My life as a mentor

I have written, previously, about my time in my hostel, with my friends, in the institute and also in my dreams. But, this one was definitely due, an aecdote-ish outline of my time with the mentorship program in IIT Delhi and my time as a mentor.

When I came to IIT in my first year, on my first day itself, my hostel's BSW representatives told me about my mentor. I knew his name, Aniket Bose, and phone number, but never had the guts to call him, for I was scared. I asked around in the hostel for him, but all seniors made no attempt to help me find him, making it very mysterious. It took me almost three days to identify him and talk with him, asking questions about my department ad hostel life. I was having tough time adjusting, not being out of home before this. He helped me figure out my problems and how to tackle them in the best possible ways. Accompanying him were some of the finest seniors I ever met, who were from the same department and hostel, who guided me for the next two years in all ways possible. Nishant Ranka, who made things clear as a crystal whenever I consulted him, was very passionate for striving for excellence. Sankalp, who always followed his heart, always asked to do what I wanted, and not what others asked me to do. Tejesh Kinariwala, who was always happy, was an efficient guide, providing with solutions to every problem.

As the end of second year came and they began to wrap up things to start their new innings, I decided that I would take upon myself to do the same for my fellow juniors. I was in Bangalore when someone told me that we have to fill up forms to become mentors and that we will be interviewed. I was not the brightest among all, nor the one with highest grades, but I knew I had it in myself that to become a mentor. I passed the interview process and became one of several, almost 130 mentors, obliged to provide quality uidance to the freshers allotted to us. I was given eleven of them, all in my hostel, to mentor. Akash, Kundan, Sachin, Vaibhav, Sanyam, Abhay, Vaibhav, Samarth, Anurag, Raghav and Amit, they all were pretty straight-forward characters with high ambitions and telent, typical to all IITians. They were stiff in the beginning, but gelled well with the people and the system. They went on to become very good friends of mine. Going to their wing while climbing to my second floor room, calling them up to find out their marks and grades, calling group meetings, joking around with them, partying around with them, solving their personal doubts regarding registration when they came to my room, repeating the same thing to all of them every time they came to me and so many other things; these are hard to forget, as they made up huge part of my life in the past two years. I scolded them whenever I wanted, asking them to do my personal work (not very personal), encouraging them to take up some activity for the hostel or for themselves, laughing at their dismal performance in courses, discussing some of their bad performances for hours in the balcony, wasting their time by telling them anecdotes from time before they came; all these are unforgetful.

I won't go into personal details for all of them, they still have a long way to go in their IIT lives. I wish all the luck to them and I believe it to be a work well done when I see my role as a mentor in their lives.