Disclaimer: Summarizing Life at IITK is impossible. It is a different and unique experience for everyone. We wrote the following article as a light-hearted piece based on some of the experiences we have had and observed. Always remember that the possibilities are limitless.
5:50 am
You set the alarm for 5:50 am. Guess why? The dreaded PE class was to strike again tomorrow, and you believed 10 minutes are sufficient to get ready. If you get late by even a minute, the PE grounds’ gates would be closed, and you would be marked absent. (75% attendance is compulsory)
However, at 5:30 am, you are woken up by an annoying buzzing alarm, ruining 20 precious minutes of your sleep. Nevertheless, you dutifully wake up your wingies for PE and rush to the ground.
If it’s your first PE class and your name starts with an ‘A,’ there’s a good chance you’ll be seen at the main sports stadium. For all the athletics enthusiasts, it’s a huge ground with a well-maintained grass track. Discus throw, pole vault, long jump, running, you’ll get to try it all! Besides, there are nets as well as a pitch for cricket lovers.
For the unique ones, whose names start with a ‘Z’ or a ‘Y’, you’ll have to walk or cycle to the hockey and football ground: a fascinating place for the risk-takers, since it is pretty easy to escape back to your hall after marking your attendance here (Not recommended at all!). Opposite the ground, you’ll find the New SAC, where there are three indoor wooden badminton courts, well-maintained squash courts and a big wooden-floored TT room. The swimming coach will also accompany a few of you from the ground to the Olympic-size 8-lane swimming pool, where you can try a few strokes or even play water polo.
If you find yourself marking attendance at the Old SAC, you’ll be divided into the four courts and try your hand volleyball. Just adjacent to the volleyball courts, there are two walls for brushing up your tennis skills before you play in one of the six synthetic courts. At this location only, there is a fully equipped gym for the fitness freaks where you can have a go at weightlifting.
Don’t worry if you don’t get to play your favourite sport in the first class; you’ll get to try them all out. If you’re too eager, you’re welcome to visit any of the facilities during the open hours.
7 am
Huff, all this running in the morning must be tiring. The feeling of coming back from PE, throwing your shoes, and crashing out on the bed is inexplicable. But wait, it’s been two weeks, and you haven’t done your laundry. You reluctantly get up and head to the shared washroom area with your clothes, and to your disappointment, find the only washing machine occupied. You can’t bathe too, because all the bathrooms are in use. At this moment, if you’re determined to complete the chores, you’ll walk to some other wing and try your luck. But on the way, you might find yourself knocking on the door of your friend’s room and spend an hour cribbing about laundry, life, academics and PE. It’s likely that you will form long-lasting bonds with your wingies and often find 8-9 people hanging out in small rooms meant for two.
8:35 am
It’s time to get to the mess, have a quick breakfast and head for the classes. If you don’t have time, you can always grab a few biscuits and rush! There are 20 lecture halls, out of which you have to find yours. Most of your lectures in the first year will be conducted in the L20, the biggest lecture hall of IITK with a capacity to accommodate more than 500 students. For the tutorials, you’ll have to make your way to another lecture hall or go to the tutorial block in the short 10-minute gap between lectures. The skywalk in the academic area is a fast way to navigate through the complex. Getting lost in the maze-like lecture hall complex is inevitable, but beautiful in its own way! You may, accidentally, fall asleep during lectures but friends at your side will shove you into consciousness.
To satisfy hunger between lectures, you could make your way to the SL canteen to grab a cup of coffee or tea, along with Maggi or a samosa. Next to it, there’s CCD, an aromatic storehouse of caffeine that keeps you up during ‘twilight’ hours to study for exams. (Search: Twilight CCD). During winter months, basking in the sun while sitting on the ground in front of L20 with friends is a common idea to pass time as well. The most important part, do not forget to lock your cycle; otherwise, there’s a good chance the SIS guards would confiscate your cycle, and you’ll be asked to find ‘proof of ownership’.
1:10pm
After your class, you’ll need to rush directly to the mess if you want to avoid an extremely long queue. It is humanly impossible to have your lunch in 40 minutes and reach the lab on time (at 2 pm). So, as they say, desperate times call for desperate measures: you’ll scan through the queue carefully and spot a wingie or a random person you met once in the orientation. Next step, do some small talk with the person and casually, insert yourself right before him in the queue. This strategy works most of the time when you need to expedite the process of getting lunch. If you are lucky enough, you might also get the Paneer in the Matter Paneer.
The food by itself might not be so tasty, but it’s decent and one can easily manage. A pinch of laughter and a handful of intellectual conversation with your batchmates over the mess table makes it taste even better. By the time you finish your lunch, it is already 1:50, and you have to rush to the labs.
2 pm
Most of the labs are in the New Core Lab Building (a.k.a NCL). The ESC101 labs are air-conditioned and comfortable. Most importantly, you can go to the lab in shorts and chappal. For those who solve the coding problems way too quickly, receiving many deadly stares from batchmates would be a common sighting. However, for the Physics labs and Chemistry labs, you need to wear shoes with full pants and lab glasses along with a lab coat, respectively. Remember to write the practicals before coming to the lab! The labs do have some cool stuff, like an electron beam and chemicals to make beautiful blue-coloured imprints. Most often, you’ll get your readings wrong, but then what are friends for? ;).
The only lab not in the NCL is the TA101 lab. The lab is located in the most unfounded corners of the academic area. For this lab, you need to carry a drafter, cello tapes, erasers, pencils, among other instruments. Getting those marks for neatness, despite the numerous erased pencil marks, is the real challenge.
5 pm
The grind never ends. After long hours of labs and lectures, you’ll now head to CPA/CCA (Compulsory Physical/Cultural Activities). If you have opted for sports, you’ll go to the respective courts/grounds for intense practice sessions. Apart from mainstream sports, there are various other options one may opt from like Yoga, Taekwondo, wall-climbing, NCC, NSS, dance, arts or dramatics. New SAC has a spacious yoga and aerobics hall where you can workout. Just behind the new SAC building, there’s a wall-climbing rock for all the adventure enthusiasts. At last, for those of you interested in self-defence, the main ground stadium is the place to be in the evenings.
7 pm
Generally, you could attend one of the many competitions/workshops/events/talks happening on the campus. However, on the days you have a club meeting, you’ll head to the new SAC (Student Activity Centre).
Most of the cultural clubs have an allotted room here, in the new SAC (right beside the OAT), where they conduct their events, meetings and bulla-sessions. If you are in the Astronomy Club, you’d be sitting in their beautiful student-made planetarium on the rooftop. If you are in the Student Senate or one of the many student-led committees, you’ll be meeting in a modern carpeted conference room, which is designed to look like a mini-Parliament. The sheer diversity of people, ideas and events that we do, as the student community at IIT Kanpur is fascinating.
From the freshers’ night to the dance and music competitions for Galaxy (inter-hall cultural competition) to movie or match screenings, the OAT (open-air theatre) plays a host for all the major campus events. Days, when OAT is jam-packed with the audience, is a sight to behold.
Right behind the OAT is the Pronite ground, which hosts the biggest concerts during Antaragni and Techkriti. Also, behind the OAT is the oxidation pond, a quiet pond with lots of ducks and swans. Interestingly, these are the corners of the campus, much like the airstrip, which you don’t get to visit on regular days.
A meeting at the new SAC is generally followed by exciting conversations over a Kathi roll or a Dominoes pizza, for dinner.
10 pm
Done with the extracurriculars, now you’ll need to study for the upcoming quiz. While some people prefer studying in their room, the constant noise and unending mischiefs may make your room unconducive to study. So let’s explore some other options.
Firstly, the PK Kelkar library: a three-floored (plus a basement), building, stocked with tall shelves of books, journals and archives. The library’s wooden furniture and the comfortable central air-conditioning system reflects on the library as a confluence of the archaic and the modern. Subsumed in extreme silence, it is an abode for the maggus. The library generally closes at midnight but around the exams, it remains open for 24 hours. As a consequence, people sleeping between the shelves, with a blanket and a bedsheet, planning to directly go for the exam next morning is a common sight.
However, on normal days, when the library closes at midnight, one can escape from the heat of the rooms by entering the air-conditioned RM building(Rajeev Motwani building). Although it is the official building for the CSE department, it is used across the branches for its comfortable couches.
You may also choose to study at the Student Lounge. It has couches, comfortable office chairs, tables and AC. Finding a place in the lounge is a matter of sheer luck. On days when you need to use a computer, you’d visit the Computer Centre. It has huge labs with rows of computers that you can freely use for studies. The computer centre also houses the supercomputer.
12 midnight
This would be a good point to call it a day and return to your bed to fall sleep. However, it would be difficult to resist the urge to sit with your wingies in one room. You’ll join the bulla and the conversation would flow from ranting about academics to confessions on everyone’s crushes. It might even result in a heated discussion on national politics or diverse social issues as well. If that isn’t for you, then playing Mafia, CoD or CS:GO is also always an alternative.
2 am
After exhausting all the topics of discussion and debate, you’ll feel hungry and rush to the canteen for late-night Maggi for it closes at 2. At last, you’ll head to your bed and fall asleep, hopefully, satisfied with the growth, memories and studies you were able to extract from the day. If not, you will get another chance when you wake up. The upcoming four years are going to be diverse and life-changing, and we hope you’re ready for both the highs and the lows.
More than the infrastructure, the classes and the labs, it is your interaction with people around you and the random bulla sessions in the wing, canteens and clubs that have a significant role in making up your ‘life on campus!’
Writers: Abhimanyu Sethia, Ananya Gupta
Editor: Ankur Banga
