An IIT Visit Part II - IIT n Lucknow Episode

A Campus of Wonders - IIT Kanpur

Soon I was looking at the proud name of IIT Kanpur carved in steel in front of the main gate. I had heard that the campus had a village within it and a school too. There was more in store for me. The taxi approached the campus and stopped in front of a check post. I hadn’t really expected a check post, but came to know that, IIT has got a very efficient security system which has been given in contract to a private security firm. Guarded by gunmen, the campus allowed entrance only to academicians, and village people were provided IDs to pass. We had to give our names and full details at the check post and then we found ourselves on the road bounded on both sides by thick greenery. I felt like I was riding through some sanctuary because such was the peacefulness and calmness inside the campus. No buses were allowed inside the campus and students used cycles for their purpose.

Within some time, we found our accommodation and were a bit disappointed to see that it was inside the reading room of one of the hostels; they had laid beds and pillows for us on the floor. But later we were to understand the real advantage of this. We found ourselves interacting with the North Indian students who shared the room. They were from Pune, Rajasthan, etc. Soon we got out to have our lunch. Our competition was scheduled to be on the third day and so we had plenty of time to test our item and to explore the campus. Towards evening, we had to register for the whole event and get our coupons. At the venue which was just full of buzzing youth, there was a long queue at the registration desk.

Shortly we realized that we were supposed to bring in our photos to be affixed on our ID cards. But as is usual in competitions in South India, we expected we could some how get through without the photo. To be on the safer side, we decided to ask a senior IIT guy whom we happened to meet in the queue. He thought for sometime and said, “Well this happens all the years. And they are going to send you guys back to get a photo. That’s what they do always. So the only logical solution I can find to your problem is to go outside the campus now and get those 5 minutes passport photos.” Needless to say, we were really alarmed to know that this was a problem for which a “logical solution” had to be sought. Anyway, we decided not to try our luck and got a “cycle rickshaw”, the form of transport inside the campus and got our photos. After another long wait in the queue we got our ID cards by midnight. Another IIT guy who was explaining to us how to fill in our forms, was so much tensed that he was shivering while explaining and made us think that we are writing our JEE Entrance exam.

The next day we were exploring the campus. As time passed, we were amazed to find the various facilities inside the campus. Some labs had names we haven’t hadn’t heard of, like “powder metallurgy lab”, “liquid systems lab”, “thermal lab” etc. The library building is a very huge one and the attractive part is that, all other buildings in the campus were connected to the library building by walkways. SBI had its own branch inside the campus and there was a whole village too. There was a small shopping place with a bookstore selling second-hand books, and shops selling traditional North Indian dishes. It was quite interesting when we happened to ask a guy about the route to this shopping place. He appeared to be walking but I guess he was more or less engrossed in his own dream world (most probably, ultra-quantum world). On receiving our request, he seemed to be putting his current processing on hold, acknowledged our request by looking at us and answered by pointing his hand in a particular direction and without another word, continued his stroll (processing). For the rest of the day, we got the electronics laboratory opened for us, to complete the finishing touches of our project. We were surprised to see that, all the lab desks had individual power supply boards and a computer with internet connection for instant doubt-clearing.

The Fun
At night, we took a walk visiting the various competitions that were going on. For the first time in my life, I saw small model flights flying under remote control. It had its own fuel chamber and the guy was telling that it uses some mixture he himself developed. Other attractions were a walking robot which obeys our commands and can distinguish between opaque/transparent or conducting/non-conducting materials.

There was also a “robo-romeo” contest, where the robots were supposed to pluck a flower and drop it in the centre (Juliet). The contest was accompanied by one of the most excellent commentaries I had ever heard in my life. It was making everyone laugh and completely enjoy the event.

Next day, we had our event and it went well. Everyone appreciated our design as there was something unique about it. Half an hour before the event finished, we decided to get out and have some food, as we couldn’t have our lunch. We asked a guy there if we could go. We didn’t know that we were about to get a really confusing answer to this. He appeared to be in deep thought and then told us that “I can’t find a logical solution to your problem. Come let’s ask someone else”. Then and there we decided not to ask anyone anything inside the campus. Needless to say, we didn’t get permission as they said we were still participants of the event until it got over and were not supposed to get out till then.By evening, the results of our event came and we were happy to find out that we had got third place.

An unforgettable detour - Lucknow
We had decided to visit Lucknow, as we had some family relatives there. Soon we found ourselves at Lucknow station, waiting for our friend to pick us up. As we didn’t have much time to spend there, we decided to go on an outing that night itself. He showed us a jist of Lucknow, which I felt was a very good and clean city with spacious roads. After visiting a couple of multiplexes, we had a dinner consisting of traditional Lucknow delicacies. Early morning, in a hurry, we boarded the train back to Kanpur and found a seat for ourselves. Soon there was a local magistrate (I wonder why) coming up and checking the tickets. We were totally surprised when he asked us to get up and get out. The train had stopped at some isolated place half-way between Kanpur and Lucknow and it was all empty fields on both sides and only farmers around. We found out that we were asked to get out because the train was an express and we had paid only local fare. The judge couldn’t speak Hindi and we found difficulty in communicating to him that we didn’t have enough money to pay the fine, and that we had to reach Kanpur as soon as possible as we had our trains back to Kerala that day afternoon. With slight difficulty we understood from his symbolic language when he held his hands together in the shape of a bouquet that he was telling us that we could go to jail in handcuffs if we didn’t pay the fine. After some more struggling, he agreed to do away with the fine and we had to pay the fare of express ticket. But the saddest part was that, the train left the place before we could board it again and we were left out in that horrible environment. Shortly, we understood that, it was a place where only local shuttle trains stop. It was not even a station, just a place where farmer gather together when they wanted to go somewhere in a train. To understand the tension of being in a totally unfamiliar environment under the pressure of time, one needs to experience it.After half an hour of waiting, we were lucky to get a snail paced local train to Kanpur.

Back to Home
We reached the IIT Campus in haste and collected our bags and managed to get our certificates from those guys. I couldn’t say a proper good bye to the campus as I was rushing back to the station. But as is always the case with the Indian Railways, the train was running 2 hours late. The return journey was fun, with some of the Chennai-walah guys whom we had met at IITK. We enjoyed getting out of the train, when it made some odd stops, and plucking flowers that grew on both sides of the track.

I was slightly upset as I couldn’t make my visit to the Himalayan Nation, possible. But the trip had left me with a lot of experience, contacts and memories to cherish. Moreover I was happy that I could spend those days in that beautiful campus to which I had once wished so badly to belong to. Whew!!! There it goes, at last i have got it completed and that happens to be my very first blog!!! Thanks for your patience, readers if anyone managed to reach this part :-)