Soumarup Bhattacharyya is a graduating Ph.D. student from the Department of Aerospace Engineering. In the second edition of As We Leave, he takes us into his unconventional life as a Ph.D. at IITK.
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.
Chapter One: The Initial Struggle
I decided not to take up my job and join IIT Kanpur (IITK) for my Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering. That was the only way I could have extended my college life, where I could enjoy the process of learning and working on my own time. To be honest, I found people more excited about me joining IITK for my Ph.D. than I was. My entire family visited me just after a month of joining the campus. Initially, during coursework, life was very streamlined, waking up in the morning, attending classes, going to the gym, and having food three times in Hall 8. However, after a couple of months, I realized that I was not the best of the students academically and must put in a lot of work to get things through. I was very good at sports even before I joined IIT, and I remember one of my friends asking me if I was studying in sports quota! (Disclaimer: Sports quota does not exist in Ph.D. at IITs)
After a year, I finished coursework and started full-fledged research. Managing my research alongside my passion for weightlifting seemed daunting. The next couple of years were hard labor without any fruits. On the academic front, I did not have a single publication. On the sports front, although I won several state and district championships, before the Inter IIT competition, I felt sick, and I couldn’t win Gold just for a few kilos. I remember dropping five kilos of body weight in one week during the competition and feeling like an alien with the added grief of missing an expected Gold Medal. To add to this, my friends who joined IITK with me for their Masters completed their degrees and left the college. This was quite a difficult phase for me, but I told myself, “This too shall pass,” and I strived on.
Chapter Two: Suffering from Success
The following year was a year of rewards where my publications started coming in and my room became so full of medals and cups that I had to keep some of them in my friend’s room. I even remember him lying to one of his friends that the trophies were his! Truth be told, I started having my stroke of lady luck in this phase as well!
Chapter Three: Finding Myself
I was cruising through reaping the benefits of my hard work when a mid-life crisis set in. While coming back from IIT Kharagpur after winning the gold medal, my team-mate suggested that I should take charge of sports at IIT Kanpur as the sporting culture of the campus was going down, and our performance as a team in the Inter IIT was dismal. After a thought, I gave it a go and contested the election for General Secretary of Games and Sports. During campaigning, I got to see so many sides of people that the entire process became a huge learning experience. I made so many friends, and I lost so many during the elections. Sadly, I heard one 1st year student saying, “Hum PG wale ko vote nehi karenge.” I have never personally seen this divide before. However, I won the elections by a huge margin, and I was the first Ph.D. student to become the General Secretary for Games and Sports Council at IIT Kanpur.
One month after I became the General Secretary, COVID-19 set in. All the plans and programs changed rapidly with every passing day. To keep the sporting community engaged, several online events were held. I remember IIT Kanpur winning the Fit-India challenge hosted by IITs and supported by actor Sunil Shetty. Several steps were taken for revamping the official handles of sports at IIT Kanpur and no stone was left unturned to do whatever could be done during an online semester.
Chapter Four: The Final Flourish
In the end, I was awarded Institute Blues, an award given for extraordinary achievements and tremendous contribution towards sports on the campus. Academically I ended up doing fairly well, bagging publications in reputed journals and winning an award at an AIAA conference in Chicago. I earned an opportunity to work at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, for my post-doc.
It is always about the journey and not the destination. Words can’t adequately express how important my friends have been to me over my six years at IITK. Without including our numerous talks on a variety of subjects during our lunch, dinner, and evening tea breaks, as well as the travels we have planned together, this journey would be incomplete. If they hadn’t given my life enough humor, jokes, and puns, my stay would have been dull and monotonous. The biggest reward is LOVE.
Written By: Soumarup Bhattacharyya
Edited By: Soumyadeep Datta, Aarish Khan
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