As We Leave…#14

Trishank Baghel is a fifth-year student (BT-MT) in the Aerospace Engineering department. Let’s have a look at his journey at IIT Kanpur and live the nostalgia and reminiscence with him.

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. 

I must have been in standard 7 when I first met with this term IIT and the entrance exam called IIT-JEE from my elder brother who was preparing for the same. Around that time only the movie 3 Idiots was released and that was when I first got to know a few things about college life. What inspired me the most back then was a very famous dialogue from the movie- “बच्चा काबिल बनो, काबिल, कामयाबी तो झक मार के पीछे भागेगी”. I may daresay that became my mantra from then on. Also, I feel very lucky to always find the company of hardworking and talented people who were really supportive of me. I have nothing but deep gratitude to each and everyone who helped me set off to this ongoing upward trajectory.

“अपने ही पानी मे पिघल जाना बर्फ का मुक़द्दर होता है…”

It was nearly 4 in the morning when I and my dad reached Kanpur Central railway station. I had come to Kanpur once in my childhood but didn’t remember much from that visit. My native place is in Kannauj, not very far from Kanpur city. My dad used to come to Kanpur in his youth before finally settling in Indore. For me personally, arriving in UP was like returning to my own roots. As soon as I stepped out of the train, I didn’t for a second feel like it was a new place. The chaos and the sight, all felt so relatable.

“मैं अकेला ही चला था जानिब-ए-मंज़िल मगर, लोग साथ आते गए और कारवाँ बनता गया”

After waiting for two hours at the station, one of my relatives finally came to pick us up. All the way I stared out of the window, trying to recollect memories from my last visit when suddenly, the car took a sharp left turn and stopped after a few meters. I heard the sound of an incoming train and asked my uncle how far the campus was. He replied that we had already arrived at the IIT main gate and I, to be honest, was more shocked than happy XD. Back then, I think, any first-time visitor would have found it hard to locate the IIT entrance from a distance. IIT campus was everything opposite to Kanpur city in terms of cleanliness or pollution. Ajinkya, a final-year UG at that time, used to live in my neighborhood and had told me beforehand about the hostels, rooms, facilities at IITK. So seeing the very confined living space didn’t startle me as much. Saksham Sharma, my student guide, became my first friend and I remember this one time when out of curiosity I went to OAT on the very next day of my arrival and he came looking for me there just to make sure than any senior year student didn’t catch hold of me XD. The first few days at a campus could be very tiring for any freshman, perhaps a bit more for Hall 2 junta XD. Queuing for quad sessions, sophomores sharing fundae on every aspect of campus life, mythbusters, all became a daily act. Indeed some seniors seemed to be scary during the first few exchanges but as time eventually flew, they became my best friends :’).

Academics at IIT Kanpur was one of the things to be honest I was a bit scared about. I had heard a lot about the rigorous academics of IITK from my mentors back when I was preparing. For the first few days, I was always a bit anxious about the courses and used to often question myself on how to find my own approach to tackle the situation. I still remember the disappointment on my face when I got my first MTH & HSS quizzes marks. I called back home and told my dad
everything. He listened patiently and reminded me of a very famous verse from Bhagavad Gita on karma and told me to accept, learn from failures, and celebrate even small victories in life. It took me a while to develop my approach and the experience has taught me to be a lot more appreciative of, tiny as they are, the good things happening. It happened a lot that in some semesters I performed well and in the following semester things turned really bad but only to get better again. Ability to perceive the various problems, academics, or otherwise, as an opportunity to grow takes time to develop and I was no exception. No matter how bad things may get, there’s always something positive that can be learned.

I had been taking an active participation in quizzing events since school days and was naturally inclined towards continuing it in college too. I became an active member of the Quiz Club and loved taking part in various inter-hall and inter-college events. Nihilanth, an inter IIT-IIM quizzing event that provided me not only an opportunity to interact with some of the best quizzing minds in the country, but also develop a closer bond with fellow club mates. I went on to become one of the club secretaries in my sophomore year. I also had short term engagements with Vox Populi, Prayas, and E-Cell around that time. While reporting the inter-IIT aquatics meet water polo match between IITK and IITB, I literally had goosebumps seeing the immense home crowd support and memories of it are still alive in my mind. In my third year, I took up the responsibility as one of the Robogames Manager in Techkriti. Robogames is one of the flagship events of Techkriti and making it a success was indeed challenging. Despite the many ups & downs in the process, I never lost the support of members in the team. Further, in my fourth year, I worked as Head at the Society of Aerospace Engineers IITK, which gave me a platform not only to implement my ideas but also hone up my leadership skills. Overall, these experiences helped me learn how to strike a balance between academics and co-curricular commitments. Owing to which, I continued to be a part of the SAE and SPO teams in my fifth year, leading as a UG Vice President and as a Department Placement Coordinator respectively.

In my third sem I took an HSS course under Prof. G. Neelakantan which helped me develop an immense interest in the field of literature. Prof. Neelakantan is amongst the most down to earth people I’ve met on campus. In subsequent semesters I took more English literature courses and would now graduate with a minor in it. While doing these courses I had a self- realization that it’s the interest in a course that matters the most. Constantly worrying about grades every time after quizzes, exams had become one of the reasons for my underperformance. Grades and everything else should account for the consequences, and not the cause. Sooner one comes to terms with this fact, easier would it be to make a way through. During the second year of summer, I got an opportunity to work under Prof. Sanjay Mittal on Sports Ball Aerodynamics. It was mainly an experimental study where I got hands-on experience in operating the National Wind Tunnel. The experience was quite enriching which further helped me to work on a company-funded project in my third year summers. In the 6th semester, I finally decided to convert my programme to B.Tech-M.Tech dual degree in Aerospace Engineering itself. The option of having a separate PG CPI which is often used for placement shortlisting, and also the privilege of being eligible for a greater pool of job profiles requiring either bachelors or master level qualification, helped me make this decision. The provision of doing a selective set of PG level courses also gave me an opportunity to efficiently plan the further academic course of action. In retrospect, the extra year I had because of the dual degree, gave me more time to figure out my interests, build up my skill set and certainly backed me in becoming a much more confident individual.

In my 7th semester, I took an elective course under Prof. Rakesh Kumar. Impressed as I was with him, it was around that time we were asked to submit our thesis guide selection form and I approached him for the same. He was highly welcoming and even suggested an experimental study on high-speed flows. I explored the supersonic jet facility and found the research problem a particularly interesting one to work upon. I was able to present my research work at the 6th National Symposium on Shock Waves, held at IIT Madras, which couldn’t have been possible without the support of my fellow NFSL IITK labmates. The individual lab presentations, group discussions were all indeed very helpful.

Of all the people, I am blessed to have around me the most humble, hard-working people, my fellow aero mates Tarundeep, Rishabh, Saakaar, Aditya, Yazur, Manish, Gurpreet, Ram who became my best buddies with time and were, hands down, always there to help me out fight my fears. I also want to thank others who have helped me through thick and thin and made my stay at IITK a memorable one :-). Though there can be no comparison among friends, there was always one person on campus, Aadrish Sharma, with whom I had innumerous bulla sessions and night outs. Though we attended the same school, it was only at IITK that we became best of friends. On day 1 of campus placements, he helped me a lot in giving a final touch to my interview preparation. I remember when I came out after giving the final HR round for the senior analyst profile at JPMorgan, being confident of the selection, he was happier than me and even started planning for the celebration as he was supposed to leave in a day or so. But things didn’t turn out as expected and I couldn’t make it to the list of the final four candidates. I was disheartened, but lucky enough to have a buddy like him to boost my confidence up once again. Thankfully, the next day, the celebration did happen as I was able to ace all the interview rounds and finally got an offer from Myntra Jabong.

My journey at IITK has surely been quite a memorable one filled with moments of happiness and sadness, achievements, and failures, but they all, each and everyone, count as an experience. The precious moments I got to share with my friends at IITK are no less valuable than a treasure, and I would keep on carrying the memories of them in my heart in this lifetime and beyond. A quote by Helen Keller perfectly sums it up – So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that life is good.

Written by:- Trishank Baghel

Edited by:- Dhruv Chhabra