— Sadhika Singh Most members of my family were science students and therefore, conversations on physics and maths were part of our daily lives. Moreover, as some of my cousins were students at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), I developed a desire to study at the top engineering colleges. I secured a seat in Mechanical Engineering at IIT Hyderabad in 2022. My second semester started just two weeks ago and unlike the first semester where all the students had common classes, this semester we have classes for our core courses as well. The faculty will teach us ‘Introduction to Mechanical Engineering’ and I am excited to learn more about it. My usual day My classes begin at 9 am so my day usually starts at around 7:30 am. After having breakfast, I prepare for the upcoming lectures. Then, I attend classes till 12 pm and I eat lunch at the canteen during the break. The classes resume thereafter and then we head towards the labs. Later, I hang out with my friends at the canteen or the garden outside the canteen and then I go swimming from 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm. In IITs, it is mandatory to take up a sport under the National Sports Organization or become a volunteer at the National Service Scheme. So, I chose swimming as a sport for me. Hostel, mess and canteen There are around 13 hostels on our campus out of which eight are for boys, four are for girls and one is co-ed hostel. I live in a co-ed hostel, where there are four floors for boys and two for girls. We don’t have any curfew timings, we can go out and come back anytime we want. Being a foodie from Lucknow, I won’t say I absolutely love our mess food but it is not completely bad. In the mornings, we mostly have South Indian dishes, for lunch I usually prefer eggs. The dinner is good, especially on weekends. Either they offer chole bhature, or sometimes biryani. We only have one canteen on our campus, there are more options and the food is usually good. It opens at 11 am and shuts down at 3 am. Elan N Vision Our college festival — Elan N Vision happened in February. I was a volunteer for the techie domain. My job was to contact students and invite them to the fest. Recently, we also organised a TEDx event, I volunteered for that as well. We hosted a wildlife photographer, an entrepreneur and an actor. I was particularly impressed by the entrepreneur, she works with women in remote areas to educate girls. Adjusting in IIT Hyderabad In my Mechanical Engineering class of 60 students, there are only 16 girls. In the initial days, I did have a problem connecting with non-Hindi speaking students. However, with time, things have become easy and I am able to communicate with everyone. I teach them a bit of Hindi and they teach Telugu to me. Similarly, most professors are also from Telugu-speaking states, initially, I had difficulty in understanding their accents but not any more. The professors are really accessible and helpful. They always encourage us to ask questions and resolve our doubts.` Our IIT is relatively new therefore, some buildings are still under construction — a new academic block, new hostels, a canteen and a big sports complex are being built. I am eagerly waiting for these buildings to be ready. IIT is worth it Being in IIT, one gets to explore so many things and there are so many learning opportunities. I am so glad I decided to join one of the top-ranked institutes. When you prepare for the entrance exam, you miss out on a lot of things like hanging out with friends etc, however, the experience over here has made my whole JEE journey worth it.
