An AITian at heart

For the last five years, Srijna has always seen a contribution from my pen without fail. This time, I thought I would not have anything substantial to write home about, until I sat down for a chat with Chatty Sir – a senior at AIT (BE E&TC, 2007) and now a batchmate during my post-grad. With our convocation only a handful of days away, he asked me which one I will miss more: my post-grad college or AIT. Within a heartbeat, I replied, “AIT, of course!”


The answer was very simple because there is a very strong sense of belonging when it comes to AIT. A short visit back to the campus, late last year, inspired in me a feeling of homecoming of sorts. I had truly yearned to be back at the place where I actually learnt to live life. I longed for those days when life was all about late-night bakar sessions, lan gaming and surfing, battles over Aakriti, inter-college fest-hopping, flank parties, flank matches, fence climbing, in-times, bike bans, OAC hangouts and scraping through the requisite attendance for each semester. No matter how much we cribbed about the lack of water, electricity and other basic amenities in both NBH and OBH (especially), I would give my right arm to be back at AIT and do it all over again.


I realise now that all the small quirks that we picked up in the first few days, when our heads were shaven and our eyes bashfully averted to the third-buttons of our shirts, remain ingrained in our persona for time immemorial. The will to endure and the spirit to fight back each day are one of the first few things that I internalised at AIT. And then, there were those small nuggets of wisdom you would pick up from any senior-talk you listened in to. Whenever I am part of any conversation with old friends, which is strongly accentuated with words like ‘fight’, ‘bakar’ and the like, a huge smile lights up my face as my thoughts drift to AIT and all the fun we had.


And, the friends you make! No matter how far across the globe you travel, or where you might be working, it’s your old AIT friends whom you will call up at any time of the day and whose houses you will arrive at unannounced in the middle of the night. It is the same group of friends that stood shoulder-to-shoulder with you when you were in a tight spot with your back to the wall, and the same set of people who celebrated with you when you managed to ‘clear’ the exams. I wistfully remember the number of times that friends would back me up, no matter what. It wouldn’t matter whether you were in the right or wrong, you were in trouble and that is all that mattered. Of course, I would admit that my seemingly-unbiased love for AIT is also inspired by a romantic inclination which is well known. However, that is a part of the point I am trying to make here.


Every AITian marches out of the college with a strong passion burning in her/his heart. For some, the passion will be for a cause. For others, it might be towards a sport. Yet another group of people would feel passionately about their work. And almost everybody who passes out of our college learns to feel passionately about the people around them, and fiercely at that. It is this very essence of AIT that separates it from other colleges – many of them much more prestigious, but lacking in that bond and uniqueness of AITians, that transcend hostels, branches, and batches, even.


In today’s world, everything is a rat race. At AIT, you feel impervious to the world outside. Or, at least I did while I was there. The passion that I just spoke about allowed me to get out of bed every morning and look forward to another fulfilling day, which I would spend in the way I deemed to be the most appropriate. The sense of belonging which I mentioned earlier stemmed from the knowledge that I was free to let my passion-driven choices rule my day. It gave me the freedom to experiment and explore to find what suited me best.


AIT is my true alma mater. Over the last six years (collectively) of my graduate and post-graduate education, while academically I would attribute more importance to the last two, it was the first four which have actually been the formative years for being the person I am today. AIT might not have directly led me to where I am headed today, but it is the backbone on which I have been moulded into shape through experiences of several kinds. And, I am eternally grateful for it.


In the words of Mae West, “They say you only live once. But if you do it right, once is enough.” Being an AITian is more than enough.