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In this edition of As We Leave 2024, Nishant Roshan, a Y20 student from the Computer Science department talks about his journey at IITK, from the online to offline classes, his experiences with different clubs and changing halls, and about the value of real friendships.
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.
My earliest memory of AWL articles goes back to somewhere in around the summers of 2021 when the Y17’s were graduating, and I was just another fresher kid trying to look up to their journey. Each year as the AWL awl articles were released, I took a genuine interest in reading a few of them and trying to learn from the mistakes of my seniors. But you know what, the funny part is that neither of those readings prevented me from doing my own part of foolishness nor do I remember any of the lessons from any AWL. So to be brutally honest, just like reading the AWLs of my seniors didn’t help me, reading anything I write here won’t help you ☺. So I’ll just be selfish enough to use this article as my own diary of my IITK journey (for the purpose of nostalgia a few years down the line) and do a bit of “gyan chodna” in between, for my juniors desperate to learn something here xD.
Me? I used to study all my days, and nights out to score somewhere among the highest CPIs in first year, while being the same guy who received plagiarism in multiple courses in my junior and final year. I have avoided the seniors I found indulging in drugs, while someday I had to be hospitalized for being too high on several substances. I once weighed 85kgs and once 70kgs. I have seen myself away and ignoring girls while also deeply in affection with one of them. I have seen all passing grades, been high on every substance available on campus and fallen asleep in every course I’ve attended. Read on.
Online, covid and first few semesters:
Y19 and Y20 are the batches which suffered the most from covid-19. Our jee was postponed by about 2-3months, our first 3 semesters were “study from home” and our minds were the most fucked up. Calling these beginning semesters as “college days” is somewhat farce. These were the days I was readily gaining weight, eating during the days and watching movies/web series during the nights. There were just two upsides of this online period. The first one, obviously we got to spend a lot of time with our families. The second one, we had lots and lots of time. This means that, even if studying was your last priority, you would somehow find time to study as there were not many other things to do. My only interaction during these days were with my few coaching friends and the IITK peeps in my hometown. However, these interactions were mostly limited to online chatting only. We managed to have a couple of meet ups with college peeps in my hometown, but that was just two or three times in total. This was the time I started playing guitar, playing lawn tennis and binge watching any series I started up with.
Just as every other first year student, I was trying to enter almost all the possible clubs and teams. Although it is easy to get involved in a club or society, it’s difficult to maintain giving effort and being involved in any of them. So ultimately though I was initially involved in a few teams, projects and made it to a secretary in a few clubs, I didn’t continue with any single POR in my 3rd year. The decision of whether to hold a POR or not, I would leave up to the reader. It all depends on your course load, your priority to socialise, and your interests. For me, the clubs in the online time seemed mundane. I may have been more involved in them, had things been offline, but still, I have no regrets about not being in one.
Having a good JEE background, I found most of the courses easy to comprehend with just a little bit of effort. Not to mention, this was the time, I was sweeping easy A and A* grades in most courses. The first blow to my confidence came in the ESC101 and ESO207 courses. These were coding and algorithm courses. This was the domain I wasn’t much exposed to. So here is the first bit of advice I would give to my juniors:
“Your success or failure in future does not depend on your successes or failures of your past. It just depends on what you are doing at present.”
So basically avoid being over confident just because you have been excellent in the past. You may observe someone way below you in the success hierarchy overtakes you soon enough. But this works the other way round as well, i.e., if you are finding yourself below a lot of your peers, then be assured that being successful is not their birthright. You may soon overtake most of them by some constant effort.
Campus, the 4th semester, and those H12 days:
It was the 4th semester when we saw campus for the first time. Believe me it was way more beautiful than I had expected. I still clearly remember my first day here: It was a fine morning in the first week of January 2022. All the roads were filled with fog and we had to walk from the Health centre to H12 after getting approval for our covid vaccination. That was the first long walk with my two other friends on the roads of IITK. Although my parent hall is H3, <3, we were made to stay at H12 for one semester as a part of quarantine during the covid. This was the semester I first attended an offline lecture at L20, gave my first offline exam and received my first and only D grade.
The Hall 3 days:
I decided to stay at campus during the summers after 4th semester and took up a course of HSS. These were the days all our batchmates were mostly busy in intern preparation, while I was managing the course, a project under some CSE prof, intern preparation and heartbreak, all simultaneously. Obviously when the intern tests started, my preparation was not up to the mark. I was almost certain of not getting an intern. However, my preparation wasn’t as fucked up as I had expected and I got an internship on the first day. Although all my friends and roommate had a better company in their basket, I bet they weren’t in as manic of a situation as I was in. So ultimately if I compare the efforts given vs results, I will say that I am satisfied there.
For our summers, 5th and 6th semesters, we were shifted to our parent halls. Mine was hall 3. One thing I can definitely tell you for sure, the Y20 is one of the most chaapu batch Hall 3 has received. Whichever wing you go to, you would see multiple people involved in several different campus activities. Some may be active in sports, some in senate politics, some in acads while others in GC. Maybe that’s the culture which hall 3 propagates. Maybe that’s the reason every other hall is spiteful of us. Leaving the GC and hall rivalry apart, it was a great experience being among the people of H3.
The 5th and 6th semesters at CSE IITK are one of the most hectic. Most of my time went into attending classes, preparing for quizzes and trying not to lag. It was sometimes intimidating when I used to see so many wingies around me being involved in so many campus activities, while I was just trying to cope up with my courses. For instance, my roommate himself was someone with a CPI almost very close to 10 in my same branch. Most of those days were spent in the inferiority complexes as to why I did fuck up. That was the time I, for the first time felt the regret that I should have focused more on CPI than on other things. In the retrospect when I look at those days I feel all the tension of assignments and quizzes were futile. Had I been a bit coolheaded, the results would have had been better.
So here is the final advice I would give to any junior reading this:
“Take any CSE related assignment, be it ML, systems or algorithm related, the most important step is to start it. If you think you are lagging in some concepts or theory, believe me, everyone is on the same boat.”
So rather than stressing about anything, just begin and keep on googling things you don’t know. In no time you will be deep into it.
The final year:
Although most of my wingies were moving to Hall 1 during this time, my closest friend circle was a group of guys whose parent hall was 2 and they were choosing to move to hall 9. In no time, I decided to move to their wing and chose hall 9. Believe me, sometimes being with chill and calm people is much better than being with the chaapu and active ones. These guys were not much involved in any campus activity like my previous wingies, however, I found joy in simple mundane activities with them. These could be a simple walk after dinner, or 10 guys sitting in a room and everyone having their part of humour.
These friends from Hall 2 are the ones I am going to take with me all my life. They are the guys I can rely on. These are the guys I can make fun of. These are the guys I can go on a trip with. One should always know that it’s not being chaapu or famous on campus which would give you pleasure. It’s having someone around you, someone you can talk to and someone you can rely on which gives you that pleasure. If you have friends like these, then having a girlfriend or a boyfriend becomes redundant. Having such friends is much better than being in a relationship, as these are the people you don’t “breakup” with.
So my final piece of gyaan:
“No matter what, you must make good friends here. These should not be the ideal chaapu people, but these should be the guys who belong 100% to you and with whom you feel a bliss”
“So whoever has sustained reading this article till this point, I bid my final farewell to ya. It has been a great journey. As I myself look forward to walk down another phase of life, I’ll always always be open for you. Whether I know you or not, just text me whenever you wish to, you will always be welcomed. Adios IITK!!!”
Written by : Nishant Roshan
Edited by: Himanshu Mahale, Sruthi Subramanian
Designed by: Sanyam Shivhare
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