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In the 34th th edition of As We Leave, Yash Gupta, a B.Tech student in Mechanical Engineering, candidly shares his journey through IITK. Yash’s reflections capture the essence of campus life, perseverance, and the bonds that make it all worthwhile.
Disclaimer:- The views presented below are the author’s own and are not in any manner representative of the views of Vox Populi as a body or IIT Kanpur in general. This is an informal account of the author’s experiences at IIT-K.
Hi all, even before joining the campus, I had planned to explore a lot and make the most out of it. I have never been a decent storyteller, so this AWL is as raw as I have lived it. This AWL is the same as what I have done all four years, submitting at the last minute.
I am a person who enjoys the moment and doesn’t remember most of it later. I may not smile at success, but I do a lot of RR on failure or a little less success. So, this AWL might be a bit odd. Kindly bear with it.
In the first year, I planned to join clubs like KOS and DNA as I thought this would help me show off the learning to my relatives (which, to a certain extent, they do). But soon, I understood that I could not do so tiring practice for dance, nor did I get interested in design too much.
Throughout the eight semesters, I didn’t do any kind of ‘nashe’ and had a great time at IITK. One might think smoking and drinking make you seem cool, but ignore seniors and cinema-induced thoughts. It deteriorates your health, both physically and mentally. I was fortunate to have a wing with the same ideology, which helped me cope with the rigorous studies and other general stuff of IITK.
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IITK gives you wingssss…
(Fahad, Yasvir, Prabuddha, Gitte, Narendra, Me, Prince, Hariom, Pandey)
The online sem went well because I managed to do a lot of jugaad. When it comes to jugaad, there might only be a few who might beat me, xD. Though all you have to do is message as many as you can, find the resources and show the art of Googling. Later, the increase in mech courses decreased my interest in studies. Thanks to study sessions with Shukla and Sunil and help from Paramveer, I somehow went on with the courses.
I have a massive interest in detective movies, so I chose to join the Election Commission in the first year. EC was the place where I met people from Y17-Y21. Saw how people used to take pride in deceiving EC for their ‘beloved’ seniors and friends, ignoring how it would affect the campus community. I believe EC always conducted the elections fairly and unbiased (at least what I have seen and done). I left EC in the third year due to a possible collision of interests in EC and Fest. I had also contested for hall presi but fortunately lost, as I later learned how toxic the hall politics are. I also filled in the form for CTM, which I desperately wanted to be, but got rejected in the first round thanks to their ‘criteria’ (and nepotism :)). You might find nepotism in various societies of IITK.
The RC time (return of the Resource Constraint students) was one of the best stay times at IITK. All the academia being online, a lot of free time with friends, the khaali-khaali sa campus, what else would you need!! I remember my birthday GPL with numerous chappals and cold water in the month of November! That was also the time when we first got interested in CP (competitive programming) and gave contests. We used to finish our dinner between 7.30 and 7.50 to get ready at tables for the contest to start. I, along with Mayank, Fahad and Narendra, used to compete with each other. This habit developed a strong foundation of competitiveness and speed solving, and strengthened bonding between the wingmates.
RC wing ka samuhik snaan
The learning at DNA got me to the post of Head of Design at Udghosh ’22. The position allowed me to meet some of the very hard-working people who had invested their day and night into the conduction of the fest. I learned a lot from all the team members, including my co-head and wingie Fahad. I used to wonder how a bunch of college students at the mere age of 19-20 managed to conduct a huge fest; there, I got to know how.
However, the tenure of the head was colliding with the 1st intern phase, and I couldn’t give much effort to the intern perp, resulting in me facing hardships in getting an internship. I also tried a little to apply off-campus but it is a much more tedious and difficult task to get an internship compared to on-campus.
The end result of sleepless nights
One great benefit from reading all the mails was volunteering in the “India Water Impact Summit” (IWIS) in Dec’22. We stayed in Delhi for four days, made some friends, met secretaries from various countries, and learned how the administration works at the upmost level: making big claims, getting funding and then no results on the ground level. Also, met some IAS who were doing significant work in their districts.
Explore- With the gov. Officials at IWIS, Interact- the PHY101 lab (one of the only two in Y20), Enjoy- First time outing after Covid: Jan’22
6th sem had nothing special, and then for summers, I decided to stay on campus for placement prep. NCL was the location for me for the whole summer and 7th sem. Shukla and I used to spend the entire day and night there. He used to prepare for his UPSC, and we talked about political issues in our free time. I took two courses and performed best in my campus academia (missed A* in both).
I had overloaded my 3rd year and also had courses in summer, so I only had to do a total of 7 courses last year.
The 7th sem went solely for placements, and the 8th sem was when I was mostly free.
I had never had the patience to sit and watch web series before, thanks to Insta, so I have started watching them now. Some of which I suggest (you might have seen them all) are- GOT, Breaking Bad, THE BOYS, Jujutsu Kaisen, One Piece, Suits… Enjoyed the last sem with a lot of movie nights with wingies, practised and performed in Dance Extravaganza, and planned to do much more, but thanks to my procrastination habit, I said what we say to the God of Death, “Not Today”.
After the end sems, the last event for the graduating batch was “Hall 1 ki Baarat”. I had attended it earlier in Y18, and it was one of the best moments I had spent in IITK. Gitte got nominated for Dulhan this time and asked me to be his Saheli. I took the dare and agreed to be one. Mehandi was the best event of the whole Baraat, and most of you might not know it, but it was conducted for the first time, thanks to Prem. Met a lot of great people, enjoyed the whole event, and am proud to carry the culture forward.
The Ladki wale
What will I miss:
The infinite freedom to roam anywhere anytime, friends always available to bear your RR, take your GPL, movie night outs, gyan session by Prince, cricket and movies gyan by Yasvirl, and so many things I couldn’t even count!
A few learning and bits of advice I would like to share are:
- Apply everywhere (You might have seen not every position is held by the best one, but the one who had attempted for it. You might not be the best one for some intern or PoR, but who knows where it will land you. I rarely did it, and now I slightly regret :)).
- Read all your mails (this helped me in getting to IWIS, attending many campus events and at many other times)
- Learn the art of Googling (this will help you everywhere, be it courses, exams and career).
- Explore as much as possible; this campus and community have a lot to offer, and it’s only on you how much you can collect!!
- Interact with as many as you can (I did it in online semester time, and it made me great friends; it will boost your soft skills, too).
- Take courses from different branches, and you will get to learn a lot. (You might find a professor from SEE claiming EV to be the future while a professor from mech is showing cases of blasts in EV and the benefits of IC engines, almost opposite of each other.)
- Stay away from all kinds of intoxications.
Anupam ke bachche-Yasvir, Hritesh, Me, Prateek, Akshunya, Prince(Missing in the pic)
Now that I have spent around 1.5 months on work, the distance between my friends seems to widen. One of my friends is only 4 km away but plans to meet, and then the actual meeting takes multiple weeks. So, you should enjoy your stay at the campus, meet everyone, and make the most of this beautiful place.
Feel free to message, would love to interact.
Make your parents proud. All the best!!
Written by: Yash
Edited by: Chaitanya, Sruthi
Designed by: Sanyam Shivhare
