My Farewell at IITK - what a day

(This is a blog so that I can remember what happened on this day)

5th of June 2006. A watershed day in my life - and definately a culmination of my experiences in IITK. It began on a disappointing note - I had just returned back from Delhi with Rohatgi and Khatri after giving the CFA exam the previous day. The moment I landed on campus I felt really disappointed since I watched others getting ready for convocation - something that I was not allowed to be part of. This was coz of the insane reason that the 4 of us would cause havoc if we missed the rehearsal. How difficult is it to follow the person in front - after all that's what all the scholar badge ceremonies were all about.


But 'No' means 'No' and we were sitting in our rooms watching the others get ready. When this got to painful for me I went to the CSE building and sat there and then started doing some work. After closing my account in the afternoon I happened to pass by the auditorium. Now I was in shorts and every one else was formally dressed in the black gown. What difference could that make, especially when some one said that Jawahar was there and looking for me. So I went in and met a lot of friends and got some pics taken. Of course I looked the odd one out as you can see here where I am between 2 other Dipsites Eakta and Sam

Forward then to evening after nothing much happened in the day. All I knew was there was a big farewell for me tonight at the swimming pool, and Ankit had told me to come a bit late.

So I went to the pool not knowing what to expect, but I had an inclination that I was going to enjoy myself. I reached the pool with a borrowed convocation gown at about 8:15pm. I was surprised to see that there was the whole swimming team + probables there. The only hint I was given was that Ankit told me that I was going to be thrown into the pool with the clothes on. I remember thinking to myself that he too was going to join me in the water

The first thing that every one asked me was to give a speech. I said that I would prefer to go after every one else did. So Rahul began by calling every one else there and started talking abt me. Some time during Rahul's speech did it really hit me that I was leaving both IITK and the swimming team.

The speeches about my tenure in the IITK Aquatics team were amazing. Different people talked about what I meant to different people and most of the things that I did were covered. Rahul started off by saying that I was a 'Complete Man like Raymonds' who had done well both in academics, games, stocks, etc. He also talked about how I was able to lead people effectively and that most of the juniors did not ever feel distant from me and they could approach me with anything.

Ankit continued by saying that he did not know where he would be if he had not joined the swimming team. He said that I had been there whenever he was going off track and guided him, and that I had started a culture where people from any level could come up with ideas irrespective of seniority. Lastly he mentioned that I was the Godfather to people like him, Swapnil, Abhishek, Kush, etc. His last line was 'As a defensive mid-fielder you would be replaced, as a leader, motivator, team -player it would be very hard to replace you and what you have done for us'.

Then Sir, came and said that my passing out he had lost a friend and a team mate, which was a personal loss to him. He mentioned about how ' I had promised him a better culture' but had delivered not just that but an awesome team as well which had a great chance to win Gold. He also mentioned how things had changed since Inter IIT Bombay, where we were a practice team. He also mentioned about my long mails which I would send to bring people together

Among the others- Akanksha mentioned that I had always looked at the girls and boys team as one, and I was responsible for sending more mails than most of the others. Meena mentioned that after his Dad I was the best motivator he had met. Vikas mentioned that he enjoyed to getting blasts from me when he was not upto the mark because - ' Avik always expected out of himself what he expected out of others'. Rohan also called me the best motivator both on and off the field he had ever met. Rahul also mentioned how I had helped other people in making them beleive in themselves - something that had helped them in acads. At this point many people mentioned my motivating abilities and the vision of stressing on off-field activities to bond together be it quizzes by swapy, presentations by me, GD's ,etc.

When I was asked to say a few words I was truly speechless for the first time in a long time. The first thing I said was that - 'I had been involved in many activities like Olympus, Swimming, B-Club, Olymbiz'. Yet it was only in all aquatics activities - direct and where there were other team members that the activities were so successfull. This basically meant that it was 'All the people in the team who were responsible for the success, not just me alone'. Further I thanked all the people in the team, especially 2 people Trishla Di and Auro for all the help that they had provided at crucial times.

After this I was thrown into the pool with my clothes on. As I got out to throw Ankit in - in I went again. Then as we were pushing Rahul in - I pushed Vikas in and in went Rahul's mobile. So that was the end of that. After this we had the drama of seeing a snake in the pool. This was followed by Dinner outside which was pretty good, awesome by campus standards. Before dinner I had wet clothes so I took off my T-shirt, just had my ganjee and shorts both of which were wet. I put on the black convocation robes I had borrowed, and clicked a few - pics with the others. While clicking the pics I really felt special when I was made to stand in the middle with every one else looking to stand around me.

I was then presented with a very nice gift - a picture of the team getting its pic outside the white house where every one was biting the medal - copying the people in the olympics. After that was dinner which was pretty good. I remember making the remark that after 4 years in IITK it is not the quality of the food as much as it is the people sitting with you for dinner which matters. The night ended with all of us going to the baskey court and all juniors asking me to tell stories about my experiences from 1st year to 4th year. That went all for more than an hour in which I described the process of changing from a shy, naive, reserved fresher who had not heard of stocks and had never given a presentation to today when most of those adjectives would be reversed.

Thus ended one of the most memmorable nights for me which I would never forget, when I was made to feel special by the aquatics team and was more forgotten by the others in the institute(esp by the DOAA office).