despite the picture, not many students will be able to replicate her design, she still feels protective of her design. "Even if someone does take a picture of my design, it would not make much of difference, because only I know the thought process behind it. But say someone from the designing fraternity visits or comes across the picture of my design, they would certainly be able to understand elements of it. They can even modify it and help their own students to build a prototype based on my original design. It might seem a little far-fetched for someone who is not from my stream, but there have been some incidences in the past. I don't want to take that risk! Therefore, we carefully observe our visitors," Parchani explains.