Ashutosh Sharma

Mr. India, that was the nickname we gave Ashutosh when we would spend days without having seen him. He is one of the most hard-working persons I have known. He is a man with a heart for contributing to society, to help others. When you think you understand Mr. India, you are beginning to scratch the surface. Beneath that smiling face of his, the man who tries to make fun with you, is a responsible person who is well rooted in culture and traditions. He is quite aware of what people expect of him and tries to fulfill his responsibilities and I would say he has done more than fulfill them by now. He has also had his share of controversies and one of them involves a pic that I snapped with him. I don't know how people find that objectionable but some started doubting his orientation (I wouldn't do that though, I am certain about it :D). I would also remember him for his immaculate knowledge of various topics, may it be quantum physics or astrology or even some ancient indian scripture detailing various postures. I was talking about yoga, what did you think? Whatever you thought, Mr. India would know that too.

Susheel Kumar Suman

Susheel or, as he likes to call himself, SKS is one of the few persons I know who appreciate my sense of humour :) . He is a man who thinks logically. I have never seen him getting upset or emotional over anything. He is always the one for analyzing things and he finds logical solutions to the problems. He is also a great sportsperson. I haven't played a game yet in which he could not beat me and he gives me a run for my money on computer games too. This guy is also passionate about Formula One (he is the only one that I have known). Another interesting thing about him is his habit of using snail mail. He still uses it to correspond with certain friends and we can hardly understand why he still does it. Of course, all mails are classified top secret and we haven't had access to them :( . Many people might not know but he is a female magnet. He knows how to talk, what to say, and when to act :) . Wishing you good luck in your future endeavours.

Amit Chandra

Chandu.. Bihari.. $@$%@.. whatever name you give him, Chandu will always greet you with a smile. I got to know him quite well early on coz he was in my section in pur first year and those days when we would spend our time preparing lab reports, he would describe his sef-devised experiments to us. I would say some of his experiments ought to be included in the curriculum too; not in PHY or CHM but in BSBE ;). He is one of those people who can easily frustrate anyone with their description of the non-ordinary :D. There is one thing about him that I really don't like. Its his lovelife. He does have a very healthy one but sadly does not like to share with us(pun intended ;) ). There are good things about a person and the bad ones but thinking about Chandra you can never think good ones. You will always remember his sly smile, decietful eyes, the innocent expression and the false promises; all aimed at getting you to help him out and that is the only time you can understand what he is saying. The rest of the time he speaks faster than anyone can comprehend :D. When a man has such bad things in his account and still manages to be a good friend, he certainly should have done something right which escaped others' notice and Chandu is one such man.

Shantanu Maheshwari

Shanu is a wonderful man. He is the joker, the lover, the cricketer, the fan (an ardent one of SRT and SRK) and what not. Above all, he does everything with a passion (atleast when he is not sleeping :) ). The best thing about him is his ability to think logically (when he is thinking of course). I would say I am yet to see a more logical person than him. There is, about Shanu, a zeal to do things and when he is in that mode of his, he can outperform almost everyone (one exception being his defeat at my hands in Trackmania :) ). Above all of these, I have found Shanu to be a great friend. Beneath that funny exterior of his lies a serious mind which he rarely uses ;), but when he does he can find solutions to all your problems (but not his). There are various other things about him that I have learnt over the years and he still amazes me when I expect him to crack a joke on a topic but instead he starts engaging himself in the discussion with such an intensity you have no option but to agree. This zeal, intensity or whatever you wish to call is the most interesting thing I find about him. He may lie dormant for however long time but when he starts doing things he is a force to reckon with.

Mohd. Asif Khan

When I first heard this long name Mohd. Asif Khan, I thought itna bhaari naam! aadmi kaisa hoga! and the man didn't disappoint either :). Asif is a person who likes interacting with people. Many say he is a very lucky chap but its not just luck that sees him achieve great heights. Its his ability to connect with people. There are some people who just get lucky then there are those who complement their luck with their hard work. Asif falls in the latter category. There is a lot more to Asif than luck and hard work and the easiest way to find out would be to pass through the wing corridoor and from one of the rooms you'll hear an unmistakable voice which belongs to Asif. Its not that he is a great singer but he can mimic certain voices much better than others ;). For a long time Asif has been the funny guy of our wing and he enjoys the attention he gets (it seems so ;) ). After spending all these years with him I sometimes feel apologetic towards him because I believe it was my company which led a sincere student to start bunking classes :(. Asif has had one of the most accomplished lovelife of us all. On the last count that I heard, he had fallen for his 27th true love :D.

Aman Bhatia

Aman was my roommate for an year and a half and I am still waiting for the answer to two things about him:

1) Why does he not even chat with girls (there was one who would try to chat with him, but this little man would never listen to us)?

2) Will he marry Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Korean or a hybrid?

Well second question will be answered in due course of time. I am afraid I might never get the answer to the first one.

Aman has been en enigma to me from the day one and still continues to do so. He has a particular quality of being nasty. Even though I have been his partner-in-crimes, I always fear when he will turn to me and I will be at the recieving end of his pranks. His height sets him apart and believe me he makes full use of it when he is trying to hit you :D. Apart from his mischievous demeanour, he has a quality of sleeping through a class. Even though most of exercise it, he has mastered the art. This semester he has been reported sleeping in a group discussion where when he woke up he said a few sentences and went back to sleep. Another incident reported him sleeping him with his head tilted upwards and his mouth open as if waiting for something to fall into his mouth. When after all of these activities, someone scores a CPI of 9.8, wouldn't you consider that an enigma?

Ankit Kala

Ankit Kala, one of the few friends that I could share anything with but he would laugh at my face if I told him I was going to propose someone. Kala is a man of various shades. He is a sincere student, a great cricketer, a talented flirt(chips in with his advice when I chat with some girl but I ignore him most of the time), a dedicated lover(he has had only one serious crush that I know of) and a great friend. He is the man who works behind the scenes to make it happen. With friends, Kala is as casual as a man can be; In his company it is hard to get bored but when he is working you cannot a find a more serious man. I have seen this side of him when he worked for Rithambara and Techkriti. He is also a very honest man except for the times when he copies assignments, projects and various other things. I am saying he is honest because after doing such things he does not laugh them off like most of us. He repents his laziness and decides (only decides :) ) to do his work himself in future. Last but not the least, he is a great singer. Of course, as it happens with all great personalities, their greatness is not recognized by their contemporaries and, I am afraid, so has it been with Kala and a great talent lies wasted :D .

Sumit Agrawal

This is the first in a series of testimonials that I am going to write about the friends that I have made during my stay at IITK. I chose Sumit for the first testimonial because he was the first person I was introduced to when I came here.

Sumit was my roommate for an year and a half when I came to IITK and has been a friend ever since. There are many things I like about him and many things I don't. Still, what matters is what you remember that person by. I'll always remember Sumit for his quest to find out his goal in life. I can say that he is trying to do that with more effort than most of the people. His association with spiritual and devotional activities is also a result of that quest. We have had long chats on that topic even though I am an atheist (of course with him being the speaker most of the time). As you might have guessed by that, he thinks too much about some things (that's what I feel :) ). His spiritual endeavours are, of course, a great quality that I like about him but that is not the only one and there are various other adjectives that I could give him without thinking twice. He has a very disarming personality and you find yourself trusting him and sharing your problems with him. Also, some say that he acts without much thought or that his acts are sometimes foolish but all the times when I have cared to analyze his actions, there have been reasons which are not obvious to people like me who are too materialistic. I could keep writing loads and loads but I would say that the Sumit I know is a very caring and gentle person. I have really been fortunate to have known him.