IIT taught me to be humble

Amitabha Ghosh reminisces about his days at IIT-Kharagpur.

IIT was like a dream -- the ambience, the people, the jargon, Spring Fest at the Open Air Theatre, cycling down Scholar's avenue, the view from my window, the library, the common room and the many friends that I made.

I remember walking into IIT as a freshman: petrified about ragging. Yes, there was ragging, but there was great camaraderie after that.

Thus, seniors handed down textbooks to the next batch (so very few actually bought textbooks), helped with jobs and scholarships and paid application fees to US Universities.

It was a great place to grow up and to discover the world. We were content will less: thus, my cycle did not have brakes(!), my room did not have window panes and we ate at the hostel canteen on credit.

Yet, the place was rich in ideas and teeming with creativity.

Among other things, IIT taught me to be humble, to be efficient, to understand and appreciate the perspective of others.

The examination (as it was when I sat for IIT-JEE) sought to test you on basic problem solving skills and how you can optimise in terms of choice of the problem that you will attempt.

Thus, unlike some entrance exams, if you worked out the solutions to the last x years question papers, you would be successful: IIT-JEE forced you to think and solve a problem in the examination hall.

I think that the best bet to make it through IIT-JEE is to be thorough in understanding the problems, in contrast to trying to memorise specific problems or problem types.

Also, like all timed tests, it is important to have a strategy to go about the test, so that you can score higher.

To those who make it...

If you think IIT is the destination, well, you're wrong.

Four wild years, you will make lot of friends probably, make some good grades, some bad, land a couple of jobs and/or scholarships, and it'll be over.

IIT education would have been a success if it teaches you to be independent thinking and creativity.

Life will continue to be a learning process, and you will soon discover that there is a lot to do, lot to discover, lot to conquer, after IIT.

And those who don't...

Out of every 50 people who sit for IIT-JEE, 49 will not make it. So is this the end of the road for those who don't make it?

I cannot stress this too much: this is not the end.

One of the biggest lessons in life, I think, is how to deal with failure.

It comes to everybody at some point: kings have been dethroned, Prime Ministers have lost elections... It's just some of the things that you should be able to shrug off, and move on.

Life's too precious to pin all hopes and happiness on a single exam. Besides, here is some comfort: despite the perception of the IIT brand, many of the famous and successful people around you are not IITians: take Bill Gates, Lakshmi Mittal, Dr Manmohan Singh or Amitabh Bachchan.

(Dr Amitabha Ghosh was the only Asian on NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission. At present, he is a member of the Mars Odyssey Mission and the Mars Exploration Rover Mission. He is an alumni of IIT Kharagpur (batch of 1993). )