A bronze medal and a Nehru jersey: GC 2023–24

If you’ve only read the other posts here, you might think most of my college life involved robots, Python, and trying to get applications running.

There was basketball too. Quite a bit of enthusiasm for it, actually.

I’m a big NBA fan, especially of Steph Curry. My love for basketball probably shows through my username on almost every coding platform too. 🐐

So getting to play for Nehru Hall in IIT Kharagpur’s 2023–24 General Championship was something I was excited about.

I was in my third year, and in March 2024, I got to put on a Nehru jersey and play alongside this team.

A little context for the non-KGP folks

The General Championship, or GC, is an inter-hall competition at IIT Kharagpur. Halls compete across sports, socio-cultural events, and technology.

For me, this particular part of GC meant basketball: playing for the hall I lived in, with people I shared that part of college life with.

Watching the NBA and playing a competitive game yourself are, of course, very different experiences. Being a Curry fan gives you plenty of inspiration. Unfortunately, it does not automatically give you his shooting range. XD

Still, I loved getting out there and competing.

Getting to the semifinals

We had some close games on the way to the semifinals. There were strong teams from the other halls, and we had to work for our place.

A lot of that came down to how we played together. We discussed our approach, communicated on the court, and tried to make things work as a team.

That’s something I enjoyed about the competition. I could have all the enthusiasm in the world for my own game, but there were other people on the court who I needed to work with. We had to figure it out together.

Reaching the semifinals meant we were still in contention for a medal. We eventually found ourselves playing for bronze.

One more game, and bronze

We had one more match to play, with a medal on the line.

We won it.

Bronze for Nehru Hall. I was very happy about that one. :)

It felt good to finish the competition with something to show for the effort we’d put in together. I got to share that result with the same people I’d been playing alongside through the earlier rounds.

Here’s the Awaaz IIT Kharagpur post I wanted to keep with this memory:

Keeping this one here

There are technical projects from college that I’m proud of, and then there are experiences like this. I wanted both to have a place on this website.

Basketball was something I loved following and got to enjoy playing with a team of my own. GC gave us competitive games, a result we could be happy about, and a team photo I’m glad I have.

Looking back now, I’m happy this was part of my time at KGP. Somewhere between the coursework, robotics meetings, and code, I got to wear a Nehru jersey and come away with bronze.

I’ll take that.