In football, Ila totally dominated the field – the opposite team actually tried to make a foul every time Ila got the ball – he was that good. The game finally went down to penalties. Our Sports Secretary at the time, Hic, was the goalie. He did an awesome job saving some of the penalty strokes. I don’t exactly remember who scored for us, but we won the match, and after a few minutes of wildly running in the field and shouting “Madras Madras”, we rushed to the Volley court.
The volleyball finals was an extremely close match. It went down till the last set; I guess we were down 1-2 after 3rd set. And here too, we ultimately won. And as we were leaving the Volley court, someone got a call saying that we won in TT too. It was like a dream – the IITM contingent started off poorly, then I made a record, our team dominates in Weightlifting and wins Gold, 3 teams in finals in the last day, we go to cheer 2 of them and both of them win and then there’s a call saying we won in the third too. That was one of the most memorable days of my life. There were celebrations everywhere.
IIT Madras, which performed terribly up in 2009, falling from a second place in 2007 and 2008, comes back to win the GC in 2011. And since we had lost in March Past, during the Closing Ceremony, the moment the GC trophy was awarded to Hic (the Sports Secretary), we all run to him and then we began marching in the stadium – at around 6 30 PM, the entire IIT Madras contingent marched in the stadium,. We were called back by the organizers before we were done with the marching, but we still went marching and running and shouting, before the ceremony was over.
2011 proved to be a bigger challenge than 2010. We had won the title and now we had to keep it. We were faced with 3 major problems: Moot dropped out of the institute and joined a sports science course in DU. Bala had graduated from the institute. ISI had to do a 6 month internship outside Chennai. The 3 of them were worth 9 points (3 silvers). Lalu wanted to focus on academics and placements the following year and so he left the team. I became the new captain. The first task was to find replacements for Moot, Bala and Lalu. The replacements were not expected to perform on par with the seniors and the rest of us had to make up for the lost points. And I had moved into the next weight category- from under 62kg class to under 69kg class. And so I had to fight even harder to get a gold in the heavier class.
Practice in the even semester of 2011 wasn’t very good. It was in the odd semester that we upped the ante. Moot was very seriously missed. It wasn’t just the points, but his general attitude towards the sport, the level of commitment he would bring into his lifts. Dropping out of IITM to take Sports Science in DU says something about the man. Without Moot and ISI, my enthusiasm also slightly dropped. And then there were 4 new guys in the team – Manoj, Prudhvi, Devendra and Vinayak. Venu, Riyaz and Sai Chand had to be left out of the team.
We introduced Weightlifting in Sportsfest, and we managed to win the Gold. I actually gave one of my worst performances, second only to my performance in inter IIT 2009, but luckily there were no other good lifters in my category and I won Gold. Then, we also participated in the Chennai District competition, where our team came second in the Amateurs class. I got a Silver there. Since Moot left, ISI, Vikrant and I were the guys competing against each other now. Then came Schroeter. It wasn’t as good as it was in 2010 since we had already reached a good level and our lifts had begun to saturate. In trying to break my personal record, I lost the “Best Lifter” title I held in 2009, 2010 to Balaji. The new guys were promising, but they were not ready yet to make their mark in inter IIT.
Main camp came yet again, and this time it was Asif’s turn to get injured during Main Camp. Other than that, our practice was going good. We stopped playing cricket in the mornings. When Moot, ISI and Vikrant were in the team, we had a a lot of fun. With ISI busy with placements, Moot having left IITM and Vikrant busy with his end semesters (IIIT had their final exams during our main camp), the general attitude of the team towards Inter IIT became more serious, more desperate and less, for want of a better word, enthusiastic. The time came to leave for IIT Kharagpur. Kharagpur was a proper village and that became very clear when we went in the bus from the railway station to IIT Kgp. I guess I saw some 5-6 hospitals in the route, and very few general stores or such other shops.
This Inter IIT was more about living up to the reputation (I held all 3 records – Snatch, Clean n Jerk and total life, in the under 62kg class), retaining the Gold and guiding the juniors in the team. I was the Captain and I’m a 4th year student. This time too, there was one major problem. ISI was busy with his placements. He said he would come in time for the competition. He very well might have ended up having an interview on that day. We just hoped that he’d come on time.
The first few days were not that exciting. We didn’t want to do anything crazy till our competition ended. We rarely went for cheering, unlike the previous years. We spent most of our time watching other teams practice, looking out for the best lifters of each team. I don’t know how friendly the teams in other sports are, but in Weightlifting, all members of all IITs are good friends. Especially IITM and IITB teams have a good relationship – we meet the team and talk to their coach, we relax together, we encourage each other and we cheer when someone is lifting. No team attempts to demotivate the lifters of other teams. Everyone encourages everyone else when they’re attempting heavy weights. And at the end of the day, we all congratulate each other and wish each other luck for the next year.
Our competition started, in the best way it possibly could. Balaji got a Gold in the Under 56kg category. It was undecided till the last call and he managed to complete the lift. And then in the Under 62kg category, Dilli came fourth. The guy who came second in under 62kg was after my record. He broke the record I set in Snatch – mine was 73 and he did 75kg. And when he did that, the referees called me on to the stage and made me congratulate him – probably the first time something like that happened in inter IIT, and it felt good and bad at the same time. Good since it was acknowledged officially that I held a record, and bad because it was broken just the next year. He couldn’t break my other 2 records though. That was Day 1 of Weightlifting. ISI was still in IITM when Balaji got a Gold. He got placed that afternoon and took the next flight to Kolkata, got on a train to Kharagpur and by the time he reached our hostel, it was about 4 AM. He didn’t get any sleep and the competition started that same day at 12 noon.
