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In this 49th edition of As We Leave, Kaustuv Dasgupta, a Y21 student from the Mechanical Engineering department, reflects on a journey shaped by dance, friendships, and the unique energy of IIT Kanpur. From online beginnings and carefree days to moments of growth, clarity, and countless memories on campus, he captures how IITK became a home of experiences that will always stay. His story is a reminder to embrace the noise, find joy in the small things, and carry forward the lessons this campus instills.
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.
26th March 2025. I woke up and, as usual, tried opening Instagram on my laptop—only to realise a few minutes later that my account had been wiped off the face of Instagram.
Reason? Unknown.
At first, I was unfazed about it. But a few weeks later, I began to feel the absence. That small, silent incident had already distanced me from hundreds of known (unknown) faces. With some, you’ve shared a few conversations. With others, it was just a passing ‘hi’ over the years. Sometimes, it was only a smile—or a small wave of the hand across a corridor. Juniors, seniors, peers—people with whom you’ve never spoken, just exchanged eye contact.
Still, you’ve watched their lives unfold—through Insta stories or literal stories.
And suddenly, it’s gone.
A quiet goodbye.
You will never see so many familiar faces in proximity day in-day out, ever again.
I enrolled myself in this college ‘the only IIT with an airstrip’ — completely unbothered, least interested in the whole online setup. Academics, bulla sessions, random meets—nadda, none. I hated online meets.
Having attended just a handful of sessions (most of them official), the sober Ritviz night finally gave me glimpse of what this glorious campus actually holds for all of us.
Ignoring academics like a pro, passing TA101, embracing the brick-themed acad area, and the hard water of H13—I even missed the freshers’ dance audition.
Had I chosen not to go the next day, my college life would have been ridiculously different. And I highly doubt if it would have been even nearly as fulfilling and fun as the truth.
Much of my reality today stems from Dance.
Odd semester of second year, came further negligence of academics and a series of all-nighters at OAT (then foyer), filled with laughter, ‘Chitta’ by Prabhdeep, whining about the tortures of the No-sleep club, clothes drenched with sweat, missing DC labs and mini-quizzes of ESO209—which, thankfully, helped me fail (having above average both in mid and end term) the course. Next summer, the same course was exponentially easier.
It’s around four-thirty a.m., month of September, a few weeks remaining in hand for Thomso. Practice has almost reached its full momentum (when you start the practice with seven laps and rigorous workout), cleaning of songs has commenced, but all-nighters haven’t started, and your seniors are also chill because the pressure of D-day hasn’t visited yet. The practice is done for today, melo songs have found their way via Adarsh through our speakers, as we decide to cool down. You are still drenched in sweat from those back-to-back run-throughs, you lie down on your back, facing up, closing your lids. You feel the music through wooden floor, the bpm almost matching with your heart rate.
In that moment, I had everything—everything I could ever need. Nothing else was required. Your heart is ecstatic; you are deeply content. Absolutely no one can offer you something ‘more’.
For these moments, and much, much more, members of the dance club never seem to leave it. Physically – yes. Mentally, emotionally – no. And with extension or reversion (for a few), dance itself.
After rigorous nights at foyer, we hopped on a crowded Volvo for an eighteen-hour excruciating journey to IIT Roorkee, securing second runner up in Thomso, and 5spi.
Restructuring our dance team, we dreamt of InterIIT gold. Wasn’t this the goal right from the start?
With some brilliant Y19s joining in, our practice sessions went full throttle.
With almost each member of our team sneezing like blaring alarm – thanks to intense weather, we soon held the stage at IIT Madras. But soon after, our hearts sobbed on the streets of IITM—unable to conquer gold at InterIIT Cultural Meet 5.0 (secured second runner-up) completely oblivious of what the next InterIIT would entail. Other than the useless mess and canteen of IIT Madras, its lush green campus, the fresh air, deer, tiny cats and moonlit beaches had the ability to recharge me from the turmoil of 2022.
And our contingent missed the return train.
Twenty twenty-three, with surge of new and positive energy, I ditched galaxy events and we secured Antaragni gold for the first time with a small team of y20 coordies, seven y21s and nine fresh faces. Contemplated my instinct of leading dance club pretty hard. April2023, I along with four others, Bitthal, Chaitanya aka Chad, Ashish and first dance club IITK female coordinator Vrinda Juneja, we were set to write another beautiful chapter in dance club IITK timeline.
I met Sam from Manchester, at Agonda Beach, during my goated Goa trip this year. He had a tattoo of world map on his back, that’s the reason why I approached him. He is thirty-six, he was part of a flight crew, as a result he had seen almost all continents, hence the tattoo, and he visits goa routinely every year for 2months. He is good looking and posts stupid photos and stories on Instagram, with only few hundred followers. I was curious on what was his plan when he was young, his earnings, his future plans. He owns a small house cleaning agency, other than that, he had no plan, his reaction said that these questions don’t make any sense to him.
That guy, he was happy and seemed to have genuinely enjoyed his life at least until that moment. Not advertising his decisions or fantasising his lifestyle, but I think, sometimes it’s completely fine to NOT have an elaborate plan.
First half of my college was much similar, and I had a great time! Gained and experienced many beautiful substances of life, I would have otherwise missed if I had made ‘the plan’. Provided you are out there with the noise.
The joy in building something from scratch is incomparable. We built our production, ‘the production’, and gave it the stage on our campus during Orientation and Antaragni (secured first runner-up), at IIT Delhi in Rendezvous ’23, and finally at IIT KGP in the Inter IIT Cultural Meet 6.0, whose result was a tragic misstep in evolution — we clinched sixth position. I urge everyone to watch IIT Guwahati’s gold-worthy, painful (for your eyes) ten-minute production.
Btw, our contingent once again missed the return train 🙂
Following year was all about, getting the cpi back (got till 8), internships and placement. Found cool internships through alums and loved probability again.
And Krazzy Over Sync (KOS) redeemed itself by securing GOLD in Inter IIT Cultural Meet 7.0.
The long-awaited single room was finally here. Hall 1 is like a mini wonderland, where each six-by-ten-foot warm space has its own vibe. You won’t find IITK fourth-year students here — you’ll find humans at peak ecstasy, where impromptu plans are the norm, canteen is the soul, where Vikram routinely find themselves near its gate, where all parties originate, fests bloom, where blink-it wale bhaiya should set-up a camp. Everything everywhere all at once.
The 8th semester was nothing short of bliss.
The spectrum of human experiences increases on this campus.
Until few days back, I believed that this is the case simply because our age during the school days does not offer the necessary freedom, but returning back from campus, looking around, I have a feeling that this may be largely true regardless of age and freedom. Especially the ‘pure/honest’ fun aspect.
IITK is like a thousand-acre home, with familiar faces and comfort. The atmosphere this campus provides us has a vibe and energy found very rarely. Feel it, experience it, use it, be part of the noise, don’t consume yourself with your boredom, laziness, triumphs and sob stories.
However sad and nostalgic these last weeks at campus were, we knew it was time to go. Among these crazy years were countless days with series of bad decisions and defeat—which only made our core tighter.
To juniors – have clarity someday before graduating, then press the pedal hard and stick to it. You will find yourself in some sweet spots few semesters down the line.
Few useless (very useful) information –
– Acad area has plants with ‘shiuli’ flower, the one in the film ‘October’ by Shoojit Sircar. You’ll find it on the way to doaa canteen from Northen Labs, provided you choose the shorter path. It has the best(luxurious) fragrance. Of course, it blooms around the month of Oct.
– Walk in the middle of the road after 1am with music.
– Take care of yourself, before showcasing your care for others. That way you’ll inherently do the latter better.
– Dance your heart out in fests.
– Regularly allow your sweat to trickle, whatever way you find least resistance in.
– Visit all rooftops and residential lanes.
– Visit the gurudwara of our campus. The peace and silence – divine.
– No system is as rigid as it seems, don’t shy to break the norm.
– Don’t let condescending attitude of senior, dictate your opinions. They are just few years older, who have better knowledge of patterns at IITK.
– CCD had more vibe when cappuccino was 36 and Akash bhaiya was behind the counter.
P.S. Many versions of the AWL could be written, but I have centred it around the thing that mattered the most. The mere fact that most of us have so much to write in various versions of AWL is the gift from IITK.
Written by: Kaustav Dasgupta
Edited by: Vaishnavi, Pratyush Sandhwar
Designed by: Pankhuri Sachan, Pragya Puri
