Be grateful for all the obstacles in your journey; they have strengthened you to continue – Anonymous

This may not be a motivational saying for students of IIT Gandhinagar. If taken in the literal sense, IITGn students will be averse to embarking on any road trip that has obstacles. The institute is currently functioning out of two different campuses, the transit campus in Chandkheda and the permanent campus in Palaj. And the travel between these two campuses is not really a ride to remember. Imagine studying and living in one institute and making a daily commute of 20km to another for lectures. Mumbaiites may still be habitual to such travel, but what about students from IITGn? 

Now to reduce students’ inconvenience, the institute has started a bus service with an hourly frequency at a pre scheduled time. After all, in Gandhinagar, the alternative to taking a bus meant a 400 rupees auto ride that bore a hole in your wallet. Besides, I had heard students complain about the unnecessary time consumption in travelling during exams. One of the students I met in the Chandkheda campus spoke about how he had a delayed lunch during lab sessions, as he spent too much time on travelling. Frankly, since when did 18 year olds start caring about timely lunches? If they were at home, they would probably have their mums run behind them to eat. Anyway, I decided to explore this 20km bus journey that the students endure every day. Although, being a train savvy person from Mumbai, I was not very thrilled about a bumpy bus ride.

IITGn’s bus for students’ travels 

During the first half of my day, an MTech student took me on a tour through the laboratories in the Chandkheda campus. The student so passionately described the physics lab apparatus, while my staple reaction to almost every such description was ‘Hmm… Nice’. I felt like I had entered the tardis and was pulled back into 8th class science lectures in school. The ingenious guy, finally understood my subtle hints and informed me that the institute bus to Palaj would leave at 2:10 that afternoon. He then looked down at his watch which read 2:06pm and then said to me with a Sheldon Cooper expression, “you should run”. (Not run, fly… In Mumbai, someone would have handed me a Red Bull)

The 500 metre-run from the labs to the bus stop, with a heavy laptop bag on my shoulder and stilettoes on sore feet, did not make me feel like an athlete. I breathed so hard, even those in the last seat could hear me pant. Thanks to Mr Modi’s works in Gujarat, the bus didn’t keep jerking over potholes and speed breakers, unlike in Mumbai. A smooth ride, alongwith a window seat and I would be the Sleeping Beauty in the bus, if only I wasn’t out of breath. We covered a 22km stretch in a little over half an hour. Even the Mumbai railway locals wouldn’t cross that much distance in 30 minutes. 

I soon realised that travel inconvenience was not really an issue amongst students. When it comes to time, frankly, if you have ever visited any IIT campus, you’d realise that it could take you almost 15-30 mins to stride up to places within the campus itself. I understand this is not a fair comparison, but in all, the travel facilities aren’t a put off for the students. What is, is the frequency with which such detours have to be made.