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In the 63rd edition of As We Leave 2026, Harshit Srivastava, a Y22 student from the department of Computer Science & Engineering takes us on a ride across his college journey, reminiscing about the itty-bitty moments and the events that shaped him. He hints that life has unusual ways of teaching its secrets: some lie in a staircase fall, some inside a choco lava cake you refused to buy because you thought you weren’t worthy enough, and some in the cycles you misplaced.
He structures his reflections around cycles, having lost three cycles during his time, he says each one symbolized the person he was when he had them; losing them meant a shift in his personality every time. As he leaves college, he has not lost the last cycle he owned. Having not lost it, he will carry the essence of the fourth cycle as he prepares for his life ahead.

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.

“We don’t actually own things. We just look after them until we misplace them.”

The people who know me know that I buy replacements for things more often than new things. But one pretty interesting fact about me is that I have owned four bicycles during my time here at IITK. This is not because I particularly enjoy bicycles, but because I have an exceptional ability to lose them.

This story is about how all those four cycles quite accurately defined my college life and how I turned into someone who now doesn’t care to lose a bicycle.

Fresh into college, I got a really sleek new cycle. It was perfect, the size not too small nor too big, the colour not too bold nor too ordinary, it was the best cycle I ever owned. In hindsight it reflected what I was at the time: aspirational, naive enough to believe I’d do everything perfectly, aspired for that fabled 1cr job, doing all things needed for a complete life.

I have never been a guy of big moments, almost never feel anything the moment something very big happens. It is the realization some time later that hits. When college started, I didn’t feel homesick, mom was crying leaving me here and I was already making friends. Before realising 21 days passed. Got 0 in my first quiz, broke my phone twice in a span of a week, and one day, just one random day, I was done. The first time away from home is hard, and for someone who almost never even lived a week without his parents, it was a lot. Thanks to my home being just 7hrs away, I took the next bus out.

Soon the college started feeling less strange. Freshers’ happened. I made a lot of friends, had my first crush, and tried to make the most of the semester filled with working Saturdays and Ganguly’s magnum opus. Then came Antaragni and being the careless person that I am, I didn’t use to lock my cycle. Lost it. College has a funny way of teaching detachment; usually without asking for permission first.

The next bicycle I got was a very bold and big one, too in the face you can say, it tried to make an impression and get noticed, and honestly, so did I. By that time I was at a really good place. I had made very good friends in the wing and outside. I also, by the stroke of luck, had managed my way into dating my best friend; still can’t believe it after 3 years. I started working out, participated in Galaxy and Takneek, and got a good SPI. I was on top of the world, and the cycle showed it. But like every kite that flies too high, it was just moments before a disaster. I was once going to a QC quiz, the debut quiz by my wingie and later roommate, Padhi; and due to being overexcited, I forgot to lock the cycle before going into the LH. Well, you can probably guess what happened. Now ok, that’s what happened to the cycle. What about me, you ask? Well, no one could guess it, not in a million lifetimes.

“The trouble with being on top of the world is that gravity never stops working.”

I always hated mess breakfast. The thought of eating greasy pav bhaji at 7:30 in the morning is just absurd. But one day out of the seven, Sunday, mess breakfast had Dosa. Me and my family have always loved dosa and it’s our go to food whenever we wanna eat outside. It was a must for me to go to the mess Sunday morning. So, just like any night during endsems, I was up all night and slept just before 7. My friend Vanara knew better than to let me sleep through breakfast, so he woke me up at 9:57. No part of this story is exaggerated; and believe me, exaggeration is our bread and butter as comics, but I refrain from dramatising the funniest moment of my life. (The dramatic version made it to the standup set I did at Inter IIT and Orientation next year)

So yeah, it was 9:57 and I rushed to the lift. The lift was busy so I decided to go down the stairs. (a perfectly innocent decision, in my defence :)) And just when I had crossed 2, maybe 1.5 floors, I slipped.

That’s it. I slipped. Now, in most of the cases it would lead to a normal hit; but not me. God had different plans. Next thing I know I am in a hospital room outside campus, with Vanara and Kamde alongside and the doctor telling me I have a spinal injury. No point getting into the details, but yeah, it was pretty bad. I had compressed my spine at multiple places, and had to be in complete bed rest in the middle of my endsems. The only relief was that my friends made sure I was never alone, and mind you, these people too had their endsems going.

You never think much of these things until they happen to you. The worst part about a bed rest is not the pain, or the inability to do something about it. It is those moments when there is no one in the room, when you can’t sleep cuz you’ve been lying in bed all day, alone, helpless, and aching to feel peace. The opposite of peace is not noise, it’s the uncomfortable silence when all you want to hear is a familiar voice.

Aditi, love, I have an endless list of things to thank you for, but the way you handled this, putting me before everything else, you showed up, every single day, without fail, nothing even comes close. I used to live alone, away from my wing and separated from most of my social life, but she did all she could, and much more, to not let me feel lonely. Moments like these make you appreciate the people who show up, and to all the people who checked up on me and helped me get through it all, Akshat, Gupta, Siddhi, Aaditi, Aryaman, Sharma, Himanshu, Sameer, Sankalp, Mausam, Hitesh, and all my wingies and friends, thank you from all my heart!

I remember a moment from the time which I’d like to share. So Akshat, who would’ve been my roommate, often used to drop by my room. One day he had to get a haircut and came to take me too. I was watching a movie, all I did those days was watch movies. So he stayed and watched the entire movie with me. I didn’t even ask, and I’m pretty sure he didn’t like the movie. Still, he stayed. The older I get, the more convinced I am that love and friendship are mostly acts of staying.

This one was a lot simpler. The bare minimum of a cycle. It was one of the abandoned broken down cycles and I got it repaired just enough to function. It too was a lot like me, just functioning and trying to pedal through. I thought the injury was over and I went to the gym. If you haven’t guessed it, next night again I was in the hospital watching a movie with Vanara.

After a while I had gotten over it and made peace with the fact that I had to take it slow. Having missed half of the semester as secretary, I started writing a set for Inter IIT. The practice started and I was selected for standup. Those days are still some of my best memories of HH.

“Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear” 

Soon it was time to start grinding for the almighty intern season. Intern prep was a lot of fun, everyone stayed on campus for summers, almost no classes to go to, and spent the entire day pretending to do InterviewBit and crying about it. Fun fact: I used to sleep in H3 reading room for the entire summer. It was a good summer, until Day 0 arrived. I have always considered myself at the middle of the CSE strata when it came to academics, and even lower when it came to CP. But, the clutch last semester which made my CPI jump the 9 mark, coupled with some other things, fetched me 4 shortlists in the fabled HFTs, and nothing anywhere else, not a single one. I was proud of myself that day, but more shocked. And what followed was nothing short of a living nightmare. One by one, I failed all 4 interviews due to some reason or the other. It was my first big failure in life and I was at my lowest as I sat in mess having lunch on Day 1, still wearing the suit. After an entire night of failing interviews, I didn’t even feel like I deserved a little extra in the mess. I sat with friends, cried in front of them. I am so thankful I got good ones who, despite having no offer themselves, didn’t dismiss my problem as a champagne problem, because it was almost certain I would get picked by the next company on day 2. Now, at this point, a person just takes the next offer and gets it over with. But, the person inside me who never settled for a single thing in his life couldn’t just accept it. Rock bottom is surprisingly productive. There isn’t much left to fear. I contacted seniors the same day, got a list of quant firms, and by the stroke of luck, found one which was hiring off campus. I gave the interview, got the offer and before telling anyone, I again went to mess, to buy the same choco lava I thought I didn’t deserve. Come to think of it, that was the single proudest moment of my college life.

Then started the mighty third year. Third year is the extravaganza of college life. From PORs to mature courses without the phrase “Introduction to” in their name, to exploring yourself, finding friends who actually matter, having that first college trip.. just a bucket full of new experiences you try to take in with little spoons.

Humour House, the club I was always passionate about, was finally ours to run. What we, as coordinators, had never talked about out loud but I guess mutually decided was that the club would remain a fun place to come to; and in just trying to achieve that, we made something so great we ourselves couldn’t have imagined. I remember all of us tearing up after getting a bronze at Inter IIT in Patna, everyone just finally accepting and making no attempt to hide how much the club and its people mean to them.

I also started living with my wing again, we did our first trip together, and since then, for all big and little things, Saare bhai are always there. It’s such a strange concept huh, you put 25-30 wildly different strangers together and now they’re all supposed to be friends and be a unit. Well, that’s the reason not many can proudly say their wing never broke up. I am glad I can say that. With trips, placements, poker, through everyone’s thick and thin, we all stuck together. The exam didn’t go well, the exam went well, forgot to go for the exam, there is always someone ready to listen and joke about it, and more often than not, that’s all anyone needs.

This one was bold, but not in the face, the kind which knows how to get there. I got it from a senior when he left college, and I left it to Padhi who’s staying for a 5th year; the point being this cycle is sturdy and it doesn’t break down. It was finally my 4th year. I was living in Hall 9, a decision still unexplainable to some people but, eh, who cares! It was now time to prepare for the placements, something to show for your four years of B. tech, and prepare I did. This time I proactively applied to everywhere I could off campus, and unlike most people who give interviews for the first time in the placements, I had given multiple rounds of off campus interviews for 6-7 companies before my day 1, to no success. I thought all my efforts went in vain. Well, more on that soon. Finally, THE company which saved placements for CSE Y22, Squarepoint, gave me an offer.

Yep, that was it, the grind was finally over. Soon everyone started getting placed, and everyone says this but you never believe it until it’s your time, you get happier watching your friends being placed than getting your own offer. We did a Meghalaya trip, peak 4-5 days I’m always gonna remember, well however much I can. Mirza Ghalib ke sher (Me, Sharma, Padhi, Verma, Sankalp) became something so important so soon we didn’t even realise.

“I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour. “

It’s no surprise how 8th semester goes. It’s always the parties and the partings. We did the Goa trip we always talked about since the first year. It was the time of our lives. The human brain tends to prioritize and recall the last piece of information it encounters. This is true for all things. Everyone remembers the last time they spent time with their wingies, the last time they went to OAT, the last all nighter they did. And those are the moments that are heaviest and stay with us for time and beyond.

One pleasant surprise awaited me while I was on the trip. A company I had given OA for very long ago had selected me for a screening round. Now I knew nothing about the company and only the name. Anyway I gave the screening thinking it’d be like always, I’ll do some rounds and then get hit with the usual “We regret to inform you …. “ but life had other plans, I got through all rounds, even the system design one. It was the first time I had been asked that in an interview. But somehow the stars aligned and now I am looking forward to joining a job in the city of Sherlock Holmes.

One thing college has taught me is that when something goes wrong, our first instinct is often to question ourselves. What did I do wrong? What should I have done differently? Sometimes those are useful questions. But sometimes the answer is nothing. Sometimes you slip on a staircase. Sometimes you prepare for months and still don’t get the result you expected. Sometimes life simply refuses to follow the plan. And when that happens, it is important not to confuse a bad outcome with a personal failure. Learn what there is to learn, control what you can control, but don’t spend too much time searching for faults that may not exist. Some things are simply beyond your control. Often, the only difference between failure and success is that one story ended before the other.

Looking back, I don’t remember where any of the first three cycles ended up. One was stolen. One disappeared. One barely held itself together. But somehow each of them got me exactly where I needed to be. Maybe that’s what college has been too. A series of plans that didn’t quite work, mistakes that felt enormous at the time, friendships that mattered more than expected, and enough luck to make me question whether I deserve any of it. Four years later, I still lose bicycles; I am just less worried about losing my way.

As I leave, I finally own a bicycle that has survived, which probably means it’s time to go.

Written by: Harshit Srivastava
Edited by: Aadi Ajmera, Akash Baudh