Applying for IIT Gandhinagar’s Explorer Fellowship, was one of the life changing decisions of our life. If we say that the experience of the whole trip of the explorer fellowship was great and we enjoyed, learned, and found ourselves then this would be unfair to the decorum of the journey itself. The experience of feeling the diversity, beauty and population of 15 states in India is something which certainly cannot be described in words, and is something whose impression couldn’t be overlooked. Each passing day we felt like we were a different person. Each day getting better and better learning new things, learning how to deal with obstacles of life, which were hard to be experienced in a college environment. Initially, while starting the trip it looked like a mountain which felt like was difficult to conquer but is also waiting to be conquered. “It will be very hectic”, “it’s not easy to travel” were our initial words. Most of the people whom we told about the trip and itinerary, were either worried or were laughing at us. But after the end of trip these lines are just meant to be laughed at, and is something we are really proud of. We were so deeply in resonance with the travelling and the adrenaline to visit the next place that every morning was giving us enough energy to make us go out of our comfort zone and looking for things which are just sitting there and waiting for us to be discovered. The places which once were names soon felt like our new home. Each day we were meeting new people, visiting new places, eating at new restaurants, staying in new hotels it was like we were nomads, people with no home, no destinations. Every time someone asked “where are you coming from?” the answer the different, each time we have to put a strain on our head that what was the last destination we were in, and sometimes a funny answer coming from “Many places!! J” Sometimes it gave a smile on the questioner, while other times a strange look. Then out of the excitements we used to tell the person our story. The one thing which sure this fellowship gave to us was sense of belonging new, towards our nation India, towards its people. We really felt the line once used in movie “Chak de India”, “Mujhe states ke naam na sunai dete hai na dikhai dete hai”. We never felt that we were going from Kerala to Tamil Nadu, or to Orissa. We always felt like it was some place which is part of my nation. The fear of being in a new or an unknown place was never there. We always felt we were either in some part of our home city where people looked slight different, wore different clothes, and spoke some different language. Each passing day was a reminder that we were going close to our final destination, the place where we were going to conclude our trip. This was something we used to avoid talking. The time we 4 spend together was the best time we all spend together throughout our 4 years of BTech. carrier and is something are really thankful of IIT Gandhinagar.
Chaar Khojkarta
Nikhil Tank
Senior Undergraduate
Rajat Kumar Gupta
Senior Undergraduate
Shailendra Kumar
Senior Undergraduate
Sourabh Soni
Senior Undergraduate