Disclaimer: Vox Populi, IIT Kanpur, is the exclusive owner of the information on this website. No part of this content may be duplicated, paraphrased, or interpreted in any other way without written consent from Vox Populi. If you want to reproduce any of the content on this page, please contact our chief editors directly or reach out to us by email at voxpopuli@iitk.ac.in.
In the 28th edition of As We Leave, Ruthvik, a Y22 student from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, writes about his four years at IITK – starting off rough in MTH111, somehow ending up on exchange at EPFL, and everything messy and fun that happened in between: the fests, the friendships, a brief stint trying to “build a startup,” and way too many trips to Mama Mio.
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.
Hey there. Before you decide to dive into a fat read of how I spent some of the best years of my life (I mean, I’m only 21, but never mind) through my eyes, let’s get the formalities out of the way. I’m Ruthvik, and I did my Undergrad in Computer Science at IIT Kanpur. I’ve been to five different schools throughout my childhood across the US and Hyderabad before eventually ending up at IITK. I’m trilingual and I speak; okay, blahh, boring right? Let’s roll now.
(P.S. this isn’t going to be an Indian Idol sob story or a literary master piece, college was surprisingly nice and simple to me 😉 )
Looking back, I think the universe was subtly foreshadowing that I would get into IITK years before I actually did. When I was in 9th grade, our school introduced us to an experimental physics competition called Anveshika. It was headed by Prof. HC Verma. Fascinated by the exposure, I used to look at his work and talks and think that this place seemed pretty cool. (Strike One)
Fast forward to 2020. The time when I used to help my parents disinfect vegetables because apparently the virus could be hiding on a cucumber waiting to end us all. One evening, while I was solving some problems the doorbell rang downstairs. My aunt had arrived and called the entire family into the living room because she had “important news” to deliver
My cousin was getting married. “To a girl from Kanpur,” she announced.
“Kanpur?” I asked. “Which state is that in?” (Strike Two)
Two years of grind and the carcass of multiple competitive exams later was the week before JEE Advanced. I felt that my brain was numb at this point and felt that I couldn’t even solve simple questions. I was keen on sleeping at least for 8 hours every night but the night before advanced I barely got 4 hours of sleep. Oh boy I did not know this was a terribly good amount of sleep before an exam until I came to college. Advanced happened, the awkward testimonials happened and then there was JOSAA. I thought I was getting into IIT Kgp after both the mock rounds and made my peace with it.
But then fahh, during the first round I got IITK (Strike Three!). The (10 8 6) grading system, the academic rigour rumours, and especially my broken hindi. Panic set in. A south indian with 3 middle names is going to spend the next 4 years in UP, for lordsakes, I thought. Talking with some of my seniors made me at ease and before I knew it I was in Kanpur. A lot happened in the very first week itself, from my first meal at IITK being Hall 13 ka Khadi Pakoda to one of my wingies laughing hysterically by yelling “Khambal me hua Royal Rumble!” and all of this left me with just one loose thought:
Oh hell nahh.
This feeling was complemented by the bombardment of Quantum Physics and Single Variable Calculus. Oh, what a holy combination the CSE and MSE folks had that semester. I was late to the very first classes of both courses, and the 5-10 minutes I missed felt like an eternity of content. I lowkey enjoyed Quantum, but boy was it confusing.
I was slowly getting used to the wing culture and the conversations. Counselling Service did a pretty great job of making sure we had people from every corner of the country in our year. Before I knew it, the first quiz of MTH111 happened. I thought I did great. I was terribly wrong. The copies were distributed by calling out each name one by one in a packed L7, and with every name announced, my heart thudded louder. And alas, came my copy, a 5.5/15. I was like, hmm, maybe this is not so bad, and came back to my wing only to find out that yes indeed, it was bad XD.
That was probably when the academic doubt started creeping in. Was I only good enough for JEE? I remember calling my family and lowkey self-loathing for a while, and thankfully, that phase didn’t last very long. Academically, it became a downward spiral till the midsems. But at the same time, I was slowly getting used to the place, making new friends, and somehow still having a pretty solid first semester. The lab coat and Chem Lab made me feel very Heisenberg, though most of it was just standing outside in the sun waiting for my pigment to dry. Slowly, it started getting colder, and the morning classes with attendance became an absolute nightmare to wake up for. But I loved the winter. Maybe Jon Snow didn’t know how fun winter actually is.
This was also the time of NCC. Discipline? Vo to tha hi nahi. We used to constantly look for ways to escape. The only motivation we had to stay till the end was the 10 Rs wala Frooti, but honestly, no amount of Frooti was enough for me to stand in that uniform under the sun.The semester rolled on with a fun DJ night and eventually the end of MTH111, phew. I survived the second half of the sem as well and slowly started feeling better about myself. Then came the second semester, which started with two absolute banger fests back to back. Oh, the “Jeene Ke Hai 4 Din” wale stories just wouldn’t stop, and lowkey, the fests became some of my best times at IITK. Roaming around campus till 4 AM somehow started feeling normal.
But the energy drop after the fests is one of the worst things ever, especially if you have TA111 in the same semester. I used to think I was good at art and drawing, but with a drafter? Not so much. I can still remember how exhausting it felt cycling to the TA labs and Physics labs during peak summer.
That semester flew past surprisingly quickly. One thing I distinctly remember was an E-Cell competition I attended with my roommate Rohan and Anurag. We pulled an all-nighter, probably one of our firsts, trying to “build a startup” because yeah, apparently it’s that easy, right? We ended up modifying a Meesho ad with our logo and somehow finished as runners-up. We felt insanely proud of ourselves and simultaneously terrible for the blockchain enthusiasts we beat.
Before we knew it, we weren’t the freshers on campus anymore and I was already in my second year. I couldn’t become part of CS because I absolutely failed at controlling my laughter during the roleplaying part of the interview. The interviewer was dramatically going, “Please speed, I need this, my momma kind of homeless,” and the fact that he was such a committed actor made it impossible for me to keep a straight face. I completely screwed it up.
But honestly, moving on from that meant I got to experience Treasure Hunt from the other side, and that was insanely fun. I was a secy at ELS by then, so I had already made a solid group of wonderfully jobless friends, and I spent most of Treasure Hunt with Sidhant. We genuinely didn’t want the juniors spending money on us, but some of these papa ki pari kids somehow got us a Ferrero shake from Mama Mio just to qualify for the scavenger hunt round. Huh? Okay. Juniors passionately dancing to “Hey Garmi” for a hint we didn’t even have felt absurdly powerful. Maybe this is what being a slave master felt like. Running around the entire campus all night and chilling at DoAA Canteen in between will honestly remain a core memory.
Around the same time, I got nerfed by the campus zombie apocalypse itself – pink eye. The kaala chashma phase kicked in, and this ended up being the only time in four years that I visited HC for myself. I lost all hope in HC healthcare when the doctor somehow finished writing the prescription before I had even removed my glasses, lol. ESC lab was also happening during this time, and the only real joy in those labs was when somebody accidentally exploded a capacitor. They say all humans are secretly sadistic; I think this was my version of it.
While I was somehow dragging myself through the semester, a message suddenly popped up in the ELS group from Gauravi, who was a coordie then: “Koi RDV jaane me interested hai?” Screw the events and the club, I thought immediately. A chance to attend a fest at IIT Delhi? That sounded fun. I reacted with the most emotionless thumbs up possible, but the trip ended up becoming one of my favourite memories. I made some genuinely great friends there, Mayur, Ishi and Nandini, and we somehow managed to get the perfect Delhi experience, both the good and the bad ;p.
On coming back, I had to fulfill my duties as a part-time E-Cell secy and helped organize UpStart along with Akshita. I had already assisted with the conduction of the UpStart Hyderabad chapter during the holidays, but this felt like the final boss. I saw some familiar founders I had met earlier and listened to pitches from all these investors. So if I ever start my own company someday, y’all know I’ve been sufficiently motivated by now ;p. Galaxy was also somewhere around this corner and I’ve lowkey started vibing with juniors atp, this is where I met the unlucky me Nikhil.
During this semester itself, we had CS201 taught by Prof. Manindra Agrawal. This was when we were introduced to the concept of classes with dinner. The prof used to take classes late in the evening, and we’d get a dinner break where he treated the entire class to burgers and pizzas. Felt too good to be true, right? This was also around our first Diwali on campus, extremely festive vibes. The campus lit up with lights for one reason or another, and honestly, it kept morale surprisingly high. October 2023 was genuinely one for the books.
Endsems passed, the break ended, and suddenly we were stepping closer to intern season, though at that point it still didn’t feel very real. Coming back to campus also meant more involved DEs. We were messing around with FPGAs, which was actually pretty fun this time. The cold kicked in, and the occasional bonfires here and there became some of the most soothing things to exist.
This was also around the time Samay Raina visited campus. Oh, I still remember that stampede like it was yesterday. I was sandwiched between two big sweaty men (an absolute nightmare for me) and involuntarily pushed through the entry gate. Then the mail dropped saying the event had been cancelled.
“Jab artist aa gaya, cancel kaise ho sakta hai?” we thought.
Five people with a combined one brain cell sat there convincing ourselves the show would still happen. And boy, were we right. It ended up being one of the best stand-up shows I’ve attended, and some of the jokes still randomly ring in my ears now and then.
These laughs were very much needed before the summer intern season started :(. Suddenly people began hyping up companies I had never even heard of in my life and confidently claiming they were the greatest places to intern at. Maybe, maybe not. The next few months became a blur of prep, OAs, and interviews, and it was mentally exhausting. Thank god I was not alone and had my friends in the same race along with me, Nilay, Prakhar, Divit Tanush and Aarsh. Some days we were literally giving tests from breakfast till dinner, and I vividly remember one day where we had more than seven hours of tests. Luckily, this phase passed for me pretty smoothly with me ending up at AlphaGrep.
(If you reached here, you’re one of the people who’s going to get an A in an ENG/HSS. Cheers!)
Fast forward another semester, and the routine repeated itself until the mail for EPFL’s semester exchange dropped. I had always wanted to study abroad before coming to college, and an exchange felt like the perfect opportunity. So what’s the worst that could happen? I casually replied to the mail with the same resume I had used during intern season and honestly forgot that I had even applied.
A few days later, I received a call saying I’d been selected for the exchange.
“Do you want to go?” the OIR people asked.
“How much time do I have to decide?” I replied.
“Tonight.”
Panic mode instantly kicked in. I reached out to some seniors for advice and their experience. After confirming I basically had nothing to lose, I told OIR yes. A few months later, the visa process had started, and suddenly everything began feeling very real. My biggest concern was the clash with my internship due to EPFL’s asynchronous schedule. I took a big risk by agreeing to go on exchange before things were sorted out with my internship, but honestly, my mindset throughout the whole thing was simple:
“Jo hoga dekha jayega”
Around the same time, I also participated in the Inter IIT Tech Meet 13. Though the results weren’t what we had hoped for, it was still a genuinely fun trip and I made friends with some more people (Ravi, a y23, seeping into the same bed as mine is something I will never forget). I hadn’t received my visa till the end of January, so I attended classes for a while. Then suddenly, just 15 days before classes at EPFL started, the visa arrived. Before I knew it, I had dropped all my courses and was on a flight to Switzerland.
This was genuinely one of the best decisions I made during college. I spent four months travelling around Europe and exploring amazing course content. Honestly, the exchange deserves an entire AWL of its own, so let’s just summarize it with: do an exchange if you can ;p.
With exactly a one-day break after the exchange ended, I headed straight into my internship. Like many others, this was my first real corporate experience. I was pretty socially exhausted after the exchange and spent most of my free time either with family or alone in my room catching up on all the shows I had missed. The internship ended, the anxious PPO wait ended, and sadly, so did the free hazelnut coffees. I headed back to Kanpur without even stopping at home, and alas, I was back on the home ground after more than seven months.
But little did I know that the final year would end up being the one with the most memories and chaos. I still don’t feel nostalgic enough to fully write about it, but here goes an attempt anyway. I overloaded myself with 65 credits in seventh semester because “mereko to honors bhi chahiye” (my elder sister has one). While most of my peers were drowning in placement prep, I was drowning in courses and project work instead. I couldn’t even expect much help from friends because only a narcissist would say “project me help karo, placements baad mein.”
Placement season arrived before we knew it, and even though I didn’t sit for the process myself, boy was it rough to watch. This was when I truly experienced both the fraternity and politics of IITK at the same time. It was a whirlwind of emotions, some people celebrating the same list that marked the end of hope for others. One thing I’d genuinely say is: be there for your friends during this time. Having someone beside you makes things much easier.
Okay enough gyaan, moving on. The final semester, which was basically just a few days ago, was honestly amazing. Parties for some random reason every other weekend, Instagram becoming the “season of lasts,” and everyone suddenly behaving like influencers. Before college, I was the quiet kid who used to sit in a corner during sangeets because I was too shy to dance. But somehow, during eighth semester, I was dancing every other week for some reason or another ;p. I danced to “Pink Lips” during DE with Prem, Naman, Arshit and Harsh (younger me would be absolutely petrified even thinking of this). The Blazers + Shorts tradition is both the perfect amount of fun and the perfect amount of cringe. IITK collectively took its midsem break in Goa (yes I was gladly a part of the herd here) and it was so much fun.
Lowkey, the fun I had in the final semester erased almost all the doubts I had once carried about IITK. And finally, the CSE farewell dances, Hall 1 ki baarat, Scribble Day, and Abhinandan gave me the closure I didn’t even realize I needed. Four years earlier I had walked into campus wondering if I belonged here. By the end, I wasn’t wondering anymore.
So is that it? Is IITK now just 1296 days of my life? Not to sound cliché, but definitely not. It’s the memories made, the decisions, both the good and bad, taken along the way. It’s the people and little constants on campus that silently seep into your everyday life without you realizing it.
The samosa at SL saving you between classes, the cup of coffee at CCD or Bucks (Starbucks ;p), the CC cheese maggi, random OAT hangouts with a Kathi Roll or a Wrap, the 3 AM Mama Mio runs, the dinners at ZIngs or the garlic naan in the canteens (wait, this is starting to sound like I miss the food more). The night-outs spent in the library or the KD lab, the bakchodi in litsoc, the poker nights, the collective hatred for the HEC, all of these may never have become major events in the long story above, but somehow, all of them are IITK to me.
So with that, I’ll wrap it up, though I could keep writing on for a while ;p. For privacy reasons (credits to that one security course I took), I can’t really put my number out there, but feel free to reach out to me on my socials if you ever want to catch up or talk more.
Ciao,
220924 signing off
Written by: Ruthvik Jagan Shiva Sai Tunuguntla
Edited by: Gauri Singh, Lavanya Srivastava
