Always enjoy the journey of learning: Royal Madan

NIT - Raipur

I graduated and started working as a lecturer in an engineering college from July 2013. However, only graduation does not allow you to get promoted. In order to sustain, every individual has to pursue something further, like masters. I too started preparing for GATE in the year 2014 along with my profession as a teacher. With this one year of preparation, I cleared GATE exam with good marks, and a high rank. Looking at the previous year’s CCMT cut-off, I felt I would get a good NIT for pursuing my masters, but because of the high rank, I was in doubt. Soon, the time came when we had to commit to the institution whether we would be continuing the job or not.

I applied for the counselling but didn’t get any NIT. At that time, Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidhyalaya (GGV), Bilaspur had a different admission procedure. One had to apply separately when the notification came. Now, admission can be taken through CCMT. It was the time when GATE scorecard was given as a hard copy. The only option I had was to apply for spot round to get NIT but fortunately or unfortunately, the counselling of GGV got processed earlier and I got the seat. And as I had only one hard copy of the scorecard, so, ethically, I could not apply for any other institutes. I left my job and joined GGV, Bilaspur to pursue MTech in Machine Design. I know I am not the only one to land there because of this reason.

I took admission in the year 2014. The passion to achieve more motivated not only me but all my friends to prepare further for PSUs or for a better institute. Studying at GGV was not a burden, at least not for me and my roommates. I and three friends of mine stayed together in a rented flat. I refused hostel facility, which was given to a few on merit basis, just because I had homesickness and the hostel wouldn’t provide the freedom I had while staying separately. Me and my friends mostly studied a day before exams and still were in the toppers’ list. I was preparing for GATE 2015, but the result was not as I expected, so I continued focusing on my course.

For some reason, I was not liking the way the course proceeded, the teaching process, the syllabus. I and my friends started spending our evening time with kids in a garden near our flat for entertainment. One year passed. Before summer holidays, I heard about internships. I thought it to be a good idea to spend my summer outside and learns some skills. I started applying for internship in all places I got to know through sites like Internshala and Letsintern. Luckily, I got a call from a good institute. I spent 2 months there and learned a lot of things. Basically, it was the internship which helped me in knowing which area I had to work on to write my thesis; otherwise, the task was very difficult.

The internship totally changed my way of doing research and also helped me in exploring new opportunities to present my work through conferences. I strongly recommend my juniors to apply for internship and get selected anyhow to get access to facilities outside. Otherwise, finishing MTech projects is not an easy task without any guidance; and for this reason, most of my classmates either quit the program or did not continue the program even after completing the 3rd semester of the course. One can complete masters with good marks but it is difficult to bag a job since there is no placement assistance. The only thing that counts is what one had done extra while studying, in terms of conferences and publications or courses. At GGV, the fee was very less compared to NITs with the same scholarship, but one had to create his own path, and did not get the support which is desired.

About the Author:

Royal Madan

My name is Royal Madan and I am pursuing PhD from (National Institute of Technology) NIT, Raipur. Still, I always look for opportunities every summer and I am succeeding in that. I have done 8 certifications from NPTEL, EDx, etc. and am currently enjoying this journey of learning.