Personal Experiences - Uday Mittal
Two years of slogging, studying, finally got me through the JEE. Qualifying that examination was an ultimate experience. Getting a low rank was a little disappointing & confusing in the beginning as there were so many different paths that I could choose. Heated discussions took place between me and my family for almost a month on what to choose,( i.e. whether to go for a branch of interest in a new IIT or choose the IIT and take any branch that was available...or go for any other engineering college or drop an year). I used to check out the websites of all the old IITs and admire all that was written about the college life there. Some new IITs also seemed interesting.
So after all this I finally made my decision to take up a branch of my choice in a new IIT thinking that life may be adventurous and challenging there :P. At last the day came when I joined IIT Mandi and came to IIT Roorkee (the mentor institute) for my first year of fun and B - Tech. Since then life has given me more than what I expected from this institute.
Initially it was like... "Where am I...in an island that has a microscopic chance of success??" :P. But then as life proceeded, my hypothesis proved to be wrong. This institute was brimful of people like me who were as competitive as any other person who had qualified the JEE. It was just that it wasn't their day on the exam day. Soon I made loads of friends and a few best friends and I started experiencing the IIT life (somewhat similar to the one explained in the book "five point someone" :P).
I along with my friends explored the campus of IIT Roorkee and joined various sections and societies of IIT Roorkee. There was hardly any discrimination against IIT Mandi students in the campus. The seniors here helped a lot, taught us how to deal with different professors differently, how to save yourself from failing after studying the last night before the exam, enjoy the whole year and still get a respectable CGPA. We used to sleep in class to get pumped up for the party at night. Pointless discussions('Bakar' as we call it) at the late night canteens became an indispensible part of the day. And Gaming of course!, two places where we could do it, one being our hostels, over the Wi-fi(that did not work generally) and the other being our own - Mandi Cell(a place for official meetings and enjoyment :P).
Apart from all this, me being a lover of music and a guitarist, I found so many people here who were as good as me and people who were better than me. So we formed a band of four people out of a hundred odd people which even the Roorkee first years could not do having approximately 900 people with them :P. There was a lot more talent here than that I expected - amazing dancers, drama people, designers creepy coders and of course! Loads of academically strong students('Ghissu' we call them in our campus lingo)
Now I am eagerly looking forward to go to the interim campus of IIT Mandi that we saw on an official trip to Mandi. It is an incredible place in terms of scenic beauty, weather and life(it has better areas to hangout than Roorkee including the Indira market that beats the Civil lines of Roorkee). The facilities being prepared(lecture halls, labs and hostels) are also way better and satisfying than what I expected.
This place is like my second home, like a family, where we do what we want to do and when we want to do, and we get amazing support from our faculty in whatever we do.