About 4 years ago, I sat down in a very uncomfortable chair for six hours and poured my heart out over an OMR sheet, fundamentally changing the course of my life. Months later, thanks to nearly 2 years of ascetic living and blind determination, I land in another uncomfortable chair for my first lecture at IIT. Halfway through, I was asleep. That kind of set the tone for the rest of the four years.
I remember the pandemonium when we had heard the big news. A Sahni kid in IIT! I'm sure it was the same with everyone that was lucky enough to get accepted that day. But if someone could compress all the experiences I have had at this place and hand them to me for review on that day, instead of jumping up and down and yelling, I probably would have just stood there said, "Huh".
Even in retrospect, with the memory faded and many things forgotten, college, IIT, has been just so full of experiences that I start to feel nauseated if I try to remember everything. It feels like I have lived a complete life in these four years. It was not all good, but it was not all bad. And in the end, all that seems to matter is that there was at least some good.
College has been a great teacher, and I don't want you to think of classrooms. For the first time in my life, I was living alone, was responsible for my own survival. And trust me, survival at IIT means survival, this is no hyperbole. The independence gave me lots of wisdom, patience, and fun. I think it is very important for everyone to go through the experience of living alone or you're never really done growing up.
Speaking of growing up, college is where I re-learned that playing with fire is fun. Knocking on doors and running away, hiding in the bathrooms until it is all clear is also fun. And they’re especially fun if you do them together. Yes, at (a lot of) times, I have hated this place. I have wished I had never come here. But even if I try, I cannot remember one such instance. I can only remember these moments I had with these people, who became my friends. And that is what I am driving towards, friends.
As I stand here on the edge of my life at IIT, I see my friends taking different paths. Some of these paths come close to mine, some don’t. I guess that is how it always will be. In the end, we all have to find our own path and there is no guarantee that if I’m walking with you now, I will be walking with you tomorrow. But what are we going to remember when we think about this path we’ve walked on together for the past four years? What do you take away from a place when you leave it? You don’t remember objects, places, things you said. You remember people. And I can say that I will remember some of the best people I have met in my life.
So, tomorrow morning, when, for the very last time, I will sit in an uncomfortable chair for a class at IIT, I will try as hard as I can to stay awake. Why would I do such an unimaginable thing? Because I wouldn’t want to miss a moment of this horrible place and all the people that made living here fantastic.
Himanshu Sahni
IIT Delhi (almost there) Alumnus
