Success in life really boils down to one metric, who can bounce back the hardest. In his story, Tej Prakash, a Y19 graduate from the Chemical Engineering Department, talks about the ups and downs that he faced in college life. As a part of the Antaragini Core team he provides his perspective on the IITK life and that makes this a very interesting read.
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.A Journey from 5.9 SPI in the first sem to Pre Placement Offer, graduating with 7.4 CPI. Initially, before coming to college, I had very low expectations in terms of placement, and after the first semester, it further deteriorated after my SPI came out to be so low, as I actively used to participate in various activities such as volunteering in Antaragni, Udghosh, Takneek, etc. However, in the second semester, the depression of the first semester prevailed, and the new policy of grading due to COVID saved my grades… I won, but at what COST?
We all used to be the toppers of our respective schools and I was no different, but this trauma prevailed and I couldn’t even focus anymore and it got worse with time, Still I carried on and my spi went like 5.9, 7.1, 6.5(yeah I didn’t have good connections in online sem), 7.8, 7.5, 7, 8.5, 8.75, So, in the last two offline semesters it was evidently better, as well said: “We can’t delete our memories, but we can CHOOSE what to remember”
Talking about the second semester, where we used to stay till 2 a.m. in NCL for simulation projects, that was a really new experience for me, and that momentary but memorable journey from NCL to Hall 13 in the cold nights of January really got on my nerves. Those night canteens were all thrilling after getting out of your home.
As we had much time in between those decisions for the opening of college after the immediate closing, I had enough time to learn Python, which helped me to secure an internship in CAMPK12 as a coding mentor that paid 38k per month which really boosted my confidence & overcome my inferiority complex as that intern had some other interns too who had already secured PPO from companies like Samsung Korea and many IIT B students. (PS: It’s not a flex for IITK peeps)
I used to focus on skill learning majorly, and even today, I feel that excelling in some skill, be it developing a website like Amazon, an app like WhatsApp, completing some machine learning project, or being a great video editor, helps us overcome the underlying insecurity of not achieving a high paying job. The third, fourth, and fifth semesters were completely online, so we had nothing much to flex about. However, the only thing I felt was that the lockdown happened at the perfect moment. Had we been in 12th, it would’ve been challenging to deal with JEE getting postponed, and if we were in our final year, it would’ve severely affected our placements. On the brighter side, we easily passed our most rigorous semesters online with the “collaboration” of batchmates, if you know what I mean. There were things that we used to do in online courses like ESO206 & CHE261, where we used to draw diagrams on a paper beforehand and just write the question number while taking the exam, and that actually added weight to the answer even if it was not relevant xD. Also, sharing your screen, live, with desktop audio on Discord with a phone screen in front of you would get you answers during viva. When I was in my 3rd year, I formed a group in HSO201 with seniors, and then I realised that we should never take final-year seniors in project groups (if you haven’t yet, you’ll realise it soon)… Also, in my last sem, there was a course, CS771, where the entire sem I did nothing but give some PPTs that I even read just 15 minutes before starting. There was a project in that course where we had to develop a model to translate Hindi sentences from a CSV file to English. If someone can guess what I did? I made a model using CHATGPT! which was as useless as first-year PORs, and since it never worked, I used Google API to convert all the texts and then submitted the assignment, claiming that it was generated using the code written before. There was also a viva for it, so I knew that even if I were going to show them the live model, it would take not less than 3 hours just to do the epochs in training, and then prediction could follow, so you got my point right 🙂…
I always had this sense of insecurity of lagging behind others that provoked me to fill out every single form sent by student gymkhana for any sort of internship, and during one of my internships, my mentor told me, “Haath pair vo hi marta jise tairna ni ata, tairna sikho”, so what I realised unknowingly is that I have explored so many fields like I did an unpaid internship as a graphic designer in the first year itself and also one internship as R&D intern in one startup that made me ready not only to swim but even dive in the water. All he meant was that we need to have expertise in at least one field, and being merely good in multiple fields won’t get us anywhere.
Head, Design Antaragni Core Team
During Covid times, I participated in a workshop organised by the DnA club, and that’s where my design journey started. As time progressed, I developed a good portfolio of some designs, and one of my friends, whose first name is the same as mine, referred to me as the ex-head design of Antaragni, and that’s how I became Head Design that somewhat helped me to secure a good internship in the second-week intern phase as I then had something to cover up for my low CPI, “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can ADJUST my sail to always reach my destination”. However, after coming to campus in the middle of the sixth semester, it became really hectic to balance such a position with academics, and after seeing my seniors who were festival coordinators, I realised their only aim in life is organising Antaragni and nothing else: xD. If you are going to be in any core team, you will feel it.
Also, I was sober and didn’t do any sort of “nashe”, and that somewhat weakened my bonding with many who were part of the Antaragni team, and that’s one reason why I didn’t continue in the Antaragni in my fourth year as the Festival Coordinator. Every time, I used to hear so much knowledge about different addictions we can have here as well as abroad. I used to judge a lot before coming to IITK, but after coming here, I realised it’s completely fine, and I might even try it someday. At least people are happy about it, and that’s what matters. Our end goal is ultimately HAPPINESS, right? As long as it doesn’t become a HABIT, it’s completely fine… Talking about the fest, It is really a privilege to have a metal Id card in your third year while the other third-year students don’t have that different level of flex. As we all once used to be toppers of our school and then suddenly became average people in our college, that feeling of being different is provoked during those four days of Antaragni with that walkie-talkie, just roaming around the events ground area for no reason with a dead walkie talkie to flex, group photo with Sunidhi Chauhan and Ritviz. However, I realised later that some stalls in the events ground had coupons for the core team, and I lost one day without freebies.
Talking about some series, I would suggest (a few of my favourites):
The 100
Queen’s Gambit
The Gifted
Legacies
Start Up (Kdrama)
The Untamed (Kdrama only if you like this genre)
Peaky Blinders
Stranger Things
Also, in Kdrama, I would suggest: my girlfriend is robot, my girlfriend is alien, business proposal, rich man, goblin, two worlds, mermaid, put my head on your shoulder, and in Turkish, I would suggest: The Promise/Yenim (one of my all-time favourites), Kuzey Yildizi (I don’t know why I liked this) & the list goes on and on… I think all I did in my four years was watch a hell lot of web series. I also played the piano and painted (check out my ig handle), and I loved playing table tennis. After coming here, I realised there are different levels of players, and the ones who are very skilled don’t wanna play with the noobs, and this is something where it feels like you are unwelcome somewhere. Just like in Pubg, where we don’t entertain noobs in our team as long as that is not a GIRL…
Last Year
A few of my best friends, including Varun Khatri, Sanket Kale, and Tarun Kanodia, were always with me. I cannot keep a count of so many others. The night-outs during Antaragni were the most memorable moments I would cherish all my life. I used to be with Sanket lately, who helped me with online as well as offline exams & had this whole Maratha gang (that’s what we called them). I never understood a word, but the bonding was deep with all of them. It was Varun Khatri who actually did my ESO207 assignment, which I could never forget. Also, I would like to mention Ambuja Budakoti, my co-Head Design, who is so enthusiastic to study that she is doing dual in the sustainability dept. I am done with studies now if I ever go for anything like higher studies, it will solely be because of Mazburi and not because of interest… who agrees?
My only regret in these four years was not having “bandi” in the college itself, and there was no success outside either. That’s a different story that I never asked anyone on campus lol. Those who are single will totally relate with me here. It sucks seeing couples everywhere, getting 0 hearts at puppy love, and this feeling is escalated during the fests… Whenever I meet someone, even those who were holding the topmost PORs say, “US BRO US”…. This is something where I need a junior’s advice🙂(only experts xD) .
A major lesson for guys who have been reading till the end is that once I used to think group study was useless, however, I realised in my last year that it’s not entirely the case, rather studying with your group might push away your distractions for a while. The best tip I wish I had gotten earlier would have been to contact as many seniors as you could and gather as many resources for the courses as there were courses like IME672, CHE362 where previous year questions would be asked, and CHE641, where we’d have the same repetitive assignments and all your saanp friends would have all the solutions and questions and have an upper hand. Believe me, nearly everyone has previous year’s question papers, but if you ask them, they might not be revealing… it’s something GAME CHANGER.
All the best to all whoever is reading this, and always feel free to reach out to me…🙌
Written by : Tej Prakash
Edited by : Zehaan Naik, Rudransh Goel
