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In the 38th edition of As We Leave, Adit Thampi, a Y20 graduating student in the Department of Material Science and Engineering, shares his journey of finding long-lasting friendships, his experience with research internships abroad and its role in cementing his love for research.
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.
Before high school, I was not aware of what I was preparing for; I thought it was just an extension of school. I will take my board exams, and it’s all done. Little did I know that I had to make one of the most significant decisions of my life. This was big because I had to choose not only my college but also my discipline of study for the next four years!
During school, the excitement and interest in experimenting with different chemicals was the turning point of my life. This helped me decide that I wanted to continue in the field that possessed Chemistry and was hands-on, which led me to the field of Materials Science. On further research, I shortlisted the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK), India, as my first preference for undergraduate. I also chose this discipline with a broader goal of pursuing a PhD in the same field. My journey at IITK helped me strengthen my interest in Materials Science and paved the way for my desire to pursue a career in scientific research. But honestly, I did not know anything about materials science; all I knew was that it has immense potential for higher studies. So, I took the leap of faith and joined IITK.
As our batch started during the pandemic, we had online classes, which prevented me from getting a chance to socialise that much. After 1.5 years of online courses, we finally got the opportunity to come on campus. So I packed my bag (pretty much only clothes and a lot of excitement) and headed towards Kanpur. I had spent my entire childhood in South India, and when I reached Kanpur in December, I found it freezing cold. So cold that I instantly felt like going back home.
Furthermore, I am an introvert, so I could not really start a conversation with someone new; this just aggravated my feeling of being homesick. The troubles did not end there; soon, I got infected with COVID-19, due to which I was under quarantine for a few days. As soon as I came out, we were informed that the classes were being changed to hybrid mode, following which I ran back home the same week.
After a few months, when the situation got better, we were all again called back on campus. This time, when I went back, I got an amazing roommate and one of my closest friends, Devesh Sootail. Soon after, I met three other wingies of mine; little did I know that we would become very good friends; they are Siddharth, Sabir, and Shubham. Eventually, I got along with every wingy of mine in F6, hall 12. This made me feel like these four years may not be that bad after all.
I have always been passionate about basketball since my school days. So, after a few weeks of reaching campus, I started to train during the evening at the basketball court on the main PE ground, along with seniors and other team players. This brought me an opportunity to participate in Udghosh 2021. This was my first professional basketball tournament, and I was very excited about it. Even though we lost at the end, we left the court with lots of memories and new friends. I continued to pursue basketball and participated in Udhgosh 2022 and 2023. Udhgosh 2022 was very special to me because that was the first time I got a jersey with my name and number on the back. I went on to represent IITK in Inter IIT 2022 in IIT Delhi as well. Inter IIT was an experience I will always cherish forever; we roamed together wearing IITK jackets around IITD in front of all the other IITs, we played motivational music right from the hall till the court to warn everyone of our presence, and last but not the least we used to meet every day to discuss our gameplan. All in all, I felt like I found a family; juniors were always ready to help, and my fellow batch mates were always by my side; seniors were super supportive and caring. I still remember that a month before Inter IIT, I could not train every day because I had to take exams for my higher studies application, and my seniors relaxed the training for me. I am really fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet such amazing and extremely talented seniors on and off the court.
Picture 1 is me receiving my jersey from Saurabh (one of our seniors) .
Picture 2 and 3 show the basketball contingent for Inter-IIT 2022.
Picture 4 is after we had won basketball in Inferno 2022.
Picture 5 is after our friendly match against IIM Lucknow.
Special mention goes to my seniors Yash, Harshit, Pushpit, Saikat, and Fahad, who have been extremely supportive and cooperative.
Basketball would not have been fun without my fellow batchmates Melvin and Juniors, of course.
Offline classes gave me the opportunity to interact with people in my department. So now I started interacting with a lot more people on a daily basis. I made really good friendships with a lot of people that I know will last forever. We attended college fests together, hung out regularly, and, most importantly, they helped me grow as an individual. They made attending class not so boring.
Special mention goes to Ojsi, Khoobhayshee, Naman, Akshaj, Shreeya, Riyan, Payal, and Sweta for always being there for me. These people truly brought life to MSE and my IITK journey.
Forever grateful to Prakhar, Aman and Ajit, who always happened to be my labmates. We literally enjoyed every lab, laughing our way through.
Last but not least, Ganesh, Shubham, Mohan, Dwij, Yash and Yashwardhan supported me and were my companions in and outside the lecture hall.
Being part of such a premier institute is a matter of privilege, mainly because of its recognition, and you get innumerable academic opportunities. I got the opportunity to actively conduct research both in IITK and abroad for almost 2.5 years of college. IITK fueled my path toward becoming a researcher and pursuing a PhD by helping me receive the DAAD Wise scholarship’23 to conduct research at the University of Cologne, Germany. This was one of those opportunities that I will forever cherish. This was my first time travelling abroad alone. This internship forced me to learn cooking and manage my finances, two skills one must know eventually. Above all, I learned to maintain a work-life balance. I used to work during the week and travel through the weekend. I got to explore the culture, beauty and food of six different countries during my project. I am also truly indebted to IITK for nominating me as one of the five students for the Sakura Science Exchange Program’23 in Tokyo, Japan. This program allowed me to try Japanese food, experience Japanese culture and attend conferences and academic seminars. Above all, this trip helped me make four friends; we travelled to Japan together, navigated the unknown roads as if we were on holiday and finally shouted and enjoyed in the silent and busy metros of Japan. I would have never imagined that joining IITK would bring me these opportunities.
Picture 1 was me with Milan, Aaryan, Tejas and Sarthak at the Hachiko Statue in Japan.
Picture 2 is with Nandagopal (from IITM), who was interning at the same lab as mine in Germany.
Pictures 3 and 4 show some places I visited during my internship in Germany, Belgium and Switzerland, respectively.
Pictures 5, 6 and 7 show the city of Cologne (where I was doing my internship).
Just like that, my 3 years of college life went by very fast. I had to shift to A3 in Hall 9, where my wingies were mostly the same as earlier, but this time, all of us were very close and often spent a lot of time together, either playing cricket, football, basketball, cards or mafia. Above all, we used to try to eat dinner together every day. I still remember a whole table occupied by our wing, and we used to see cricket on the phone resting against a water jug. The seventh semester of last year was one of the most stressful ones as everyone either focused on placements or research opportunities to start off their professional career. So, I got extremely busy completing all the requirements for my application for a PhD.
As we come to the end of this AWL, just as my journey at IITK with my final semester. I would say it was the most happening semester as the placement phase 1 had just gotten over, and I was seeing most of my friends getting placed just then. I was wondering if I had made the right decision to pursue research as a career because I had either not heard from a university or I was getting rejections from a few universities. I have to admit my wingies played a huge part in motivating me every day and making me laugh during these tough times. On January 22, 2024, I got a PhD admit from Stanford at around 3 am. This did not just bring happiness and tears to my eyes, but my whole wing started shouting or hugging me. I am forever grateful to have found friends, more like brothers, with whom I could share the same corridor!
Special mention to Tony, my furry friend in hall 9.
Following this, I went on a trip with my friends; those days were the best days of my life. We had to hop on trains without tickets and went on a jungle safari, river rafting, trekking and a million memories that will stay forever. A trip that took our friendship to another level. I still remember us jumping on the beds, roaming the streets of Rishikesh late in the night, jumping in the swimming pool and trekking early in the morning without having any food.
Special mention to Manvendra (to my right in the first photo) and Pranshu (to my left in the first photo). Manvendra and I went on to become really good friends, and Pranshu was my wingie from my second year, so we used to have fun every other day.
The highlight of my IITK journey was meeting Sumit, Vishal, Ritvik, Hemant, Yatendra, Sunil and Praveen. The meeting might have been an accident, but the journey from there on was meant to be. So it goes as follows: one day, I had to go to Eshop with Devesh (my earlier roommate, as mentioned before), but since Sumit’s room was near the exit of Hall 9, Devesh dragged me to his room, where I met Sumit and Vishal. When I met them, I felt like I already knew them; our vibes instantly matched. Soon after, I met Hemant, who happened to stay in the same block. From that day, I used to spend most of my time with them, playing cards all night or roaming campus late at night. Just a few days later, these people introduced me to Ritvik, Yatendra, Praveen, and Sunil while I was playing cricket. And this is how our little group was completed (the group already existed but became complete with my joining xD). We danced through the pronights of Techkriti, pulled all-nighters roaming the campus, played cards together (where Sunil used to be the DJ, playing songs we vibed through until morning), cycled to Rave Moti to watch movies, and most importantly, we used to drink tea together at least once a day. We had a place to drink tea at Kalyanpur (Balaji tea stall). I used to rarely drink tea, but whenever we went there, I never refused to have at least one cup. I must say, these people taught me how to live a life; they truly justify the lingo “Chill Hai”.
Special mention goes to Rakesh and Aman, who are some of the kindest people I have ever met.
Picture 2 is a gift with all our most memorable photos gifted to me by Vishal, Devesh, and Sumit for me to keep as a memory and cherish forever.
I learnt that it’s not the quantity of friends you know; rather, it’s the quality of friends you have. Finally, they taught me the art of not sleeping all night yet making it to classes on time the next day as though I had slept well. I might have met them only a year back, but they stayed with me through thick and thin. We enjoyed ourselves, helped each other, worked together, and shared every emotion we were going through. I came to IITK in search of friends. Now, I am living with a family, friends like brothers, who I know, even if I call them late in the night, will be up and ready to help. I really don’t know with whom I will drink chai from now. Thank you, Chai Vasi people, for accepting me as your friend, being there for me always and making my last year very, very memorable.
This photo is us drinking tea (our go-to drink) at 5 am after cycling to the tea stall at Kalyanpur.
Before wrapping up, I must admit that all my friends have helped improve my Hindi; coming from South India where I used to rarely use Hindi for any communication, now I can converse and understand Hindi gaalis too.
This photo was taken after our convocation and before I got into the taxi to leave campus, it was the toughest goodbye for me.
Therefore, IIT Kanpur gives you wonderful avenues for well-rounded growth. My research experiences were all due to the opportunities provided by IITK. One of my biggest pieces of advice will be to constantly check your mail and stay updated. To conclude, one of the most valuable things that I will miss when I leave IIT Kanpur is the friendships that I have made over the years, which have translated from friends to family. This is one of the hardest goodbyes I have ever faced.
All in all, if I have to leave a message to the coming generations of IIT Kanpur, it will be as follows:
Follow your passion, no matter what the world thinks about your decisions; if, at the end of the day, you are satisfied with the path you have chosen, then you will go a long way. Also, do not get influenced by others around you; some things that work for them might not work for you, so believe in yourself and follow your heart. I personally believe that a good blend of passion and dedication with tonnes of hard work is the mantra for success.
Written by: Adit Thampi
Edited by: Diya Motagi, Zehaan Naik
Designed by: Sanyam Shivhare
