This semester was so good that I think it really does deserve a post of its own, just in case I forget whatever that happened. I took a bit of a different route while coming to campus this time around. I had spent 2 days in Mumbai and took the train from there. Mumbai is so good, I think I love Mumbai more than Bangalore or any other city I’ve been in. Anyways, this semester I decided to overload. That meant, I would have to do one extra course. I had Statistical Mechanics, Advanced Quantum Mechanics, Introduction To Gravity & Cosmology, Modelling Complex Systems, Science & Society and Advanced Electronics Lab (though I never had a Basic Electronics Lab).
January was when the hackathon at Thapar happened. I went into the hackathon expecting to get absolutely obliterated by the other teams. I mean come on, me and my teammate, we aren’t AI specialists or anything. But I think I under-estimated us quite a lot. We may not have been the best at AI there but I think we were really good at creating innovating ideas and working under a stressful environment. I am so happy to have won 3rd place in it. When I look back at those days, I can’t help but smile a little about the journey. The late night brainstorming session, the raspberry pi breaking and us fixing it, those very frustrating moments are all nothing but sweet memories now. I wish I get to do it again, and it might actually happen in 8th sem.
January and February
I really did have a complete life in January. I was studying fine enough, I was playing games like F1 and Ghost of Tsushima, I was able to do the hackathon. I ended January with a lot of confidence in myself that maybe 2026 could in fact be my year. Then midsems happened. I think its quite apt to say that it kinda crushed my confidence. I mean stat mech was a complete disaster, I could’ve scored a 20/20 or atleast more than 15 in AQM and could’ve gotten more than average in my HSS course. I guess it was kind of after this that I decided to be a bit more serious. But still I didn’t really lose out on extra curriculars. In February, I was part of organising Turing’s algorithmic trading event for Tattva 2026. This was 3-4 days before my second midsems started and I kinda fell sick during that event. I didn’t expect midsem 2 to go well, and maybe that’s why it kind of went well. I scored decently good in every course except stat mech, which I messed up quite amazingly well.
March
March was good, amazingly good I should add. I went to Kareri, which is a lake trek in Himachal Pradesh. The trek was wonderful, it started off with a trail through the forest, during which it rained so it made the experience even better. Then the terrain changed and soon I was walking across bouldlers. After nearly 7 hours of climbing, we reached the top and decided to camp there. The experience was really good, and I think it was because of the fact that I had great company. I am the kind of person who like spending time with myself quite a lot. The trek had amazing views which was perfect for some introspection. With the company I had, I knew I wasn’t going to be judged for it, and I think that’s the definition of great friends. Well the next day we went to the lake top and saw the views there. I don’t think I have seen a better view in my life. Up top, peacefully quiet (except some guys who were blasting some music which I went and stopped). I was with myself, and my thoughts and I think for the first time in nearly 3-4 months, that’s when I felt some peace. I sat there next to the lake, looking at the mountains and I started playing Dekho by Kaavish in my earphones. Life was certainly not perfect then, and it is certainly not perfect now, but I was at peace, at long long last, I was at peace.
Here are some pictures from the trek.
April
Well if there’s anything I’ve learned being at IISER is that, the month of endsem means you get no rest. I was buried in assignments and submissions. But amongst all this something surprising happened. On the day of Vishu of 2026, I was cooking my lunch while suddenly I got a mail. It said, “You’ve been provisionally selected for IITM summer fellowship program”. One might assume I was happy, or I was jumping around and stuff. I started denying that I got the internship. Yeah, classic me. Somewhere during this time the interbatch football tournament was happening. We could secure third only, yet again. Maybe next time we will win first (I sure hope so). I checked the portal, clicked some buttons and I got the offer letter. Still it took me nearly 30 minutes, friends and my brother to convince me that I had actually gotten the internship (In my defence I was thrown away by their use of provisionally, thinking “oh they’ll give it to someone else”). I mean I was a physics student, who doesn’t know anything about engineering and now I am going to be working at the Aerospace department at IIT Madras, it was pretty hard to believe. Before I could really enjoy this, endsems started. Luckily I only had 3 exams and a huge break of a week before stat mech. The exams went fine, GR and AQM was a bit tough for me but I managed somehow.
Concluding
Right now I am at IIT Madras, and if there’s any way I can describe how my sixth semester went, I would say I am happy. I did good academically, played football (occasionally), went on trips, won a hackathon and got selected to a hackathon in Bhopal which we couldn’t go due to exams. Overall it was a great experience and I sure hope this continues :)
Hopefully I shall be more active regarding blogs from now
