On the movement called ABCD

It all started when I talked to one of my favorite seniors, Ashish Kushwaha, around 15 days ago. He related to me that they will be calling us in the order of decreasing CGPA during convocation. I was disturbed when I got to know this. I just couldn't help myself visualizing the sad face of my parents when they would've waited seeing more than half of my department-mates collecting their degrees, to catch a glimpse of me. I could see them feeling a bit discontented at the public display of my inferiority in front of others. It's not that they don't have trust in me or they don't support what I'm doing; it's just that, much like every other parent, they expect me to outperform everyone in everything I do. Well, that's justified on their part, after all they have put so much hard work on me and I'd been, much like every other IITian, one such student in the past. The feeling of disappointment clouded my mind for two days.

The feeling subsided, the anger dissolved. Some days later, I received a mail regarding convocation procedure, from the IIT administration. When I went through the procedure which involved rehearsals, I lost my mind, on the fact that the same feeling was going to be pushed through my vein not once, but twice. I was utterly frenzied and in a split moment, I updated my status message with a self-pacifying, impulsive, condescending status message, which looked like this:

The angry status update caught immediate attention from people around. Within 10 minutes, our very dear Saurabh Gupta, IR #1, commented on the status saying that he too was against this. His one comment provided me enough impetus to take steps to get rid of the damn thing! I created the google form and shared it on my FB profile. And soon, it spread like fire. My friend, Vikas Prajapati, being the first one to ignite the movement. I was amazed to see the support and response. 180 responses in 12 hours, 320 in 24, 435 in 48 hours. Every time when I think about how it has turned out, I get thrilled. A viral movement within IIT has been instigated on just one angry note. Anger, if directed towards a right cause, can actually bring a positive change(let's hope so).

Saurabh Gupta - the inspiration, Vikas Prajapati - the first supporter and I are going to meet the Dean, UGS; once I return back to Delhi on 4th July to take the matter further. I'm thankful to all the supporters, I just hope that the administration understands our cause and embraces a positive change, which is fair and just to everyone.

And regarding all the academic performers who are concerned, you don't need to worry - they specially award the best academic performers, after the degree has been conferred. Cheers to your academic excellence.

P.S. Please take no offence of the status message, since it was impulsive and self-pacifying, for I felt bad. Geeks are talented. Even Zuckerberg was one, who made this little viral movement of ours possible.

NOTE: the DNA of IIT has changed. From 2012, they started calling students in alphabetical order. Our little movement registered its effect.