Mugdha Arora is an undergraduate student of Y15 batch in the department of Electrical Engineering. She will be joining the Boston Consulting Group as an Associate. Have a look at her adventures at IITK.
It has been over a month since I left campus and these days haven’t been similar to the other 7 times I wrote the endsems and came back home. This time I know I’m not going back. Summing up these 4 years in a single write-up is as difficult as was the realization that they were over.
I had set three personal goals before coming to campus. First and foremost, branch change to CSE. Second, to pursue coding and finally to be seen as an extrovert girl. I had mostly been a socially awkward person growing up. Since my surroundings were changing, I felt it was the best time to change without being judged. I screwed up my first goal as I cheated on an ESC101 quiz and was downgraded in the course. (No, I’m not proud of it but the statement comes with no regrets because I want this article to be an honest piece, and my life has been fraught with failures and mistakes. Whose isn’t?) With one C and rest A’s on my grade sheet, I managed switching to Electrical, which, in hindsight, I feel so relieved about. My second goal only ceased to be a goal after years of procrastination when I finally received a pre-placement offer from Texas Instruments (which I later rejected to move on to management consulting). My days of relying on a coding job because of the dearth of core companies were over. As for the third goal, I nailed it!
IITK has a great level of acceptance for your level of social interaction and offers you immense flexibility as well. On a scale of Brandon Stark to Tyrion Lannister, you can choose to be anywhere at any time of your journey and you can happily survive. A senior of mine once pointed out: you could literally be locked up in your room for a week and then resurface to continue exactly where you left off; at no other point in life would you get such flexibility. As for me, I achieved my lifetime peak of social interaction in the first year, to an extent that my behens once quipped in the library, “Mugdha ko har paanch minute mein ek insaan ‘Hi’ bol kar jaata hai!” A lot of people in the campus would not relate to this side of me but it meant a lot to me to be able to connect to people easily. After discovering I could, I gradually decided I didn’t want to and narrowed down my circle to a small group of people I love to the core.
Being a girl in IITK has both its perks and perils. However, a neutral fact remains that you are reminded time and again of being a girl. The first time I realized this was during Freshers’ Inferno. I remember this Table Tennis quarter final I was playing against some guy (if you are reading this, sorry I don’t remember you) of some hall. It was amusing to witness a crowd of over 30 boys, shouting on top of their voices, hooting to the tone of “abey ladki se haarega kya!”. Table Tennis, however, soon became a constant part of my life on campus.
I spent a considerable amount of time on the TT court and with the team. In my first year, I saw issues with the functioning of the team which I wanted to resolve. In my second and third year, I got to work on some of them as a captain. In practicing regularly, playing tournaments, going to trips, going to treats, planning farewells and bitching about you-guess-who, I spent the time of my life. There have been people in the team I could (and still can) share every trouble with, go for life-gyaan to, party extensively with, go for department gyaan to and above all, trust with my eyes closed.
Unsurprisingly, I turned out to be a workaholic. In my first three years, I was involved with one or the other activity, mostly with the Games and Sports Council. As it turned out, I performed academically better in my most hectic semesters. Then came the elections for the post of General Secretary, Games and Sports. I took a lot of time to decide if I wanted to contest or not. I had great ambitions to work for the council, but elections and politics were not my forté. I ultimately decided to contest because I did not want to regret missing an opportunity later. However, it was too late and I horribly lost. I do not feel very remorseful about it for the experience was completely worth it. However, the year that followed was terrible. I had never been this uninvolved in campus activities and making peace with that was extremely difficult for me. Anyway, I grabbed on little opportunities to work.
During my four years, there was a lot that did not go according to my plans and there was another lot that I did not plan well. However, I seldom housed long-term grudges, regrets, or anger. As against a passive “whatever happens, happens for the best” mentality, I unintentionally came up with reasons that significantly helped me reconcile; and these were all sorts of reasons possible. When I could not score a double dassa to switch to CSE, I was happy because I realized that the effort the department demanded was huge and I, perhaps, did not even have the acumen for it. When the Counselling Service rejected me for Core Team Operations, I was happy when I learnt Sharmishtha Ma’am resigned because I felt I was drawn to working with her. (Lame enough, I know!) When I couldn’t make it as an intern to ITC in the third year, I finally made peace with that when I saw they gave out PPOs very late (in October 2018) and I would have been an indecisive wreck by then had I been in that scenario. You don’t want to be reading this but I promised you honesty! When I couldn’t get elected as the General Secretary, Games and Sports, my last bits of sorrow vanished when I was shortlisted for both McKinsey and BCG interview processes.
However, with all the false condolences you might offer yourself, you will always want a constant in life where you do not stumble, no matter what. This would keep you motivated and give you strength to face life as is. To me, this constant was academics. I have performed consistently throughout the 8 semesters. However, this could be anything for you- your sport, your passion for dramatics, your love for dance, your involvement with an SnT club, or even your habit of reading books; just make sure this one aspect of you always excels. Trust me, you will rarely have moments of dejection and it’ll always be easier to pull yourself up.
Life at IITK has been beautiful for me. I made friends who became family, I went to trips I wouldn’t forget, and I explored so much that I never had expected to. Late night bulla sessions, long walks, parties for no reason, cribbing over quizzes and discussions over the point of it all filled my life here on campus. There is so much more I could have done and there are so many ways my story could have been different in but there is not one good reason why I would like to change anything about anything. Everything I did, everything that happened and everyone I met shaped me in their own unique way to be who I am.
I am not very sure if I am supposed to be sermonizing here a lot but to all the juniors reading this: This campus will give you countless opportunities to grow and as a community, will never judge you for your mistakes or failures. Neither will one mistake lead to an accelerated journey downhill nor will one achievement lead to a rapid ascent. This might be the most levelled turf possible. So, take this opportunity to do all you can and all you want because with everything you do, there will be a little of IITK that will be left on you!
Edited by: Aditya Sonthalia
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