‘Most Modest Creatures?’ Viral Post on IITians Sparks Heated Debate

A comment from an IIT alumnus about the mediocre nature of college graduates elicited quite a debate on social media, especially X (previously Twitter). The conversation started when an IIT Roorkee alumnus re-shared a post about another anonymous IITian who introduced himself without mentioning his educational background. The user jokingly proceeded to call IITians “the most modest creatures out there”.

The user shared a screenshot of the post that read, “At a session I attended recently, a person introduced himself adding he studied in a ‘college in Kanpur’. Turns out it was IIT Kanpur and he was a sub-100 JEE rank holder.”

The accompanying caption read, “IITians are the most modest creatures out there.”

The remark was an attempt at humour based on an experience wherein a person dismissed being associated with IIT Kanpur despite having a high score in JEE. This gave rise to a combination of positive replies and negative counter-posts from others.

While some users echoed the sentiment, sharing their stories of IITians, others pointed out the majority of IIT graduates weren’t so humble. The concerns raised thereby were that the IITians were always proud of their school and often used the school’s name in conversations they were having.

A user commented, “My friend from school was AIR 17 probably the most down-to-earth, friendly person you could imagine. Although most of them are annoying tbf.”

Another user mentioned, “So we have a new friend who joined here and he also does the same, whenever someone asks about his education all he says is he completed his Engineer from Kanpur. Never mention it’s actually IIT Kanpur.”

A third user said, “I used to work with air 1 (mains). He was as down to earth as a person can be.”

However, some users disagreed and mentioned, “Iitians I have met won’t go five minutes without mentioning that they are from IIT.”

Another comment read, “No they are not. They brag about Iitjeet from their graves.”

“One or two out of the hundreds – IITians are nowhere near being modest until it comes to the ones who just took the last branch for the sake of getting into IIT”, read a comment.

Author Ankur Warikoo also shared his story of meeting a young man during a flight who was actually an IIT and IIM graduate. The man, who Warikoo assumed had just come from work dressed in formal clothes, was sitting next to him on an early morning flight to Mumbai. When the seat belt sign was turned off a man immediately opened his laptop and started typing on an Excel sheet during most of the flight.

Thinking he was rehearsing for a presentation, Warikoo engaged in a small chit-chat. The 26-year-old man was a Delhi resident who graduated from a college in Gujarat five years ago and worked for an FMCG company, but he did not disclose the name. The author presumed it would be a small firm since the man did not name it.

Later during the flight, the man gave Warikoo his business card. With a simple check on LinkedIn, it was revealed that the man was working with Hindustan Unilever and had completed his education at IIT Bombay and IIM Ahmedabad.

“I sent him a message. I had to”, he wrote.