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In the 9th edition of As We Leave 2026, Devansh Bansal, a Y22 student in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, looks back on his transformative four-year journey at IIT Kanpur, from a shy, introverted freshman taking a leap of faith to step out of his comfort zone, to a resilient senior who weathered the chaotic storms of placement season. It is a heartfelt story of taking bold initiatives, discovering the quiet bliss of solitude, and learning that even the most crushing setbacks are simply unexpected pivots guiding you toward the triumphs and friendships where you truly belong.
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.
Untitled document – that is what the Google Doc in which I write this is titled and aptly so. This doc just like our college life is currently a blank slate. It is up to me how I fill it (the doc) and up to us how we live it (college) and hopefully by the end I will have a nice title for all of this. This isn’t my attempt to put my 4 years to paper. No, I have a journal for that. Rather it’s a series of lessons which I learnt here and now want to pass on before I step out onto the long road ahead. So without further ado, let’s start with the very first one.
Oh my darling, What if you fly?
By the virtue of being, some of us are very comfortable around people, no matter if it’s our first or our hundredth time meeting them. I am not, never have been. You won’t ever see me going out of my way to meet people or try to befriend someone. And yet, this part is going to talk about those rare instances where I did.
Sliding into DMs (No, not what you think)
During the JoSSA seat allocation process, I had joined an IITK WA group. Having been a shy kid throughout my life, I was quite determined to switch it up. Thus, I decided to DM people who would be joining the CSE branch. Never could I have imagined the snowball effect this moment of extrovertedness would have on my college life.
Among the five or so people that I DM’ed was Divit Shah. I had the usual small talk of where you are from, when you will be coming to campus as I had had with the other folks. But this guy, he stuck on to me. He kept on bugging me with doubts regarding the registration process and all sorts of small queries which could be solved if you read the mails properly. I was a bit annoyed tbh but I endured it. And I am so glad I did. It’s been more than 43 months since my out of the blue DM to this stranger and to this day, he is one of my best friends. If it hadn’t been for that DM, I never would have met him and Shaurya, another one of the absolute GOATed dudes on campus, not to mention the almanac of the great college memories that I now possess because of them.
Skribble @ 10pm?
The 4th semester had just finished and instead of going home for the winter break, I was staying back for Electronics Club’s Winter Camp for Y23s. We had been secretaries for 5 months by that point but us secies didn’t really have much of a bond frankly. And yet, somehow within the span of just one month, it all changed.
The idea of mentoring juniors was so exciting to me that I essentially became the over excited dude in the secy group chat. I would plan sessions, movie nights and practically show up to the club every day despite the fact that the topic being taught wasn’t my strong suit. Even after the camp ended, my enthusiasm refused to die down and I bombarded the group chat with suggestions to play Skribble, Fortnite, Minecraft and all sorts of online games. This led to some of the most fun I have had over any break, not to mention the friends (especially Aurat ka Kaam peeps) I made. My experience in the winter camp ended up being my biggest motivation to apply for the EClub Coordinator position and over the next year, that title became so much more than just a PoR. I met so many wonderful juniors, led an Inter IIT Tech PS, sank 10k+ in club parties and a lot more. All this because of a week of limitless ENTHU.
And so, these few instances of putting myself out there drastically changed the course of my college life. Taking initiative, while may not always work, will do wonders when it does.
The bliss of solitude
There’s this scene in Forrest Gump where Tom Hanks runs, and keeps on running until eventually hundreds of people join him. While in the movie, he runs for no particular reason, I feel there is a lesson to be had. Sometimes you just need to do it alone. You do it and with time people will join you. Now this might seem like I am building up to some grand things that I did alone but no, all this is about is Antaragni.
Showing up!
From first year itself, I had been truly mesmerised by the nature of this fest, so much so that I wanted to attend every event that took place over the course of the day, right from 10 in the morning. But the issue was, not everyone was as smitten by it as me and so when I asked my friends if they wanted to accompany me, the answer was usually no. I didn’t blame them. I mean we had slept at 6 and now I was asking them to wake up at 10 for some singing and mono acts, so the response was expected. But my love for this fest was so boundless, that despite being alone I showed up. I showed up at every event, every day, for all four years. It didn’t matter if anyone was there to witness them by my side because I was engulfed by the beauty of Acapella, Stage Plays, Dance Battles, stuff that I never would have been able to enjoy otherwise. And as I said, you do it and people will join you because by the third year, I was the go to guy for anyone who woke up before 4pm and wanted to enjoy an event. And then in my last year, it finally happened. My friends woke up at 10!
Everything happens for a reason
An unexpected journey
So placements, it wasn’t something I was planning on ever being a part of, and avoiding it was the biggest reason why I chose Google’s PIO hoping that getting a PPO wouldn’t be that big of a deal right? Well, life rarely turns out the way you want it to and I learnt it the hard way.
Come August and I was quite certain that I would be getting the PPO based on my final feedback and not only me, everyone around me thought so. Phrases like “kisi ka aaye na aaye, tera to aaega hi”, “Google ka damaad h tu, hr saal lene aajati tere ko” and many more were normal responses. Then came a mail saying that the results will be released by the end of September and it meant that even in the best case, I would have to appear for some OAs. This is when the panic ensued and I finally began preparing seriously. I gave my first OA and due to some network issues, I got disqualified midway. Such a great start! The OAs kept on happening, some went great, most didn’t and every day began looking the same. Nothing much of note happened for most of October, just the daily schedule of doing DSA, Puzzles and OAs until the last week. I woke up to the news that Google had rolled out some Cloud PPOs.
Ozymandias
Now the question became, what would I do if I did get the PPO? Earlier, I would have accepted it but now after having wasted my entire sem due to placement prep, should I still go for the safer option? I had made a little criteria to resolve this. If, on the day of my PPO, I was still in the running for a Squarepoint (SQP) or Databricks (DBX) offer, I would reject it otherwise not.
So, days passed without any news of the PPO and it was now time for the SQP interview. The first round went as perfect as it could have been and my confidence was sky high. But the thing about being at the top is that if you fall, well….. My second round got scheduled and all I’ll say is that it was the stuff of nightmares. Little did I know that that wasn’t the only one. On 27th Nov, I woke up from an afternoon nap to what was the worst news I had ever heard (till then). Set aside being selected for DBX, I wasn’t even shortlisted for the interview. Remember how I mentioned that I would reject the PPO if I got into two certain firms, well, now I had been rejected from both just a couple of days before Day 1. Anyways, I told myself that there was still hope. I had an interview with Glean the next day and I could still get the PPO. Fast forward to the next day, I wake up from another afternoon nap to a mail from Google. I had been REJECTED. I couldn’t fully process anything and it took me a while to register what had actually happened. I had my Glean interview after 3 hours so I tried calming my nerves but ended up completely botching it. And there I stood, completely shattered after being rejected from four dream companies before Day 1 even began.
The light at the end of the tunnel
Two days before Day 1, I looked at my shortlists and realized that DE Shaw was the only company left where I would feel a sense of achievement if I made it there. And so, I began my research. I looked up what kind of stuff they ask, how many rounds they take and what not. I called up my friend Mrigank who gave me a bunch of resources to go over for C++, Dhairya who told me about his interview experience and finally my brother’s friend Praneeth who gave me lots of insights about the company.
Then came the day. I gave the interviews at Microsoft first because I wanted to have a safety net before going into DE Shaw and it went quite well. My confidence was up. And now it was time for the final act. As I went in, I saw there was not one, but two interviewers. Scary. One of them asked me if I was feeling sleepy, to which I responded, “not sleepy but definitely hungry”. Hearing this, she offered me a pack of biscuits and I took one out and ate it. Then they asked me to introduce myself but the biscuit was still in my mouth so I mumbled a bit and all of us chuckled at this. Eventually the questions began and soon I was done with both my rounds. As I was walking out, the HR called my name and told me that I was being offered the role. Containing my excitement, I thanked her and walked up to Shaurya and gave him the biggest hug. The nightmare was finally over!
Stand by me
I want you to take a look at this excerpt from my journal which I wrote on 24th Nov, a week before Day 1. Remember, this wasn’t written in hindsight. This was what I was truly feeling at that moment, on that day.
“There is less than a week left before the D Day and in fact, even less than that due to the arrival of companies like Databricks, Glean on 28th itself and the emotions are sky high. I am anxious, nervous and even a tad bit excited about all of it. Things have been real crazy since the past few days given everything going on between me and Ritul, the fact that I have a girlfriend now (like wtf), the endsem struggle and everything in between.This has been one of the if not the most challenging period of my life but somehow I am making through it all thanks to the amazing set of people that I have beside me. First of all, my parents who deserve all the love in the world and more for being so understanding and never putting any sort of pressure on me. Next, my brother who just like any elder brother, might be incapable of saying it out loud, but through his actions, shows time and time again just how much he believes in me. Then, the quite literally fantastic bunch of friends I have got, like Shaurya, Manav, Nilay, Ankit and more who keep my anxiety under control by being themselves. Then comes Ritul, Mrigank, Vani and my wingies who believe in me more than I ever could on my own. While there are no guarantees on what might happen in a week, I just hope that I have the strength and intelligence to remember that everything does turn out okay.”
If it wasn’t for this whole debacle, I never would have been able to battle my impostor syndrome, I never would have delved into DSA and all the other stuff that I should have during my 2nd year summers, I never would have bagged a better offer than Google and I never would have talked to Ritul. So you see, everything does happen for a reason. We might not understand it then but when you look back, you will realize all those setbacks were just pivots given to you to take a look at yourself and change for the better.
Ab alag aasmaan hai….
Na jaane ab milenge hum kabhi
Toh ruk jaao ek pal yahaan pe
Yeh narm chaadron ki silwatein
Tujhe abhi bula rahi hain
“Na jaao door inse, ” yeh kahein
Yeh sukoon kahaan pe hai haasil?
This song perfectly encapsulates the emotion of leaving IIT Kanpur. The hallways, the 2am tea sessions, the wing chatter, the fests and especially the people, where else will we get all this? And to think that it’s all in the past now is quite scary. These four years have been truly surreal and now as I wrap this up just hours before my first day at work, I feel content. This college took a lot and gave a lot and for you, those might not be in balance right now but trust me, sooner or later they will be and when that time comes, you’ll know that it’s your turn to open up a blank doc, reminisce about the good old days and give a title to your tale as I have titled mine — The Time I felt Infinite
Written By: Devansh Bansal
Edited By: Shubham Singh, Anandan Iyer
