Prince Kumar is a graduating Y17 dual degree student from the department of Civil Engineering. He pens down his time at IITK and how a major turn opened an entire new path for 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.
It was the chilling winter of January, the 4th semester of my degree when things changed for me. I started thinking about why I am here and what I am doing with my career. I started getting worried about where my life was leading. At the start of my IITK journey, I was an introverted boy who knew nothing about IITs, except that you get a high package job after graduating. I knew nothing about engineering except that there are a few branches, and you have to choose from them. When I came here, things were slightly different from my expectations. I was in a place where everyone was helpful and supportive in everything. Yet, somehow, I spent 1.5 years in my room doing nothing significant. I had a bad academic record. I had done nothing in any club or other activities. I had no idea what I wanted to do in my life.
Then I started stepping out of my room and making friends. I started enjoying my coursework. That semester, I got an A grade for the 1st time ever, and the following summer, things started changing for me. Now I had ALL pass grades IITK offered on my grade sheet. Starting from a CPI of 5.1 in the 1st semester, I reached around seven just before my internship season. That summer, I explored research and UPSC. This exploration helped me plan my career somewhat by the end of the summer. It’s never too late to figure out anything. All of this was possible because I had a good network of people this time. Having a network of people always helps you, whether in academics or your problems in the professional world. So I guess the moral of the story is:
You have to step out of your room to figure out something; no one will come to your room to solve your problem.
Joining a Body that is Most Criticized
In my 3rd year, I joined EC directly as a manager. There were a lot of challenges. Dear Recent batches, NO EC wasn’t the same always. It was a long way to go from changing the election system to building a team from scratch. And YES, I can PROUDLY say we BUILT it.
Working in a body that could punish students, we had many responsibilities. In the beginning itself, we failed; many things happened at that time. Many students were sent to SSAC, and the public reaction against us was apparent. You have to work for the people while they are criticizing you for the same.
Soon, EC came up with a new system and started preparing for the General Election without any 4th-year members in our team. All of us were from 3rd year. Just one day before polling, we experienced something unique at an IITK; we faced a crowd of more than 50 people shouting at us, and we had heated arguments. At this point, when we were only a 3rd year and below student body conducting the election for the 1st time, we had to think about every word we said. Although there were more than 50 people, none of them was aggressive. It is the beauty of IITK that we had heated discussions and arguments, but no one went violent.
Somehow we conducted that election, and that was the rise of a new election system at IITK. I became the CEO (Chief Election Officer), and COVID came; everything went online. I was in a position with administrative, executive, and judiciary powers in a single place. Usually, this is not the case with any system, but this is the most efficient that we can have with a student body. My idea for conducting an election is that you have to stop misconduct before it happens, and I was able to do that in the general election because of my team. They were just brilliant with their work. When 600 people are live at 2 am to see the results of the polls, it means your team has done a brilliant job. Online elections were one of the most engaging elections that I have seen in the history of IITK, and all of this success was because of the team. Everything changed during these 1.5 years in EC. We had a new system to conduct elections and a team truly dedicated to their work.
It is easy for people to criticize the body because they are getting punished for their misconduct, and that’s fine. The people who know the body is right won’t speak up. But you must have the courage to hold a position attacked by the people you work for. You have to be honest about your job. No one knows what wrong you have done other than you, so you HAVE to be a man of integrity.
Losing People is OK.
I am not the only one who has gone through the feeling of losing people in their life or failing in love. I am sure many like me have lost people in their lives for some reason or sometimes without any reason. I have lost people at various stages of my IITK journey, and I have had new revelations every time. I have cried too much for the people, overthought many things, and countless times I tried to resolve things, but somehow things ended, somehow some things didn’t work out. You won’t always find a reason why things end. They just do. You have to move on after a point in time because moving on is life.
The biggest lesson I learned in this journey is that you can’t be dependent on anyone. You have to be dependent on yourself only, and you have to understand that your happiness lies in you. You are the king/queen of your life. Don’t give this power to anyone. Don’t let them make you sad. But even keeping all these things in mind, never stop being social, always try to make new friends, step out of your room and do something. That something may be in academics, clubs, fests, anywhere.
It’s OK to be sad sometimes. It’s also OK to cry sometimes for someone. But don’t forget that you have to be there for yourself.
I am a big fan of Zakir Khan, so whenever I feel sad about relationships, I remember this line he said :
Har Rishte ki ek umar hoti hai. Jab woh umar khatm hot hai toh wo rishta bhi khatm ho jaata hai. Isme koi sahi nahi hai, koi galat nahi hai, koi acha nahi, koi bura nahi hai, koi VILLAIN nahi hai. MAGAR TUM HERO HO.
From the above paragraph, you may think my IITK life is like the life of Devdas, but it’s not true. I had lots of friends supporting me at every stage of my IITK journey. A wing that has always helped me whenever I needed them. They have always celebrated my happiness and supported me in my lows. A team that I call my family was with me, and lots of friends from my batch, seniors/juniors, without whom this journey wouldn’t have been possible. So, step out of your room, talk to people, and make friends that will make your life in IITK a memorable one.
What am I taking away from this place?
When I look back at my journey, I find that this place has given me things I haven’t even thought about. If I have to name the people am taking from this place with me, they would be; seniors who guided me and helped me figure out things, juniors who worked with me in EC and many who were not part of EC, my wingies who were always there for me, and some special people who helped me at my lows.
I also take myself with me; this journey has evolved me into a person who has the confidence to face anything in this world.
I call this place a goldmine; you can dig as much gold for yourself as you want, but you have to put some effort into finding gold.
Written by- Prince Kumar
Edited by- Tanya Soni, Bhavya Sikarwar
