AvantGarde

As a tribute to the Late Sreejit Gopalakrishnan (Batch 2003), we are bringing together a collection of memories, anecdotes, personal experiences shared with Sreejit in this article. We hope that through everyone’s contributions, we can keep Sreejit Sir alive in all our memories. The comments to this article would also be incorporated into the article itself.

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Sreejit – was quite simply the life of the party. And in our case the party was being the first MBA batch for IME.  We still remember the first day of our MBA program – all of us entered IIT Kanpur with a dose of hope, expectations and a dash of nervousness. It was first day and the official welcome session with professors ended up on a high note with loads of queries and questions on what the program has in store for us.

The same night, some of us were sitting near hall-4 canteen trying to break ice and get to know each other. One person stood out during our discussions – for his energy and enthusiasm.  And this was the theme which played itself out over the two years we were on campus and out of it. Sreejit commanded immediate respect – due his fantastic ability to connect with everyone. We recently understood that being brought up (his father worked in NMDC) and having worked in NMDC as well– with its campus culture – shaped him, and his amazing linguistic ability to speak at last count over nine languages.

For us, Sreejit – “Mama” – was the fellow, Biryani loving, fellow Hyderabadi.  We still don’t remember how the “Mama” moniker happened, but basically it started of with a jest, and just stuck on from there on.

Life meandered on campus – between classes, assignments, team projects, late night chit chat sessions and the occasional binges – and Sreejit completely immersed himself in student life, always guiding, mentoring, motivating all around him. Well life on campus quickly passed by – and at placement time, we were in the middle of the dot com bust and being the first batch didn’t really endear us to the recruitment scene. Sreejit was the enthusiasm brigade who goaded everyone to try their best. In fact much later, he was instrumental in many careers changing direction for good.

A certain respect for Sreejit carried over to the junior batches of MBA and M.Tech as well.

Sreejit holds a special place in our lives.  We studied together, in many cases worked together in the same companies, in India and abroad.

He touched our lives in many ways – and still remains a part of us, our binding force.

Ramana Kuma, Mandeep Singh –  (MBA batch of 2003)

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Even after so many years when Sreejit was a student here, I remember him as someone who was full with energy and positivity, someone always with friends and participating in various collective activities.

Rahul Varman –Professor, IME Dept., IIT Kanpur

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Sreejit Gopalakrishnan (1973-2011)

MBA Batch of 2003