Life in IIT | How this IIT Madras MA student is carving his space beyond the rat race

My parents, some societal sciences teachers, raised maine successful Saudi Arabia, wherever I spent astir of my puerility reading, writing, and dreaming astir stories and places acold from wherever I was. I aboriginal completed Class 11 and 12 successful Thrissur, India, and it was present that I learned astir the English Studies programme astatine IIT Madras. With encouragement from my household and a adjacent person who joined the aforesaid programme I recovered myself embarking connected this journey.

When I arrived connected field successful 2022, everyone was adjusting to the “new normal” aft the pandemic. Despite the strangeness of it all, IIT Madras soon felt similar a spot that would propulsion maine to turn successful ways I had not anticipated. Even though I’d spent my last years of schooling distant from home, being present was different. IIT Madras is immense and forested, its expansiveness someway some comforting and daunting. My archetypal week was filled with solitary walks astir the field arsenic I tried to grasp the grade of the place, the people, and what beingness present mightiness mean.

Building my ellipse and uncovering my rhythm

The aboriginal days were a premix of anxiousness and excitement. I joined Vannam, our student-led queer collective, and began penning for Article19, the pupil mag for DoHSS. I besides joined ChintaBAR, a radical dedicated to discussions connected political, cultural, and societal issues. Unlike immoderate different spaces connected campus, these groups didn’t look funny successful purely transactional oregon résumé-based engagements. Instead, they felt similar places of existent connection, wherever you could explicit yourself authentically. Vannam, successful particular, became my enactment system. We organised events and adjacent hosted the first-ever pridefulness parade connected field successful September 2023, a milestone that stands retired arsenic 1 of my astir cherished memories. Working with Vannam gave maine a accidental to interact with radical who were arsenic motivated and passionate arsenic they were delicate to the diverseness of our shared experience. Through our clip together, I recovered a 2nd family.

While I wasn’t initially definite however good I would “fit” into IIT’s culture, I began to admit my abstraction connected this unsocial campus. My regular daily involves aboriginal mornings, classes, tons of speechmaking and research, and a bushed that feels much similar my own. I emotion speechmaking books, watching movies, and spending evenings astatine Zaitoon, the field restaurant, wherever my friends and I conscionable implicit tea, discussing everything from movie to lit to politics. My friends and I marque an effort to enactment 1 another, not lone academically but arsenic individuals navigating beingness connected a field that tin often consciousness intense.

A time successful my life

My regular daily doesn’t align with the “insti culture” of late-night survey sessions and endless networking. I aftermath up astir 6, decorativeness the essentials, and marque definite to person meal earlier classes. After lectures, I usually walk clip reading, watching movies, oregon moving connected my research. Evening beverage with friends is simply a ritual, a mode for america to enactment grounded and debar getting excessively mislaid successful our world worlds. I marque it a constituent to support my hobbies—reading books and journals, watching films—as idiosyncratic pursuits alternatively than resume points.

I bask playing shot and array tennis with friends successful the hostel, and we often extremity up astatine Zaitoon, the field restaurant, for beverage oregon a meal. Weekends are a clip for casual outings, similar going to the movies oregon exploring places extracurricular campus. For me, beingness present isn’t astir joining the rat contention but carving retired a abstraction wherever I tin turn astatine my ain gait and successful my ain way.

Growing, but connected my ain terms

IIT Madras, with each its thrust for world and nonrecreational excellence, has helped maine amended recognize the worth of carving retired a abstraction that is uniquely my own. I chose not to enactment successful inter-IIT events oregon different competitory spaces. Over time, I recovered that portion IITs are revered for fostering innovation, I’m much drawn to conversations astir captious thinking, creativity, and societal responsibility. I erstwhile took connected a mates of PoRs, but I rapidly realized they weren’t for me. I’m happier exploring the satellite of creation and literature, discovering however they intersect with authorities and culture. I consciousness nary request to beryllium the “ideal” IIT student. Instead, I purpose to embody the benignant of idiosyncratic who, adjacent wrong a competitory environment, stays rooted successful integrity and empathy.

This travel has taught maine that occurrence present doesn’t person to look the aforesaid for everyone. It’s astir uncovering intent and meaning successful what I love, which, for me, has been moving with friends astatine Vannam, participating successful ChintaBAR discussions, and immersing myself successful the originative enactment I value. In a satellite that often prioritizes “networking” and “hustling,” I find comfortableness successful choosing to stay adjacent to the forested corners of campus, the vibrant messiness halls, and my quiescent room. IIT Madras has transformed me, yes, but connected my presumption and successful ways that bespeak my beliefs, values, and imaginativeness for the future.

Looking ahead

I spot myself pursuing a aboriginal successful research, blending my emotion for literature, art, and authorities with a critical, originative approach. I don’t aspire to go a accepted academic; rather, I privation to write, create, and lend to the arts successful a mode that resonates with people. The IIT acquisition has fixed maine much than an world acquisition — it has shaped my values, strengthened my consciousness of self, and, astir importantly, shown maine the value of carving my ain path, adjacent successful a abstraction that often demands uniformity.

Through friendships, solidarity, and spaces that promote a antithetic benignant of growth, I person recovered my mode successful an situation that initially seemed foreign. The travel has been transformative, and I look guardant to what lies ahead, equipped with the grounding and resilience that these years person fixed me.