Hola Freshies,

The sole reason you stand a chance to be an IITian and also a reason why you are reading this is the amount of efforts you've put in over the last two years to achieve this dexterity in PCM. So my regards for achieving this coveted social status and a warm welcome to our community. Now I want to break down a popular saying that has been told to every engineering aspirant ever “IIT nikal lo, bas fir life set hai”. In terms of studies, the life won’t be getting any easier but yes considering other aspects, the life feels worth living.

If you stand somewhere between 4k and 8k in the JEE advanced rank list then you must have faced this dilemma of choosing some branching unheard of a branch in any of the old iits or a core branch at a second or third generation IITs. And if you have zeroed upon the latter, here's a sneak peek into what's my life had been in the last three years at IIT Palakkad.

Given a chance, you all might shoot questions like, how is the hostel life and the mess food? (Or maybe do you people even have hostels or a mess?) What about extra & co-curricular activities? How are the placement statistics? (just to remind you, the institute started three years back so we haven’t had our first placement drive yet). Calm down, fellas! The answers to your questions were possibly not encouraging back then in 2015 but what's interesting is where the institute stands today. And if you haven't noticed it yet, you'll probably do in some years given the rate at which we are growing.

I'll quote an excerpt from an address of our mentor director & the director of IITM, Dr. Bhaskar Ramamurthi - “There Are 3 Key Ingredients For An Institution: The Students, The Faculty & The Infrastructure. The Best Of Each Of Them Fuse Together To Form An Institution As Good As An IIT”.

The faculty and the infrastructure are as per the best for a newly formed Institute. However, the best thing which IIT Pkd has is the environment because of the students coming in. Our students have this extraordinary zeal to work this place. Consider setting up of various clubs (cultural as well as technical), forming department associations, a student-run media body, participating in Inter IIT Meets (Sports+Cult+Tech) etc. etc., IIT Palakkad always had the beginner's luck on its side.

I'd suggest once you join, try out each and every activity running on the campus and then stay consistently active in the one you feel interested the most. It's not just the applause after the performance, but actually the time you spend preparing for it with the most lit bunch of people who share the same passion as yours that keeps you driving through your life at an IIT.

Talking about what's outside the campus, whether you are a travel enthusiast or not, I bet you'll fall in love with God's own country, Kerala. At the last, I would like to share with you some mantras for grabbing the best out of your Pkd life. (Or these are also applicable to life ahead)

·        Be flexible/adjusting (When life gives you lemons, grab a tequila and some salt)

·        Keep traveling (Travel not to escape life but to make sure life doesn't escape you)

·        Keep your professional & personal life separate and try putting your best foot forward in both

·        Learn. Evolve. Repeat.

Thanks for your time reading the article. And I would like to end with,

“There are two great tragedies in life, one is to not get what your heart desires and the other is to get it. The journey is our true reward guys, don’t miss out on enjoying it.”