Life in an IIT: Opportunities, learning alongwith fun, IIT Guwahati student shares his experience

Finally, after the second wave of Covid subsided we finally joined college. Within the initial month of the hostel, I realised there is a lot of responsibility for us. As a child, my parents ensure to teach me household chores. However, managing everything on our own is a task. Be it taking care of our belongings, our health, cleaning our room, managing our timetable, doing our laundry but most importantly how to survive without our families. I made a lot of new friends and learned to be independent and responsible.

Living at IIT has been a fun and vibrant experience. There is so much to learn and explore. From a distance, it seems IITs are all about academics but the closer you get you will realise how different it is. It is a world in itself full of opportunities for whatever interests you. You can learn so much from so many different domains. There are dedicated clubs for almost everything ranging from music, art and dance to entrepreneurship, management and consulting.

College clubs bring the best in you

I explored marketing, consulting, analytics, data science, photography, cooking, videography, cinematography, music, and dance during all these years. The administration is supportive and promotes our talent. I am also part of the anchoring club; the club hosts many events and podcasts. I got a chance to host a podcast with celebrities like Dr Sonal Mansingh and Nikhil D’Souza.

Himanshu hosting Nikhil D’ Souza

I hosted our technical fest – Techniche, the biggest techno-management fest in the entire Northeast. Also, I was the marketing head for the fest and it was my responsibility to deal with companies and get sponsors for the fest.

I have also joined the photography club. At these clubs, we are generally taught and guided by our seniors. We also conduct workshops where we collaborate with brands to enhance the skills of the students.

Through Techniche, I got the opportunity to intern with RedBull India. I interacted with their marketing head and he liked the way I presented myself and offered an internship with them. It has been six months since I have been working with them and I hope to get opportunities at the headquarters as well.

Healthy competition

At IIT, there is healthy competition in every domain. Everyone is constantly working to make themselves better, even if we feel low, our friend circle cheers us up and we constantly keep motivating each other. The professors are helpful. Most of them are indulged in research work and if any student is inclined towards the same, the professors help them a lot and get them recommendations as well.

Every IIT has a specific pattern to name the hostels. At IIT-G, it is based on water bodies such as rivers and tributaries. I have a single room and mostly everyone in the past had single rooms but since this year, our juniors are getting double sharing rooms. There are somewhere around 11 hostels, two of which are specifically for girls. One of them has two wings– one for girls and one for boys. At the hostel, despite having single rooms, we are always in each others’ room, chilling together and having fun. The food that comes from home never belongs just to a single person, it belongs to everybody. That’s the beauty of staying in a hostel, everything is shared be it food, joys or sorrows.

Himanshu’s hostel room

Our college is situated on the banks of River Brahmaputra and it is very scenic. Frankly speaking, I love my campus more than I like Guwahati. The lush green campus is beautiful beyond words. It’s like the city is on one side and on the other side of the river is our college. The city is a little far as well.

If we have to visit the city, we have to cross the river by taking a ferry, or the bus, or a trolley. The rates for all of them are minimal. In fact, the bus ride is free for us. We have a coffee house inside the campus, there are food trucks that operate till 3-4 am. Even the canteen is open till 2 am. There is a great variety of food available. So, whenever we feel hungry at night we flock there to binge.

Being from Delhi, I am a die-hard foodie. Honestly, nothing beats Delhi’s food however, the food here is not bad. It’s clean, hygienic and healthy. But, obviously, nothing matches up to home-cooked food.

The place that I or any other student at IIT Guwahati love to hang out the most is Khoka Gate. It’s not just a place it’s an emotion. The students laze around after college. This is the ideal place to get some work done at affordable prices from getting clothes ironed to get photocopies to being that chai corner Khoka has everything, even the professors chill there. It’s a common sight to find teachers and students hanging out there. For both girls and boys, the in and out timings are the same– 10 pm. But, the campus in itself has so many things that keep un engage.

Even exams are fun

During exam season, no one literally sleeps. Be it group study or self-study, the atmosphere is so disciplined. Though there is some amount of pressure, however, I feel it is necessary. You don’t have to be stressed but you need to understand the seriousness of exams.

Apart from our particular subjects, students also focus on their interest areas and work extra hard for them. I, for one, have an interest in management and business and for that, I work on projects and enhance my skills apart from studying for my BTech course. Our clubs also help us. And, during placements, we can sit for the companies we like that are different from our major for example, with my internship and projects I can sit for other companies that are not necessarily Biosciences and Bioengineering based firms. Based on the skill set I have acquired over the years working on different projects and through these clubs.

Speaking of future plans, I aim to work for consulting and management firms — the big three — BCG, McKinsey and Bain. I want to work there for two to three years and then probably join an Ivy League business school. Many of our seniors have done the same.

Be friends with your seniors

Before taking admission, I was a little apprehensive about ragging. But, all my doubts were put to rest when I joined college. The seniors are friendly and super helpful. The college has a very strict anti-ragging policy and therefore, I did not face any issues. My seniors helped me learn a lot of things and even after graduating they stay connected to us and help us in whatever capacity they can.

IITs have the best alumni networks even if you talk to a senior from an old batch they will treat you with so much warmth. I am in contact with so many of them as I am a part of the Student Alumni Interaction Linkage (SAIL). SAIL conducts sessions and interactions between current batches and alumni. And despite doing so well in life and achieving so much, the alumni take out time to talk to us and are humble and always ready to help. Many of them come here for recruitment as well.

All in all, my IIT experience is enriching and is helping me grow in every aspect.