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In this 17th edition of As We Leave, Talin Gupta, a Y21 student from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, takes us through a whimsical yet heartfelt reflection on his IIT Kanpur journey told through a conversation with his past self. What begins as a moment of indecision between IITK and IITD unfolds into a vivid exploration of campus life: the thrill of fests, the chaos of GPLs, long cycling nights, and unexpected friendships forged over random club meets and shared projects. Talin’s story is a reminder that college is more than just courses and deadlines, it’s about showing up, getting out of your comfort zone, and saying yes to the little things.
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 IITK.
“Beta Josaa ki deadline hai parso, kab karega decide?” my father says as I sit beside him for breakfast. “Dekhte hain,” I give the same response as the last three times, and he is clearly irritated.
Hey guys. This is Talin, and I just cleared JEE Advanced 2021. The results came a couple of days back, (Ab toh life sorted hai). I have been confused between IITK CSE and IITD integrated (5-year) CSE. “Okay, IITD it is,” I think, after hanging up from a long discussion with my coaching mentor.” Something doesn’t feel right, though.
Anyways, I have decided to sleep on it. “Good night, sweet dreams,” as I enter the world of dreams.
…
Hey, where am I? Is this a dream? I haven’t seen this place before.
It is night time. Under some lights, I can see a stage, a set of big stairs in front of it, and the night sky. Someone is coming. I should ask him. As he comes closer, I realize it’s none other than me! He looks like a grown-up version of myself.
I step away in shock. “Relax, listen to me,” he says politely. “How is this possible? Is this real? No, I am dreaming. It’s just in my head,” I stammer in utter confusion. “Of course it is happening inside your head, but why on earth should that mean it is not real?” I’m now pretty sure this is indeed me. I would never let an opportunity to quote Dumbledore slip away.
Older Me: I am the version of you that decided to go to IITK, and I thank my past self every day for that decision. I will tell you how great it has been, and you can decide for yourself if you would like to do the same. The place you are standing right now is one of my favourites, the OAT. I spend countless late nights here with my friends — during fests, GC events, and whatnot. You don’t know these lingos yet; let me tell you: [… (skipped details) …]
(I could sense some heaviness in his voice. His expressions as he talked about college were similar to mine whenever I talk about my school. It was a mix of sadness, for it was coming to an end, and happiness, for it had been good enough to make him feel that way.)
Me: Damn, IITK has some really crazy stuff going on. And it seems you’ve loved your time here. However, I’m curious about whether anyone is able to explore every aspect of IITK, given its heavy academics (which I have often heard about) and the ongoing lockdown?
Older Me: Acads are heavy everywhere, it’s all about getting that sweet spot of balance where you can enjoy your time with friends, get involved in clubs without compromising acads. As for me, I started exploring different clubs in the online semester itself. In the beginning, I tried to attend every single club meet, eventually leading down to choices more aligned to my interests. I believe it was easier to explore more in online, you could just join another Zoom meet if the current one doesn’t interest you. I ended up joining a lot of meets, more than I had initially planned!
Me: Was it worth attending so many events and meets, though? How exactly did it contribute to your experience since you wouldn’t be able to continue everywhere for long?
Older Me: Absolutely. The events that I was a part of gave me the earliest friends in IITK, and also some of the best. Aditya and Shwetank were in the same team as me in a GameDev Club 7-day game-making project. Fast forward to 4th year, we lived in the same wing in Hall 1, with our rooms side by side. I may never have met these awesome people had I decided to skip the meet (I remember having a mild fever around that time). I met Saket and Mihir through Aditya, and we became trip partners. We started with Banaras and Agra (6th semester), and eventually, the legendary Malaysia + Thailand trip. I will tell you more about that later. We cracked a lot of bakchodi goals in Abot, along with Methi, Rishabh, Shishir and others. Some people are bound to cross your path to make the journey better, and that is why you, the smaller me, should always greet them with a smile.
To add to it, I believe that attending those meets, interacting with so many new, different kinds of people opened me up, as a result of which I was able to make friends easily when things started offline.
Me: Oh, so this dark age of online semesters comes to an end!! (My excitement now reached a new height). What was the first offline sem like?
Older Me: Yesss. It’s the best thing ever, offline experience is so much better. I arrived on campus during Udghosh, and by the time the rest of the batch arrived, Antaragni had started. It was during those days that I met my support system in CSE: Geetika, Tokas and Apoorva. We used to cycle every night around campus and explore different corners, then end up with bulla sessions right on those stairs (he pointed towards the top left corner).
Me: You miss those days a lot, don’t you?
Older Me: Every day (a sigh). It was in this semester that I met my awesome wingies (Prajwal, Shashank, Havi, Harshit, Prassun among others). We would sleep outside in the summers, exchange GPLs and a whole lot of masti. It is often a matter of luck how good your neighbours are: my luck in terms of my wingies would be equivalent to getting a Royal Flush in poker. I played a lot of Squash that semester (kudos to Utkarsh) and stopped only after getting my shoulder dislocated. Fun fact: On Prassun’s birthday, I used the full force of my just-recovered shoulder for his GPL and dislocated it again. Though Prassun also ended up with problems in the same area and had to undergo bedrest for 15 days: it was one lethal GPL, indeed!
Me: Umm, not sure if I’m ready for that (holding my right shoulder). So where did you eventually end up?
Older Me: I was a secy in ELS, PClub, and a team member of Vision (RIP :(). I eventually became a coordinator of ELS, and the experience was really mind blowing. I think I learned most of the life lessons from college in my 3rd year when I was a coordinator. ELS stays close to my heart; it gave me a family and great many gossips. My first offline friend, my first relationship advisor and my co-coordinator, Aviral was there with me during ELS fresher auditions, and also when I bid farewell to the club. My N-word bro Ridin also met me through ELS (though we had too many other PORs in common: Pclub, Vox CGM, and even a common project under a prof). A fun story: One of our first offline coordinator-only meets for ELS started in RM and ended up in Ravemoti watching Oppenheimer, since the main topic brought up was that we need more team bonding, and a good place to start would be coordinator bonding.
See that room over there, that’s the Litsoc room, our club’s place. Let me show you the rest of the campus too. I think you should be able to roam around in your dream.
As for Pclub, many of my existing friends also became secys (Tokas, Geetika, Hamza, Sahu, Ridin, DJ). The Pclub bullas were always great and often ended with Deven chasing a dog in Hall 3.
You know, it is these small, random decisions about joining a meet, going for a walk even when tired, approaching someone you barely know, which lead to big endings. The comfort zone is one’s real enemy and hindrance, and I hope you will learn to get out of it too.
Me: I was misinformed about IITK it seems, it really is a damn fun place. I don’t believe academics wouldn’t hinder the fun. It has to be challenging after all.
(We are now walking through the college. Older Talin has shown me different Halls, the swimming pool, e-shop, and a whole lot of other stuff. Is this how a college is supposed to be like? It is a whole f*ing city!)
Older Me: You are correct again. However, acads are tough when dealt with alone, but you bring an entire army of collaborators, and it becomes manageable. My frontline warriors were Geetika, Tokas, Aditya, Apoorva, Paras and others. Here we are what you see in front of you now is the KD building. We were the KD gang, as that was our adda. I proudly claim to have broken every rule possible in RM, and still never have been fined, as my actions were never documented — others have been fined, though, especially Geetika. My friends helped and motivated me throughout. Profs at IITK are of all sorts, and it is best to learn as much from them as possible (at least the cool ones). You won’t get to meet these awesome minds after college that much.
Me: Ha, I knew I’d make a great team player. I hope we did well in acads. Those are really important after all. You may have realized some tips and tricks during these years, if I’m correct?
Older Me: Yeah, don’t worry about that. It was pretty good. You currently seem to give a lot of weight to it, but you’ll soon realize that there’s a bigger picture: there is so much else to campus life. Something that helped me was realizing that attending classes made it a lot easier during exams, even though I would sleep through half of them. After some semesters, you also get an idea about what the exam may be like, based on what topics the prof focuses on and is passionate about during class. But again, attending classes has always been a pain, and my phone and ability to sleep anywhere, anytime helped me through. Our seniors are pretty helpful too, so it makes it a lot easier.
Hmm, why do you look so stressed? Worried about something?
Me: Ah… I’m not sure about the senior-junior culture. From what I’ve seen in movies, it seems pretty rough.
Older Me: Ha! (laughing) They over-dramatize everything. You can get a sense of how close the interactions are from the Amma-Baapu system. I still remember getting the first call from Jasjot and calling him Baapu in that call itself. “Jasjot ko call kar, Jasjot ko call kar,” was what Shashank was telling everyone while panicking, in the aftermath of that fatal GPL. I met different seniors through different sources; all of them had a diverse set of gyaan to share, and I tried to incorporate as much as possible in my life. I think my campus journey would have been a lot different (and less adventurous) if I had not met KPS, Prem, Ayush, Rose, Piyush, Naman, and many more amazing seniors. Everyone here has a different story to tell, different experiences, different tips and tricks to handle situations, and ofc, some legendary stories to tell. I hope you, too, get to know about these, wherever you decide to go.
Ofc, there’s another side to that coin. I am currently a Par-dada and have had an amazing time with my juniors. My bachas have always been hard party animals, and I’m proud that they hardly ever hesitated to share any problems. I also share a special bond with my juniors from ELS, whether it’s going to RDV and roaming Delhi, or going to IITKGP for Inter IIT Cult Meet.
Me: These sound like some really interesting competitions. You know I’ve always wanted to represent my institution: school, college, whatever.
Older Me: Yes, and they are worth every effort. Inter IIT Tech Meet ’23 was maybe the most intense period of my college. Me, Teju, Tokas, and Aadvik would stock up with Sting, and each of us drank at least five each night. Tokas and I had a CS220 lab during those days and were partners in it. That’s when the legend of the ‘Heart’ Module began. During Wednesday’s lab, with each code Sir saw after ours, he was repeatedly reminded of his youth by the ‘Heart’ module present in every code.
For Cult Meet ’23 and ’24, I participated in multiple events, as a secy and as a coordie respectively. I could feel how the entire council became one, leaving aside our differences as separate clubs (I won’t name our arch nemesis, iykyk). The lessons I learned through these will stay with me forever. After all, the journey is often worth more than the effort.
You know, the craze for these competitions is further increased through the GC. I’m really happy that the Nawabs won the GC more than once during my three years here, and I was part of it every time.
(We are now in front of a tall, red building that seemed more modern than others. I just saw some sort of medical school a couple of buildings behind. I now understand why Sarthak, my coaching senior, sounded so excited whenever he talked about going to campus.)
Older Me: The good thing about IITK is, you will never get bored of anything. There are so many recreation options. I used to play cards with my wingies, especially in the final year. A major highlight of my campus life will be the rooftops: DJAC, design building, Technopark 1 & 2, ESB, Admin building, Chemical building, and many more. What you see in front of you right now is the Technopark building, the first whose rooftop I was on. My partners in crime were often Geetika, Atulya, and Snehal. We were often caught by sis guards on inaccessible roofs; I even asked one to take a selfie with us (he refused, ofc). Being on the rooftops gives you a different perspective of the campus, telling you how much there is still to explore as you discover different corners of the campus. And ofc, doing ‘chicken banana’ is a good way to make things funny, and Aayush, Tejas, and Ridin will concur.
Another wonderful thing I liked about IITK is its excellent sports facilities. I had given up on sports after dislocating my shoulder in the squash court in 2nd semester, as a precautionary measure. However, when I got it dislocated again in Malaysia, I realized that no matter how many precautions I took, it ain’t getting healed. Hence, I went all out and spent a lot of time playing badminton and squash in the final semester. It took a lot of courage at first, but I refused to just sit around in fear and compromise on doing what I loved. It was a risk I was now ready to take, after all, in the worst case, it would just be a couple of hours of intense pain and a week of wearing a sling, then I could be back on court after that.
Me: Great! You must be missing it all quite a bit, I understand. To be honest, I’m noticing a lot of things about you that are unlike me. Maybe you have grown a lot over these years. This place, by just walking through it, I can feel the energy, the vibes, and the memories here. Goodbyes have always been tough for me, and I’m happy that I still retain that characteristic. You were going to tell me more about your trip to, umm, Bali?
Older Me: Yeah, the one to Thailand and Malaysia actually, with Adi, Socket, and Shwetank. It was a fun, long trip, and we carried our pool wrestling moves thousands of miles away to the infinity pool of Kuala Lumpur. We also stepped on the tiger’s tail, well, to be more precise, we used the tail as a moustache. Clubs in Bangkok were the best. I know your dream of seeing the world, well, we’re definitely making progress. You’ll be happy to know that we visit Singapore and the UK as part of our summer internships and make long-lasting friendships there too.
Me: Oh, oh, tell me all about internships and placements.
Older Me: I won’t reveal much; something has to be a surprise for you after all, though I’m pretty sure you’ll remember very little from this dream. But rest assured: we end up well. Though there was a bit of a dark phase when I was expecting PPO from TRC and didn’t get it. I would thank all my friends for standing alongside me and motivating me through that phase, especially the COWS, Geetika, Tokas and Aayush. I think this is a good place to see you off for the night.
(We had now reached the airstrip. We walked inside and stood on one of the ‘H’.)
Me: Why this place in particular?
Older Me: It was this place, where three years ago, the spark of love for IITK’s culture ignited within me. The story of HR Kadim, whether real or not, switched something inside me that still runs ablaze. I realized back then that it was up to me to make the coming years wonderful, to live life to the fullest, and to carry the culture forward. This place gave that sort of positive vibes. I now carry the pride of being an IITK alumnus and cherish all my memories here. There are regrets, of course. But there need to be regrets in every story; that’s what makes us human. One thing I will never regret is choosing IITK, and with that, bro, I will say goodbye to you. I hope you now have some clarity about what to do. Also, you are pretty lucky I came for you, had it not been for Lavanya and the Vox Team, I would have completely forgotten about it .
…
He vanished into thin air. I looked around, then up at the sky. I felt a unique tranquility there. I closed my eyes and was ready to go back.
“Chal, bhar le preference ab,” mumma says as I take my laptop in hand. I feel something different this morning, like I had been somewhere last night, someplace wonderful, someplace that felt like home. This is a strange feeling; it must have been some weird dream. However, I keep getting this urge to put IITK at the top, not sure why. All the confusion seems to have faded. “I am going to IITK. There are some awesome people waiting for me there, people I am destined to meet, to call my friends, and to make memories with.” I still don’t understand why or how I said these things, but I am feeling satisfied.
Written by: Talin Gupta
Edited by: Lavanya Srivastava, Aaryan Maheshwari
Designed by: Pragya Puri
