On Day 2, first up was the Under 69kg category. There was something interesting about that category – the Captains of IITB, IITK, IITH, IITG, IITKgp, IITD, and of course myself, were all in that category. And the competition started – my best competition ever. For the first time, I had to work extremely hard for the medal, and I won it. I had to fight for it in Inter IIT 2009, but I made mistakes. I was 1kg down in Snatch, but it didn’t matter, I knew I was too good in Clean & Jerk. I just waited for the rest of the lifters to finish their calls. I had to do 98kg for Gold and I did it. I had a slight back pain I had gotten during the warm up session and I was a little hesitant in attempting 106kg (which would be a new inter IIT record). I wanted to go for 100kg and be done with it. Then it flashed across my mind that I already won the Gold and even failing in that particular lift or a minor injury would mean nothing, I had lots of time to recover, and I went for it. Of course, there was encouragement from everyone – my team obviously, IITB team, and also all other competitors from other teams. And I broke the new record, creating a new one.
In the Under 77kg, ISI did the best he could but he could only manage a Bronze. Considering he didn’t practice at all and he was totally exhausted, it was a commendable feat. On the third day, it was the above 77kg category. It finally came down to this – both Manoj and Asif had 2 calls left for each of them. If one of them lifted one call, the team gets gold, or we’d be tied with Bombay. In the first attempt, Manoj lifted 87kg, and we got our gold and that’s how our story ended. I was also the ‘Best Lifter’ of the competition. From 2008 to 2011, I came from being a new kid in the team to the captain of the Gold winning team in inter IIT.
When our competition was over, we had realized that Kharagpur was a totally free place, you could enjoy yourself in many ways. I’d just say I made good use of the freedom they offered – after all, I deserved it. And what better time to enjoy the freedom than when celebrating with the team and friends?
The night after the competition, we decided to check out the prison cells and the building beside it as they were supposed to be haunted. We visited that place 3 times and had a lot of fun. It would take too much space to describe it here. The rest of Inter IIT was spent a little passively. Winning Gold did not make us overjoyed, it was only a relief; a job well done. Everyone gave their best, it was like a perfectly executed plan. We spent all our time eating, enjoying, and watching other matches.
We won Gold in TT. I couldn’t see the match, but I heard that the TT finals was one of the best ever played in inter IIT, Gopal, IITM’s captain beating Delhi’s best player (I think). Like our team bounced back in 2010, the basketball team were at their peak in 2011. The basketball final was a treat to watch, with our players totally dominating the opposition (we also had a lot of fun cheering). Unfortunately, the football team lost to IITK when the Kanpur team played 2 illegal players who were just too good for any inter IIT team (IITD won gold and our team actually beat IITD in the leagues). The volleyball team had a bad run too, losing to IITKgp in semis, but they managed to get a Bronze. In hockey, it went to penalties again. I think Ganapathy finished it, with his funny but extremely effective shoot (or whatever they call it). And then on the last day there was Athletics.
Teacher (Siva Teja) told us that we had to win the Gold in 4×100 relay for us to win the GC. Asif, Milli Joule (Amit Mastud) and I were sitting together. We didn’t win in the relay. We had lost the GC. We started walking out of the stadium, trying to get out as fast as we can so that we don’t have to come across the IITB guys shouting and taunting. We were almost near the Stadium exit when we saw that our contingent was celebrating. Confused, we ran back, and we heard “Who won the GC? Madras! Madras!”. It was a great feeling to know that it was actually us who won the GC. Teacher had miscounted IITB’s points. In the end, we won the GC by 0.5 points. And that half point was because of March Past. This time again, when the GC was given, the contingent ran with the trophy on the athletics track. But I didn’t, it wasn’t the same feeling as we had in 2010. This time it was not excitement, but a silent pride and relief.
And then there is something else I realized in Inter IIT 2011 – students from all the IITs fight it out, literally, on the field. We taunt and abuse. But when its all over, no one cares about all the rivalries. When Inter IIT was about to end, every guy from every IIT we met on the street was very friendly, everyone has the same feeling. We’re rivals only on the field, but off it, we are not. The Sports Secretary of IITB said that he did a lot of things during the matches but that was all in the heat of the moment and we all shook hands and left. Then we met some IIT Roorkee guys and we talked like we were old friends meeting after a lot of years.
I guess being a part of the IIT Madras Weightlifting team is the single biggest part of my life in campus and it has made me what I am now. I must thank the hockey team, Saurabhnath, Suspi, Kass, Praveen and especially Meena and Millijoule for making inter IIT 2011 as memorable as it is. I’m really happy that The Fifth Estate gave me the chance to let me describe my experience. Inter IIT truly is the best part of my life at IIT Madras.
And I dedicate this line for the inter IIT contingent (Only they will understand) –
“Ale maangdo… ha, hey hey … hi hi, hi hi.. ha hey hey, he he he…”
