The session begins a discussion on Punita Mehta’s life after getting married and beginning her professional journey immediately afterwards. She mentions giving birth and starting going to the office three months later, and how it was never a conflicting thing to do. She shares details of the entire journey and how her work and approach developed gradually. Recalling an interesting incident while working on an Udaipur based project, that made a certain mistry uneasy with a woman practitioner at the time, she recalls how easily the discomfort went away as soon as they started focusing on the work they had to do. She then goes on to talk about the time she took over the office projects and management in a way because her husband started teaching full time at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (MSU). While managing this alongside her duties as a young mother, she notes how she never let it become a hindrance and handled everything extremely professionally. She then goes on to describe how her teaching career began.

In 1989, her second son was born and in 1991, a position opened up at MSU that allowed her to continue her teaching career to her heart’s desire. She interestingly remarks how she only ever gave a formal interview at MSU, and shares her ideas on teaching throughout these years with immense passion for both academia and architecture. She also notes how teaching and practice go hand in hand and recalls the time she spent at MSU, and how her pedagogy evolved. Concluding the session, she mentions how she was also able to go and teach abroad and recalls that as an entirely novel experience.