As We Leave #27 : A tale of takeaways

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In this 27th edition of As We Leave 2024, Yashvardhan Rathore, a Y20 student in the Department of Material Science and Engineering, takes us through takes us through his journey of self-discovery. From navigating the challenges of a new environment to finding his passion in dramatics, he shares the unexpected twists, cherished friendships, and valuable life lessons that shaped his years at IIT Kanpur.

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 14th June 2019, results of JEE Advanced just declared and the dream of yet another JEE Aspirant got shattered. Well, it was one of the toughest phases since my family expected a lot from me. My scores in Mains & BITSAT were not good enough either. I started searching for what other options I have. A State Rank of 90 could only get me admission in the CSE Department of the best private college of Chhattisgarh, BIT Durg. I still remember the staff saying, “1st August se classes hai, subah 9 Baje aa jana”.

It was something I never imagined having happened to me. On 10th July, I decided to take another shot at my life, the last phase of Allen’s droppers’ batch was beginning from 17th. Grateful and glad that my parents supported me blindly in this decision of mine. Booked the tickets for 15th, reached Kota on 16th, joined classes from 17th July’19 and never looked back again.

Cut to post getting admitted in IITK

Our classes officially commenced on 18th November’20 and a tragedy followed immediately. I lost my grandfather on 19th November, Covid proved to be a boon in the sense I could rush to my hometown and be there with my family in their toughest phase, especially my father.

I lagged in academics and missed out on most of the fun events that followed for obvious reasons, and I really don’t regret it at all, the last rites of my grandfather were of utmost importance during that phase and my father needed me the most that time.

I missed out so much that I was added to my department WhatsApp group post first Mid-Semester Examinations. I hardly knew anyone in the college apart from my wingies. However, the MSE group welcomed me quite warmly and I finally had my first set of friends by the end of first semester. I too started having all night online Bulla Sessions with them and finally found a way to escape from the concept of ‘fear of missing out’.

I never cheated during my 1st year at college and proudly accepted my Cs in MTH & PHY103 and D in LIF. I was still in the delusion that I have conquered JEE and that’s it, my life goal is achieved, it doesn’t matter what’s your CPI here, after all you’re an IITian, this was soon broken when I reached campus on 30th December’21.

Post reaching campus, things changed drastically, especially for our Batch, Y20s. Most of the people came to know that who were their real friends, as once you are offline, your priorities are no more private to you, they become public, and it was hard for many people to digest the fact that the equality of our set of online friends & offline friends did not hold true.

However, I was lucky/grateful enough that I always had my wingies to fall back upon and my online interaction was limited to very few people, which made the transition easier. ‘Always expect the worst and you’ll end up staying happy’, is one of the Ideologies that I believe in, expectations kill joy.

‘Fursatiya Forever’

I had performed in my school a lot and wanted to explore dramatics here too. It was in online mode that I became the Secretary of the Dramatics Club. It was definitely a huge learning curve and I’m glad/proud to have taken that decision, no regrets at all. Well, things changed quickly and drastically when we came offline as secretaries of Fursat Mandli. The long practice hours were something very new to me, but I enjoyed the interaction and the common goal of learning & growing as artists held us together.

Not everything was so smooth, we had to mentor Y21s in a fresher event and every 2-3 secretaries worked as a team by having a set of juniors as mentees. A multilogue and a sketch was to be performed by them under our guidance. In one of the online meets, while mentoring and giving tips to improve to Y21s, I fumbled, I fumbled bad, even said lines which were not meant to be, I immediately turned my video and mic off, just listened thereafter, my team handled it well after that, but I fell into the deepest well of self-doubt. That phase was tough, and I kept doubting what impression the Y21 batch would be having of me, that mole of self-doubt, though much smaller now, still remains.

One can always make mistakes, even while mentoring, be it a senior from any batch, after all we’re human beings, what matters is how you take it, you can be in an endless loop of self-doubt or decide to move on and forget it as a bad dream, which is definitely not easy, you just need to be around people who believe in you & lift you up. Talking it out to them may be tough, but it’ll definitely be helpful.

Nevertheless, once the Covid outbreak settled in campus, we were all set to perform our first Nukkad Natak, ‘Koop Manduk’. What a blissful experience it was, I consider it as a privilege, not everyone gets it, especially under the tag of ‘Fursat Mandli’. The endless night outs of practice, Y19s, Y18s even Y17s in their last few days at campus, were all putting everything they could to make us learn what actually Dramatics Club, IITK used to be (before Covid). The Chai-Aloo Paratha breaks between practice gave us yet another core memory, the experiences that Y17s-Y18s shared was worth listening to, Y19 Coordinators were always there for us. The energy of the people there is surreal.

Performing a Nukkad, makes you ready for the toughest situation you’ll ever face in campus, the bonds that you make, remain forever. I just performed one Nukkad in my entire time in Fursat Mandli and never went to practice post that due to my other priorities, yet the connections rather friendship remains, even in my final semester, they made me feel like I never left. No junior has ever seen me perform live & I missed performing again with these people.

Once a senior said, ‘Dramatics Club kuch nahi toh Time Management zarur sikha deta’ and I can proudly second that now, by saying the same to my juniors.

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Right-Arm-Fast, Institute Cricket Team

I have been extremely enthusiastic about cricket since childhood and played tennis ball cricket in my hometown, mostly as a fast bowler. After coming here, I decided to give it a try but professional cricket here was literally a different ball game altogether. It was the first time that I played with a leather ball.

We were just in campus, around January’22, some of the cricket enthusiasts from our batch went to the PE Ground to explore the facilities we have. We went to the cement pitch in the nets and were playing with tennis ball as we used to play in our halls. One day, the institute team was practicing in the main pitch (open nets) and when we entered the ground, the coach called us and wanted us field for the team, although the ball was different, fielding is something I always enjoyed. Post the session, the coach asked us our expertise in the game, I said I’ll bowl leg spin, as I knew this ball was heavy and I cannot ball fast without proper control with it. But, as soon as I bowled my first leg spin delivery, I knew I’ll be thrown out of here as the bowl didn’t pitch, it directly reached the keeper’s gloves as if I was giving a catch. I tried again, no control. The coach then asked if I could do something else, then I told him that I used to bowl fast with the tennis ball. He said to try the same with this ball too, I was a bit anxious at first but thought that anyways I’ll be out so why not give it a shot. Then I took my run-up and bowled with all the effort I could, the ball pitched this time and bounced to a height no one expected, everyone looked with a shock, and the coach said to come again. I once again bowled and everyone was again taken aback with the pace the ball travelled, I couldn’t believe that it was this easy to bowl with the leather ball. The coach asked me to come for team practice from the next day.

I bowled out the captain of the Institute Cricket Team during my first practice session & soon became a permanent member of the 16-member squad that represented IIT Kanpur in Cricket. I got my first gold medal in Udghosh’21 (1st to 3rd April’22) without playing a single match, chicken dinner with zero kills as you may call it, kind of Khaleel Ahmed in this T20WC. This was followed by another gold in Spardha’21 (IIT-BHU Sports Fest: 15th to 17th April’22) and yet another gold in Udghosh’22 (14th to 16th October’22), in which I had significant contributions. By the time we reached Inter-IIT, I was the lead pacer of the team, it was something I could not even imagine in my dreams. My first two overs in our opening match were maiden, first one being a wicket-maiden, though it didn’t matter much because we soon got eliminated in our first knockout game. That phase taught us a lot, maybe we were just too overconfident and considered others too weak.

The next year’s UDGHOSH was meant to be forgotten, we stood 4th, nothing to be proud of as we lost two consecutive medal matches. I injured my left ankle & right groin during the last match of the tournament. Whenever I tried to practice, the pain would come up, even after days of resting. I wanted to play my last Inter-IIT anyhow, but I couldn’t even show up for a single practice game between Udghosh’23 (6th to 8th October’23) and Inter-IIT Camp (26th November), which made my chances of selection worse. But I wanted to play anyhow, then I figured out that if my leg fits very tightly in my shoes, my ankle won’t get strained, that was it. I wore 4 socks on my left leg along with an ankle support to start bowling. Eventually things started working out. My role was changed from an opening bowler to a death one. I knew my groin was weak, I wore crepe bandage tightly across my right groin too, to avoid any mishaps. I started playing some matches in the camp and was super happy that I was able to bowl with my full strength and also did justice to my assigned role, finally my ticket to Gandhinagar was confirmed. Meanwhile, my teammates and captain always had my back, they trusted me & my skills blindly.

Then came the ultimate, IISM’23, in which we finally earned a podium finish. I played the entire tournament with the same setup, 4 socks & an ankle support on my left ankle & a tightly wound crepe bandage across my right groin. Though we completed our revenge with Madras in the 3rd Place match, our team deserved to win Gold. We lost the semi-final against Roorkee by just 1 run, when 2 were required off the final delivery. I ended up being the second highest wicket-taker of the tournament. This tournament will always remain closest to my heart as I was not fit enough, yet the team backed me and brought the best out of me and ofcourse, we finally got an Inter-IIT Medal before leaving.

I still enjoy bowling and very recently clicked approximately 135 kmph during a practice session. So, if you want to face some bouncers, I am always up at 9179234505.

Cricket taught me that one should always try whatever he/she likes or has the passion for, you never know where you’ll land if you don’t even give it a shot. I never bowled with a leather ball before IITK.

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Counselling Service

Well, after I was done with my secretary tenure at Dramatics and was finally settled in the Institute Cricket Team, it was now time to do what I dreamt of from 1st year.

I would not be lying when I say that, from the day I became a Student Guide, I always wanted to become a Core Team Member just because things seemed so easy from their point of view, you just order the AMs/SGs and the job is done, I too wanted to do what they were doing. When I applied for the post of Core Team Member, I didn’t even know that there’s something called Position of Responsibility (PoR) in college and people can mention it in their resume, I was so underexposed.

Well, things fell in place somehow and I was finally a CTM. The year after that was the most memorable one, I only knew 1-2 of my 21 teammates but soon after ‘WE’ clicked. My work ethics helped me gain respect from my colleagues, my coordinators too & soon I was friends with most of them, yet I would not say that I gelled up very well because I had my cricket practice all year along & that somewhat refrained me from giving those extra bonding hours to my team, yet they never ever made me feel left out & took good care of me all year along, after all it was CS.

Guidance work was something I really looked up to, I loved talking to my mentees and it was one of the best things that CS did to me. When you talk to students struggling and know what they’ve actually gone/going through, your own life seems so simple and easy, you feel privileged, you start acknowledging/noticing all the small, good things that have happened to you and you become grounded. One must not always wish something to God, sometimes we just need to thank them for whatever has happened/is happening, if everything seems right, just thank them, you don’t always need to wish for things to happen.

When we finished selecting our new Core Team (Y21s), I attended a few of their meetings. I admired them a lot, they gave me the motivation to climb a step higher and to go for the post of Coordinator, Counselling Service.

When I became the Coordinator, I was much more confident than in the case of a CTM. I was a huge fan of all my co-coordinators who soon turned into my best friends on campus. I made up for the lost bonding hours this time. They were the four gems whom I’ve always looked up to & were always there whenever I needed them to be. My junior team was adorable, always super proud of them, they made me learn so much and honestly speaking, my coordinator tenure made me grow much more as a person than my CTM tenure, maybe because of spending more time together with the team, better connect with the Head, CS and of course hearing to the perspectives of my junior team, all added up. Writing of the junior team reminds me of Y22s, they’re even more adorable, glad about them already, they just make me feel older. My Team here (Y19s, Y20s, Y21s, Y22s) gave me perspectives that I could’ve never imagined and depths I would have never dived into, glad that I met them.

From not getting an Orientation ourselves to conducting 4 Sky Photos (Y20, Y21, Y22 & Y23), we graduated. CS literally gave me the best set of people to bond to and connect with and I’ll forever be grateful for it. It was always about the people that make CS what it is, and I am really glad that I was a part of it.

Will never forget the DE Practice sessions and the walks that followed during the last semester, yet another core memory.

Intern Season

Honestly speaking, I never prepared properly for my internship drive. I focused on just doing the things which I had in my hand, in the best possible way. I was delusional and believed in the fact that I had enough on my resume, relied too much on those two gold medals, PoR of CTM & Secretary Dramatics Club and some normal SnT, PPOC projects, but I later realized that this was never enough for a Non-Tech profile. I hardly had any knowledge of DSA. Once the season started, I felt the importance of CPI too, it was 7.3 after my 4th semester.

Not getting shortlisted for interviews never really bothered me throughout the drive, I was happily enjoying the success of my Wingies and my co-Core Team Members. I was so engrossed in CS and my Cricket practice that I never focused on preparing seriously. I considered that I didn’t deserve an Intern as I saw others who had prepared seriously and are still struggling, that phase was more tough for them & I tried to help in every way possible. There was always a sense of self-doubt that my resume was really that bad that I didn’t even deserve an interview, but I had things which kept me busy and that helped, by not getting a chance/time to think about it.

Soon the spring semester started, and I was yet to get a call for my first interview. Back of the mind I knew, this is the make-or-break phase and hence decided to leave cricket for this semester and focus on myself completely. Yet, even in Phase-II, there was not much movement. I enjoyed my MSE Labs a lot & wanted to explore the Core Sector. Schlumberger (SLB), Tata Steel, & SAIL were few companies in my mind that wanted to target and Vedanta & JSW had already hired.

And luckily one fine day, SPO organized its first Placement Fest, called Samvardhan and SLB, previously Schlumberger came out of nowhere. The took resumes on a google form sent via mail and I was glad that could update it with my latest CPI of 7.5 and added all my MSE DEs in the relevant coursework section, I took four of them simultaneously in my 6th Semester to get ready for placements at least.

My resume finally got shortlisted for the first time & I got to know this when I received 5 missed calls on my phone to come to the GD Round that morning. I knew that if I get shortlisted in any company, I’ll definitely convert it. I had that much self-confidence in me, though I never imagined that it’ll take so long to get an interview. My GD went significantly well, and I was finally called for my first Interview. It was a fun experience as I fumbled a bit when they talked around my projects but as they moved towards my achievements in cricket and tenure as a CTM, I gained the confidence back. I even delivered my only dialogue from ‘Koop Manduk’ during my interview. Finally, I ended up having an offer till the evening.

One thing that Intern season taught me was, that if you are doing justice to what you’ve actually signed up for & doing it with full commitment, eventually things will fall into place in some way or the other. Enjoy others’ success and never blame someone else for your own shortcomings. Not giving up till the very end kept me going and I finally got my chances.

‘Academics – 1; Extra-Curriculars – 0s following it’

My CPI after 3 online semesters was 7.5 and I was cruising smoothly around it (7.5, 7.6 and 7.4 in my first three semesters). Things got overwhelming when I got here. I was secretary at the Dramatics Club and a fresh member of the Institute Cricket Team too. So, from 06:00 PM to 09:00 PM I had my daily cricket practice followed by Nukkad Practice from 09:00 PM to around 03:00 AM roughly. I was having real fun doing both the things simultaneously, but that made me miss my early morning classes (and sometimes dinner too) of MSE202, which is one of our toughest DC. My CPI was ready to take a blow and I ended up with an SPI of 6.8 in my 4th Semester. It was not just CPI that had fallen, my weight got down from 78 Kgs to just 65 Kgs during my first offline semester at IIT Kanpur.

By now I knew that I had to give up some commitments, I became a CTM and enjoyed cricket a lot so had to suppress the desire of performing arts and with a heavy heart decided to not continue Dramatics anymore. The Club taught me the most though, be it punctuality, time-management and work ethics which helped me a lot in managing CS and Cricket together.

I wanted to improve my academics without compromising both of my 3rd year commitments at all. Plus, I never wanted to miss any of my classes & regretted a lot if it happened by chance. So, from my 5th semester I decided that whatever be the scenario, I won’t be missing any of the classes. Also, during the academic hours, 09:00 AM to 05:00 PM, you are not bound by anyone, and no one will ever tell you to miss classes for any event/practice, at least from my experience in CS and Cricket.

I did try the same and it helped me a lot during Mid-sems and End-sems. I did not just attend classes but also made notes & tried to get clear of the concepts taught, then & there itself. It was a bit difficult at times, especially during my 5th semester but I tried. Finally ended up with an SPI of 8.0 and my CPI again reached 7.5.

I followed the same strategy in my 6th & 7th semester, but it was more robust this time and the courses too were of my interest, be it the 4 DEs in 6th or the 5 OEs in my 7th semester respectively. Attending classes regularly and paying attention made my Mid-Sem and End-Sem Preparation much easier. It was mostly the night before and sometimes just a few hours before the exam that I started to study. It worked perfectly well again, and I ended up with very decent SPIs thereafter.

So, the secret to time management is attending classes regularly and patiently listening to it too, I know your friends would be mad at you at times saying, ‘Final year mein class kon jata hai’, but if you don’t want to compromise on your commitments as well as academics, it is the best possible way.

‘General Gyaan'

In the end I’d just like to say that don’t regret whatever you do in your entire campus life, everything happens for a reason, and it’ll definitely make you learn and grow as a person in some way or the other. Explore whatever you’ve thought of doing on campus and do it as soon as possible, these 4 years will go in a snap and in our case, it was just 2.5. Your wingies will always be there irrespective of the situation you’re in, so try to be there for them too whenever possible, you’ll carry this special bond to places & for the longest of years.

Many juniors ask that will this XYZ Club Secretary/Coordinator PoR help me in my internships/placements, which is quite natural. But please do remember that the only pre-req IITK asks/sets to be a member of any club is ‘Enthusiasm’ and the sole reason for that was the fact that people should come to clubs to explore their own interests in that respective field, to learn/know more about that, to interact with people with similar interests to widen their perspectives, to grow as an individual in multiple aspects and not to get an edge in Internships/Placements. It’s my humble request to all the juniors that don’t ever join a club/society/group for the sole reason that it’ll help you in your career, join it because that particular area/topic excites you, you’re very much interested in it, you feel relaxed there, you feel a sense of accomplishment, you like the work there or you just enjoy the vibe of the people/place there. Please #SaveTheCulture.

Also, do explore relationships if you ever get a chance to, I feel college life is the best time for it and there’ll always be some selfish reasons to help/bond with you in your professional life to come. I personally wasn’t involved in any during my college years, but I did wish to at once, I had a crush since my 3rd semester, glad I could stay loyal to her till the very end. I never confessed it to her (yet) but the way she handled me (& my weird efforts) and even reciprocated them was mesmerizing, probably the cutest girl I’ve ever met.

I’m always available on +91 9179234505, be it reviewing resumes, preparing for GDs, getting insights on MSE Courses & Professors, ranting something out or even just chatting, you can always ping me!

Thank you so much if you made/read it till here, I am super happy & glad that I could keep you engaged till the very end. I didn’t want to compromise on what all I’d like to share, that’s why I didn’t care about the number of words, sorry if it felt long. A very special thanks to Dhriti too, my AWL editor, for bearing me since 26th April’24, when I shared my first AWL draft to her, she’s been a constant support throughout, thanks Dhriti:) & sorry that I couldn’t cut down on the number of words:’(.

Signing Off,

Yashvardhan Rathore (201154)

Written by : Yashvardhan Rathore
Edited by : Dhriti Barnwal, Kushagra Srivastava
Designed by : Sanyam Shivhare