Achintya Goyal

Achintya was the Chief Editor of Insight in 2022-23 and an undergraduate in the Department of Chemical Engineering. He attests to thriving in high-stakes situations, and carved a new name for himself amongst the Main Building (or Nandan Nilekani Main Building as we now call it) populace  – The Greenheaded Kid. Oh, did we forget to mention, he also secured admits to Purdue, Penn State and Waterloo once upon a time (yes, we are in as much awe as you). Enjoy this fun conversation:

Q. Tell us a bit about how your journey started here.

I was born in Dharamshala, but I was brought up in Navi Mumbai and have spent 18 years of my life in Mumbai. I attended a single school throughout my academic journey. When it came to choosing a college, I joined IIT Bombay only because my cousin was studying at IIT Bombay, and he convinced me that it was the right choice, no matter which branch I ended up in. All my top 7 choices in JoSAA were branches in IIT-B. I am a Mumbaikar through and through and even my job now is based here.

Q. There’s a whole bunch of activities you explored in the institute, of course apart from your two years of association with Insight. Tell us about some of it.

I used to play football. However, in my first year, I almost did not fill NSO football as an option, owing to imposter syndrome from not playing since two years. I studied a lot in the first semester and spent the rest of my time in football. In the 2nd semester, I realised I did not need to study as much for marks; and well, I ended up not studying at all for my midsems. 4 hours of intense football everyday was part of my schedule, owing to NSO and Inter IIT practices. I had the idea that I would catch up in the endsems.

However, things took a turn when the scores for the semester got calculated through extrapolation of marks from midsems because of COVID. I had wanted to branch change into electrical or mechanical engineering but I ended up in chemical. Chemical is one tough branch; despite core courses being reduced to half during the online semester, it was still tough. The difficulty curve goes up and down for other branches but is one straight line for chemical, stressful all throughout. Tough times together, however, allow for shared pain and thus bonding, resulting in great friendships.

I was part of the Mars Rover Team from the beginning of second semester until fifth semester. I looked forward to competitions in US and Europe but never experienced them because of COVID. I never got the chance to actually touch equipment until very late. The juniors to whom I had transferred my knowledge knew more about assembling than me. I felt obsolete, that I was unable to catch up, and thus, left.

Cult never appealed to me as much. I had a bunch of friends in Literati and Debsoc, but never ended up showing up in those events. I gained a slight interest in music because of a friend and attended Symphony events since the sixth semester. I tried learning drums after that (PS: tried).

Q. Tell us about your journey at Insight.

Funnily, I was not considering joining Insight as an editor but rather as part of their data team, which existed back then. I was influenced by three friends who were applying for editorial positions, whilst on a trip together to Lonavla. Ironically, all of them three backed out within a week and it was me alone who finished the process. 

I had talked to only one senior who had been in Insight, and did not know enough about the body. I was paranoid and unprepared during the interview, but somehow made it. Later, I was told that the reason I was selected was because the then-Chief Editors found me interesting and were bored by the mostly monotonous interviews.

Very honestly, I suck at writing, and need to reiterate everything that I write at least ten times. My writing tone is EXTREMELY SARCASTIC. And if you read them out of context, it will seem like someone shouting on paper. 

The editorial board tenure felt slow to me. Sometime around peak January, however, the groundworks for the position of Chief Editor begun. Alongside, few of us editors got very interested in the election processes that were on-going in the institute. My days during those times started and ended with Insight, I was either taking a groundwork, or working on the election article or working on stuff for the Chief Ed selection process. We had been on the election article panel for 6 months, but ended up doing the actual writing only during the last three weeks in January. My friends were genuinely concerned about me passing courses that sem, and I even ended up failing one of my minor courses. Ironically, I partied more during that sem than anytime else. 🙂

It was during these times that I found my core friend group that lasted through all college life thereon.

Q. Something that you are proud of as your journey here at IITB comes to an end?

I think what I am most proud of is the Insight team that I was able to form as a Chief Editor. Not a lot of people get to manage a team this huge, and I consider myself lucky for this. One expects standard issues that any team of such a size would face, but I never felt so. The team always made everything seem not too tough, and even if we messed up anything, there were always elements of fun to it, the people around me always made life easy. 

Q. What is your biggest regret?

My biggest regret is never making it to Inter IIT Football, I had an injury in my first year, and placements in my last year and ultimately, never got a chance. I was extremely active in the football scene initially. In fact, even during the online semesters, despite not being a convener, I still took some practices online, and there would be thirty random juniors exercising before me on cameras.

Q. Some interesting facts about you?

There was this one time when I went for an interview with a Dean to the main building in campus. It was not until I walked out of the interview that I realised my t-shirt said ‘Peace is not an option!’ 😛

Also, I have never missed a single Barcelona match in college life; this includes 38 league matches, 6 European matches, some friendly matches, that gives a total of around 50, each match time being an hour and a half.

Oh, also, I do not eat mangoes. 

Q. What are your future plans as of now?

Being in consult, I will be working half the year, and travelling around for the remaining half. I had initially been planning on a deferred MBA, but the funny thing is I do not have a GMAT score until now, despite going to give it twice. The first time, I was not allowed into the centre as I forgot my passport (well, I later heard that some people still managed to get in, I wonder if the bias was because of my green-coloured hair then :P). The second time technical glitches caused me to lose on time, but on the brighter side, I now have an exam available to me until May 2024. 

Q. What would be your message for your juniors?

Given how serious seniors batches are about certain things, my advice would be to take things a little less seriously. Trust me on this, when you look back you won’t think much about such stuff. Of course, don’t do stuff that constitutes public indecency but have as much fun as you can, that is all you will look back upon later in life. You will remember those 3am rides to Marine Drive, or those random zoom car rides where you end up reaching Lonavala. You are not going to realise how time flies in college, so make the most out of it! 

Q. Favourite places in insti:

Roofs! H2 roof, H17 (best roof in insti)

For me, my H2 room will top the list.

Also the box room, it was ‘the’ centre for all activities, and I have left a lot of things back there.

Q. What genre would you say your life here was like?

Drama, maybe not drama technically, but my life was basically all vibes with few tinges of seriousness here and there.

Q. What are some realisations as you leave behind this place?

If I were to do college again, I wouldn’t mind trading everything, except the friends I made. I never felt the need to put in efforts to find these amazing people, and anything good that happened with me happened through them (insert heart emoji). Looking back upon it, I think I could’ve done with spending a lot less time complaining, but rather enjoying more. IITB literally spoils you with the amazing environment it gives you. The amount of freedom you are afforded here, at such a low price, is unparalleled even in comparison with other IITs, so take a moment to appreciate the good. Most admin and representative decisions here actually turn out for the better in the longer run, and we need to learn to appreciate it.

One day you are going to get kicked out of this place, and you won’t even realise how much you are going to miss those random 2 am meetings in canteens or walks to Hiranandani. Once you are out of this place, even scheduling some short meet becomes tough.