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In this 26th edition of As We Leave 2024, Parth Bhatt, a Y20 student in the Department of Civil Engineering, reflects on his time at IIT Kanpur. Parth’s narrative is a dramatic tale filled with late-night bullas, meaningful friendships, and significant achievements in dramatics.
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.
Sitting alone, away from friends and college life, when I sit back and recollect the last 4 years of my life, I can’t help but notice a pattern, my filmy, quintessential Bollywood-ish brain analysing and equating these 4 years with all it once aspired to be in, a typical ‘Yash Raj Films’ productions, with ‘Nukkads’ and ‘Bullas’; and ‘late night walks’ and BTs’, and of course a big star cast, and a befitting ending, with a lot of drama.
So ladies and gentlemen, or should I say, Aaiye Aaiye…
Welcome to the grand spectacle of my college life—a dramatic extravaganza unfolding at IIT Kanpur. I’m Parth Bhatt, and this journey is a symphony of emotions, drama, romance, and triumph, with a touch of SRK magic.
Opening scene:
The camera pans over,
Lights, check!
Sound, check!
Aaaaannnnndd, The scene is set……for an online class!
All thanks to COVID-19, the first three semesters at IITK were spent virtually, with Zoom lectures, online dramatics, and those legendary bulla sessions.
The dramatic, extrovert kid in me survived late-night bulla sessions and random interactions. Being a mimicry artist and a drama enthusiast meant I spent most of my time doing online dramatics, a decision that proved right till the last day of college.
I made friends, some that stayed till the end, some that didn’t.
Became a Student Guide and guided my bacchas, but the takeaway was that my CPI was quite decent, close to 8, which could be somewhat attributed to them too! That gave me a license to goof around and interact freely with my batchmates and seniors, many of them guiding me.
(Those crazy dumb-charades meets, Anjali, you were great competition)
Act one:
Fast forward to December 29, 2021—the grand entrance onto the IIT Kanpur campus.
Entering into a new world like Sushant in Chicchore (at least in my mind), with a background score soaring, I was ready to enter into actual college life with a bang! Perhaps not.
Being from Ahmedabad, the Kanpur weather was very hard for me to accustom to, adding to the COVID restrictions imposed. But that still couldn’t stop me from the chilly night-outs where I explored IIT Kanpur with my friends.
The 4th semester was laden with a lot of action. Having explored online dramatics till now, I laid my feet on the first time in the dramatics foyer, a place both famous and infamous for a lot of sound and chaos in the night, where we sang, acted, and danced out hearts out in our street play, Koop Mandook! Probably none of us would ever forget that day!
The inexperienced chaps we were at that time, we were blessed to be guided by a bunch of Y17 and Y18 seniors, Nipun, Rishabh, Piyush, Lokesh, Pulkit, Manan and many more!
(Two of my most cherished photographs, the latter being my laptop wallpaper for 2 years)
And, of course, a heartbreak—because that’s what Bollywood stories are made of 🙂
But I had a very strong support system to help me land back on my feet and start running again, to my 3rd year!
Act two:
At IIT Kanpur, and probably at all the colleges, the 5th and 6th semesters are where dreams clash with reality. And in my case, this is where all the drama began, either way. I took charge as the coordinator of the dramatics club, a place that was my virtual home from the 1st semester to my entire universe coming into the 8th. The last 2 years of the pandemic had weakened the base of Fursat Mandli but only strengthened the mindset. The following 4-5 months were spent figuring out ways to manage and improve things and cover up the inexperience. Unlike most clubs, Fursat Mandli is and will always be blessed with a strong team, with most ex-secretaries staying strong with the club right through thick and thin. Going into Thomso, IIT R’s annual cultural festival, we were short on some days’ preparation, eventually falling flat in stage play and street play preparations, and quite apparently, motivation collapsed. Despair and self-doubt sprang into my mind; I also had skin and back pain issues, and, like, after an aftermath with a villain, things looked like they were going nowhere. Academically and career-wise, I was stressed too, but I had learnt the art of time management, managing part-time internships, academics and dramatics, something which helped me a lot later.
But every time, there’s a family to rescue; we endured this, leading the charge with performances. Not to forget, we had strong support from our seniors, Y19s, Lakshay, Ghanshyam, Yatharth and Devang, and very capable juniors, the Y21s.
And our Alums, we did have a great experience and rapport with batches as senior as Y14 and Y15 to lay things back on track.
Inter-IIT was a good notch up, and we were on a very improved track, if not for a last-moment drama over permissions and the hassles over the local train, which caused some major hiccups and much more than that!
And that is when the real fun began!
The real Avengers Assemble! Almost everyone I regard as my family, a part of me, was part of that squad, an invincible part! Cometh the FIFA of IITK’s Dramatics, Antaragni’s national level dramatics competitions, and boy, we were more than ready. The result was 3 podiums in 4 events; we were the title winners!
I really enjoyed writing the songs for this one, bringing out the actual best out of me.
(Memorable, post-performance moments)
One piece of advice here to every junior: “invest in something that makes you leave your comfort zone, pushes you out of your rooms at midnight, and makes you great friends, a lot of learnings and memorable interactions.
Could be a cell, club, team or anything; go out with all your heart and passion, create a lot of value and make every moment of your 4 years worthwhile.”
And oh, I forgot, like every masala, and even a not-so-masala flick, there’s a lady charm.
True for the analogy, but much more for that, in terms of screen time and impact, as I was blessed to have someone to pack a significant punch in my story and lead the whistles for me, someone I owe a significant part of ‘special thanks’ to!
(Anushka, you were pivotal for me)
Also, I was preparing for the MnC Council “Institute Secretary, Performing Arts 23” position, where I couldn’t perform to the best of my potential and fell flat on my face, having a scoreline of 1-3-14, managing just 3 votes. Shockingly, and now amusingly, NOTA, with 14, was the winner, and that was where life went downhill. Self-doubt sprang again, and my confidence was reduced. Things looked dull, and motivation left the chat, but as I said, this story had a stellar cast to drive me out of trouble! The 3rd year had ended, and the story was getting serious by now!
The climactic showdown
Post my 3rd year, I was left with a choice, to convert to a dual or go for placements.
My branch of Civil Engineering and my lack of interest in it didn’t leave scope for the former, and here I was, giving tests and preparing pitch decks. I tried DSA twice in 2 years, practising day and night. While I was getting better, it didn’t appeal to me, and after long deliberations and discussions, I made the hard choice of letting go of SDE roles. Product Roles were a good match for my profile, interest and skill set, and now, it was just a matter of time before the real drill began. Having some great peeps with me to prepare and practice cases and give placement tests, stress divided, and the challenge seemed approachable.
Self-doubt and overthinking threatened to derail my journey at every turn, however,being a big fan of hindi literature, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar’s Rashmirathi had a profound influence on me,
जीवन का रस छन जाने दे,तन को पत्थर बन जाने दे
तू स्वयं तेज भयकारी है,क्या कर सकती चिंगारी है।
By the end of day 1, I was done, though dusted, but the pressure made me realise the importance of helping my friends, and I decided to give up on relaxation and help my friends get through, something that gave me a lot of satisfaction and which I continue doing till date! It is these people who make you realise the purpose of life, and hence, they go from being friends to family to a part of you, a big part.
(My core: Akshat, Shreyansh, Utkarsh, Rudraksh, Akhil, Shubham, Yuvraj, Sanskriti, Divyanshi, Vipul, Suyash, Anushka)
Dramatics didn’t take a backseat, though, as this year’s Antaragni madness made me compromise with placements a bit and juggle dramatics with preparations. As the club was finally on a winning track, we tramped our way to the top again, this time too, with 3 podiums, 2 of them being golds.
The next battle was Inter-IIT, where we bagged a bronze for our tally, and one more thing was ticked off my bucket list, an Inter-IIT Medal.
The last semester was a whirlwind of fun and nostalgia, which is very tough to describe in words, something that is well enough to make a grown-up hostel-staying engineer cry. Bike rides, concerts, jamming sessions, endless matches of badminton and cricket. DE, crazy photo shoots and the final dram-eve. Something I am very proud of, being able to be a part of every street play during my stay @IITK.
Re-igniting the Kshatriya Hall spirit in Galaxy and the resulting goosebumps and tears, discussing bizness plans with Shubham(SOCE), and co-anchoring the much-hyped and ‘PR’ed ‘Hall-1 ki Baraat’ as the pandit.
The Dramatics farewell, receiving the memento on the stage, the speech, the song, and being honoured to receive the Excellence Award in Art and Culture!
हज़ारों ख़्वाहिशें ऐसी, कि हर ख़्वाहिश पे दम निकले
बहुत निकले मेरे अरमान, लेकिन फिर भी कम निकले।
Memories, so much, but still so less, still enough to last a lifetime.
(Dehradun Diaries; performing the character I always wanted to portray; finally pulling off crazy mantras with Joshi after all those crazy mimicry sessions)
(The day etched close to my heart, bidding farewell to the club, and the sheer randomness with equally crazy juniors and colleagues, forging very friendly relationships )
Post credit scene:
Leaving the place was much much harder than I imagined, as I learned that bidding farewell is as tough a thing as one could imagine. Emotions flowed hard while seeing people leave, and while leaving myself, watching the assembled showdown of friends made me realise the true essence of friends and friendship. Each one of them made me a much improved, mature and better person (hopefully) than what I was a degree back!
And Fursat Mandli, my home, away from home, my identity, appears to be the ultimate void. This is when it hits me what they meant by being called a Fursatiya Forever,
“If I were to choose my religion in my next birth, if any, it would be Fursat Mandli.”
As I leave, IIT Kanpur seems like a dream—like a real movie brought to life, one hell of an adventure. Not what I had exactly perceived it to be; more of the lines of an Anurag Kashyap directed flick than an Aditya Chopra musical, but more entertaining and rewarding, though. Made me a lot more mature and mentally tough than what I was before.
I have immense gratitude for all the seniors having a direct or indirect influence on me, and to give it back, as I have liked and always loved doing, to everyone that could exist in this institute; Parth Bhatt, 200669’s doors will always be open for you.
Here’s to new beginnings and the promise of even grander adventures ahead.
With deep nostalgia,
Signing off,
Parth Bhatt,
200669,
Fursatiya Forever
Written by : Parth Bhatt
Edited by: Kumar Shubham, Vedanshi Aggarwal
Designed by: Sanyam Shivhare
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