As We Leave #26: A dreamer walked in, A seeker walked out!

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In this 26th edition of As We Leave, Divyanshi Bansal from the Department of Aerospace Engineering offers a tender reflection on the path she’s walked—one marked by choices, changes, and quiet strength. From logging into Discord during lockdowns to late-night walks on campus, her poem captures the essence of being part of a COVID batch—adapting to change, chasing dreams, and discovering strength together. A heartfelt tribute to the years that shaped her and the people who made it home.

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 IITK.

April 3rd, 2022 - a dreamer walked in

to a campus she’d only wished for.
Hailing from Kanpur,
IITK was just a few kilometers away,
yet it took her two years
to cross those twenty-two kms.
And three years more,
to find her footing
in twelve hundred acres of wonder.
Now—
a lifetime won’t be enough
to forget even an ounce
of what she lived here.

We were like soda bottles—

Y21s fizzing with pressure,
sealed tight with excitement.
Making friends online,
checking Discord like clockwork,
waiting for that one letter
from IITK,
That would finally call us
to our new home.
We waited, we learned, we gamed.
and somehow,
we passed our first semester.
Then, the news came—
the kind that makes you jump a feet higher,
“Welcome aboard to IITK”.

Packing bags—

with homemade achaar
a pinch of emotion,
a suitcase full of snacks—
we took off,
boarding our three-year-long flight.
we soared,
finding friends mid-air,
connecting across miles,
joining clubs & societies,
gossiping in hostel corridors,
spilling stories like tea at midnight.

Then came the clouds —

Heavy. Dark. Gloomy.
They called it “Internship Season”
And it blocked out the sun.
Stress hung low,
and every other table—
whispered the same thing:
PPOs, CTC, roles, ranks.
For me?
I dodged the storm,
chased the calm—
a fan of research,
waited for my magic beans
like James and Jill,
on a quiet hill.
In February’24,
I opened my fist,
saw the golden shimmer—
A boarding pass,
to the land they call dreams,
United States,
my wish found wings.

We all flew different routes —

to fill our bottles again,
this time
with the taste of working life,
a glimpse
of what adulting might feel like.
But no sooner had we returned,
another turbulence struck—
“Placements,” they called it.
We fastened our seatbelts,
held on tight.
Sweating.
Stumbling.
Falling.
Rising.
We somehow dashed through it.

Then—the skies calmed,

clouds drifted,
sunlight spilled across the aisle.
“Ready for landing,”
the pilot announced.
“No — we’ve gotten too used to it”,
I cried.
It had started to feel like home—
the mess tables,
the late-night walks,
the deadlines,
And even the drama.
It had started to feel like family—
not just the roommates and friends,
but the voices in the hallway,
the chai waale bhaiya,
The CCD cashier,
And the hall that never slept.

But change is the only constant.

So we landed.
But we were not the same.
We boarded young—
we landed younger.
We boarded crazy—
we landed crazier.
We boarded alone—
we landed together.