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In the 18th edition of As We Leave 2026, Akshat Chouksey, a graduating Y22 from the department of Electrical Engineering, looks back on an IIT Kanpur journey defined by curiosity, reinvention, and resilience. From startups and student leadership to moments of uncertainty, placements, and an unexpected semester exchange in Munich, he reflects on the highs and lows that shaped him along the way. Through it all, he reminds us that even in the midst of chaos, things have a way of working out, and that every setback can lead to a story worth telling.
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.
Finally writing this AWL- after weeks of procrastination, sitting here in Munich of all places.
This is probably not the kind of college story you generally read. I wasn’t great at making friends when I came here, and while I did find some amazing people along the way, I’m somehow leaving on a boat not too different from the one I arrived in. But a lot happened in between.
This is a story of someone who just had this itch to do things – and saw almost every extreme this campus had to offer because of it. 100+ friends to crying alone in my room. Startup highs to getting completely broken. And somehow ending up at TU Munich in my last sem, which yes, a lot of people found weird. “Last sem mein semex??” We’ll get there.
Oh and a fun fact: My father’s DOB: 20/09, My DOB: 20/09, My Roll no: 220099, and some dates that meant a lot: 29/02, 29/04, 29/09. Let the journey begin 🙂Â
I made a thing called the Happiness Index – rating each sem from 0 to 1. 1 means I was genuinely happy, 0 means I was on the verge of a very wrong step. You’ll see it below. The graph is… eventful.
Chapter 1: No Plan, Just Curiosity
Came to this college with zero expectations. No target grade, no target internship, no plan.
Just a new soul walking into an entirely new life. First time away from home, so my family was obviously tensed and so was I. What if homesickness hits? Turns out it took exactly 2 days for that fear to disappear.
1st sem was genuinely fun. Late night walks, cycling around campus, orientation events, wing trips, wing bakchodi, club intros, soaked in all of it. But I was so deep in masti mode that studying just didn’t happen. My logic was “bure se bure kitna aa jayega” and that was my biggest mistake. MTH111, ESC111, ESC112 absolutely destroyed me and I ended up with a very bad CPI. Lesson learned the hard way.
2nd sem I told myself, okay let’s fix this. And it was genuinely a better sem. More time with wingmates, a trip to Lucknow, late night hangouts, started making friends outside the wing too. Acads also got back on track.
And then somewhere in between all of this, Shark Tank India S1 happened to us. Me and my friend were just randomly watching a movie one night and the idea hit. Why not start a clothing brand? Custom tshirts and hoodies with designs around iconic campus buildings, departments, clubs. We went all in, contacted big companies for collabs, spoke to current and ex Gymkhana presidents, even looped in DOSA to make sure we weren’t stepping on anyone’s toes. Everything fell into place and the launch date was locked: 7th August 2023.
That sem ended well. Good grades, a lot of new friends, and a startup just about to take off.
Chapter 2: Flying Too Close to the Sun ​
3rd sem started and everything felt like it was finally coming together. Got selected as secy in FAC and E-cell, startup was flying, and I was meeting people who genuinely became some of my closest friends throughout college. Still grateful for that.
The startup was doing really well. 100+ orders in 20 days, mostly iconic building and department tshirts. Then we took our first club order from Dramatics, and after that there was no looking back. FAC, BCS, Aerial, orders kept coming. We had vendors across Kanpur and Varanasi, I was getting popular in the batch, among seniors, among juniors. After about 1.5 months we crossed INR 1L in revenue and became the official merchandise partner with Team Humanoid. Acads were bad but honestly I didn’t care, I was completely hooked onto this. We eventually did a revenue close to 5 lakhs in 4-5 months, awesome, right?
But as they say, the grass always looks greener on the other side.
The fuckups started piling up. Humanoid order got delayed by months, too much back and forth. Issues with the FAC order. Half our hoodies got stolen in winters. Money accidentally transferred to the wrong vendor. Fights with my co-founder. It was one thing after another and there were genuinely moments where I was on the verge of crying. Eventually in January 2024 I decided to step away, with the idea that I’ll find something new and come back better.
Then came the 4th sem, FAC was the next thing I threw myself into. Put in a lot of work, made a 50+ page deck, was in the dream team of 3-4 out of 6 prospective coordinators. But I was terrified of failing. So terrified that I pulled out one day before the final PPT submission without even giving the interview. I did help my friends who were going for it though, and I think that actually made a difference for them.
March was just strange. No direction, no clear goal. And then I did something really stupid, I fell for my best friend. Never mix those two, just don’t.
Then the Election Commission folks reached out saying I should go for manager, even the CEO was like “you’re perfect for this, just go.” So I said okay, put in two weeks of serious work in April right before endsems. Meanwhile my wing friendships were quietly fading, the outside groups too and it often felt like everyone was moving forward while I was standing still. I told myself it’s fine, I still had her.
One day before endsem I found out I was rejected from EC. I was completely broken, I had put so much into it. Endsems got wrecked. And then right after endsems, she ended things too. No close friends left, not really part of any group, and the intern season was about to begin…
That sem I won the HII Hackathon by SIIC which got me a month long internship in Kerala in the healthcare space. The work was interesting, going around talking to hospitals, doctors and scientists to find real problems worth solving. And Kerala with that group of people was genuinely a great time.
But my entire DSA prep went to zero because I got completely absorbed into building this healthcare startup. Came back to campus in the first week of July thinking okay, now I go full on.
Spoiler: it didn’t quite go that way.
Chapter 3: Hit The Floor, Then Found The Door
Intern season started and I was not ready. No DSA, no solid projects, just hoping something non-technical would come through. I was so scared of failing that I didn’t even sit for SDE firms, didn’t give a single test. Everyone around me started getting placed and I was sinking deeper into depression with each passing day.
At this point I had nobody. Not a close part of my wing anymore, the outside friend group had fallen apart, and even the healthcare startup team was slowly drifting away. Two months of trying to fix things, reach out, rebuild, and nothing worked. Antargani came and that was the final blow. The whole campus felt like it was celebrating and I had maybe 2 people in different halls who even checked on me.
I genuinely decided I was done. Packed my bag before Diwali and went home. And then I did something that sounds small but honestly changed everything. I switched off my phone for 3 days completely. No calls, no texts, no scrolling. Just silence. And those were honestly some of the most peaceful days of my entire college life.
Came back to campus around 3rd Nov and within 3 days secured an on-campus offer from PwC as an AI Engineer. It felt like the fog just lifted after that. Made some new friends in my branch, got a good CPI that sem, went to InterIIT Consult, and won the Best Talk Award at PanIIT conference for the healthcare startup. For the first time in a long while, things felt great again.
6th sem started quietly and I joined Techkriti as an organiser. Honestly one of the best decisions I made on campus. I met good people, good seniors, was finally recovering. Acads were solid. I already knew I wasn’t taking the PPO from PwC so placement prep was always in the back of my mind.
The PwC internship that summer went really well though. Secured the PPO, did a lot of actual tech work and genuinely started developing a passion for it. The resume still screamed non-tech but something was shifting inside.
And in those same summers, something new was quietly taking shape. ShARE IITK. I became the president of it. More on that later.
Chapter 4: The Sem That Had Everything Except Mercy
Sem 7 was supposed to be my comeback sem. Full focus on tech, DSA prep was going good, had a plan. What I didn’t know was that this was going to be my last official sem on campus, and it was going to throw absolutely everything at me.
ShARE was falling apart internally. New club, low motivation in the team, constant issues. Then we had to remove a girl from the club for how she was behaving with the team, and she went scorched earth. Broadcasted across entire H1 that the club was illegal, everyone was selfish, and that I was the biggest problem. Mailed the PSG, the chairperson, and eventually the Director himself, throwing in some religious politics for good measure & eventually threatened me with SSAC. I was already stretched thin with placement prep and this was running alongside all of it. I never quite found my place in the new wing in H1 either, everyone else was busy in their own lives. Most days it was just me, alone in my room, grinding for placements.
Then came 31st October.
I had just come back from a short home break. There was a strange smell near my room, me and a friend checked thinking maybe a rat had died somewhere, and found nothing. I slept with the balcony open around 2am, smell was stronger outside but not inside. It rained heavily that night and I couldn’t sleep at all, woke up at 6am.
Next morning around 7:30 I went for breakfast. Outside room A123, right next to mine which was A122, there was some dark liquid on the ground. I thought someone had drinks the night before and spilled it. It was blood, already dried up.
When I came back from the mess, the chairperson and PSG were running towards my wing. A few wingmates, guards, warden. Flies everywhere on the balcony back door. The security guard broke the gate open from the front. And then I saw it. A body hanging. My neighbour had died by suicide.
I just stood there thinking, is there anything left for this campus to show me?
But here’s the thing that scared me more than the incident itself. I felt nothing. No sadness, no anger, nothing. My friends and family were worried sick about me. Placements were starting, the pressure and uncertainty around them was already weighing heavily on me, ShARE was a mess, and I was dealing with the possibility of a complaint being escalated against me. A suicide had happened right next to my room. And I was just… numb. Completely empty. Looking back, I think 5th sem had already taken everything out of me emotionally.
Placements started. Tests all day, course projects running parallel. Somewhere in all this chaos I made a decision. I was done spending my last time on this campus being depressed. I applied for Semex at TU Munich.
Everyone had the same reaction. “Last sem mein semex? You’ll miss your graduation, your farewell, everything.” And my answer was simple. Those moments only matter if you have the right people to share them with. Most of the people I was truly close to had already become part of my story by then. So I chose Munich.
Now, placements.
I had no tech shortlist going into D1. Got 3 non-tech shortlists in 1.1 and being the scared guy I am, spent the last 2 days before D1 doing case prep instead of sticking to tech. Big mistake. Fumbled AnM, Navi told me straight up “analyst is not for you, go for consulting”, FinMec was similar. Then in 1.2 I got a verbal offer from PwC US at 3pm. Relaxed too soon, thought let me try for something better. Got into final rounds at Indus and Battery Smart but I was neither fully tech nor fully non-tech and it showed. Got rejected from both. And then PwC revoked the verbal offer because they thought I wasn’t serious.
I called my parents that night and just broke down. Told them I don’t want to do engineering, I’ll do Masters, I’ll join Papa’s business, anything but this. Didn’t eat anything the entire D1. Slept for a few hours and went back.
D2, I walked into my Snapmint interview with zero preparation and zero expectations. And genuinely, it was the best interview I gave. No pressure, no overthinking, just talking. Got the offer. Shreyansh was a huge help that day, really grateful for him.
After that I just started helping others. Nobody had helped me through placements, except one person. But I still went around from D3 to D7 helping whoever I could with prep, interviews, anything. And honestly that’s when I started feeling something again. Not joy from getting an offer. Joy from actually being useful to someone.
That feeling was new. And I liked it.
Chapter 5: "Yeh Waqt Bhi Beet Jayega"
8th sem was always going to be my last three months on campus before heading to Munich, and I made a promise to myself that I was going to actually enjoy it this time.
And I did.
Strengthened bonds with a lot of people, and especially with Atop, a wing that genuinely became very close to my heart. Those guys showed up for me whenever I needed it and I won’t forget that. I also joined Prayas & it was a wonderful experience there. We also had a valorant team 🙂
ShARE also finally started finding its footing. We took on the Harvard Case Competition, 20 days of locking in for 7+ hours a day. We didn’t make the finals but we were right there at the doorstep. The grind with that team, the late nights, the arguments, the small wins, all of it was worth it. Ended the sem with a lot of parties, some really solid bonds and a completely stupid amount of memories.
And then I left the campus for Munich.
So if you’ve read till here, here’s what I actually want to say to you.
Everything gets better with time. I know that sounds like something people say to fill silence, but I mean it. You can be in a situation ten times worse than anything I went through and it will still pass. My Instagram bio has said it for a while now, “Yeh waqt bhi beet jayega.” This too shall pass. Not maybe, It will.
The one thing I genuinely regret is running from my fears instead of facing them. The FAC coordinator, the EC manager, the tech shortlists. Every time I was scared I either didn’t show up or half showed up. And every single time it only made things worse and longer. If you’re reading this and you’re doing the same thing, please just face it. The fear of failing is almost always worse than the failure itself.
My campus life was not perfect. Not even close. But god, it was a ride. And here’s the thing I keep coming back to: if everything had gone smoothly, I would never have ended up in Europe on a semester exchange, writing this from Munich, having experiences I couldn’t have imagined a year ago.
Coming to Munich was probably the best decision I made in college. Over the last few months, I’ve learnt to live independently, cook for myself, make friends from across the world, and become far more confident in talking to new people. It gave me a fresh perspective on life and pushed me to grow in ways I hadn’t experienced before. And of course, it came with some incredible memories, travelling across Europe, exploring new places, and collecting stories I’ll carry for a long time.
Every low led me somewhere. Every rejection, every broken friendship, every door that shut. It all eventually made sense.
So trust the process. Trust that there’s a plan even when it looks like chaos. And when you’re sitting alone in your room at 2am feeling like nothing is working, just remember that somewhere on the other side of that is something you can’t see yet.
It worked out for me. It’ll work out for you too.
Written by: Akshat Chouksey
Edited by: Saanvi Singh, Shriya Suravarapu
