Oh, you got into IIT? Ab to aish hi aish hai, Unke bete ka IIT mein ho gaya, tum kya karoge?

Every year approximately 1.5 million students take the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) to qualify for 13,000 seats in 23 IITs across the country. This means for each seat there are 115 aspirants. Call it luck or hard work those who get into the IITs, are considered the cream of the nation.

But did they really want to study engineering? Why did they prepare for one of the toughest exams in India in the first place? And what happens when they get into IIT?

Alma Matters, Netflix’s latest docuseries on the life of students at IIT-Kharagpur, India’s first IIT answers these questions and more. It also drops truth bombs each one of us needs to know, whether a parent or a student.

1. When a student shared his expectations from an IIT building and how he was met with disappointment on his first day.

2. When he said that he is clueless on what to do in life even in his 3rd year of engineering.

3. When a Geology/Geoscience student talked about how he realised that the subject he had chosen was not for him in the 2nd year.

4. When a student shared his lab partner’s experience of studying at a coaching institute for JEE and how it’s nothing short of being in a jail.

5. When a student from the Economics department shared how he tried to figure out his real passion while being at IIT-KGP.

6. When a male student points out the skewed gender ratio in the institute and how they have never been in leadership positions.

7. When a female student – only one to contest and win the sports general secretary elections – talks about the harsh reality of gender discrimination in one of the premium Indian institutes.

8. When this student brilliantly explained how everyone in the institute is just following the trend during all phases of their life.

9. Talking about the high job expectations people have from IITians, this student spilled the truth of getting a placement.

10. When the docuseries showed the entire placement process in detail and how it affects the students.

11. When a student expresed relief on getting a placement while simultaneously expressing the state of mind of other students undergoing the stressful hiring process.

12. When a group of students discuss how they are under constant pressure of getting a high paying job because of a few people who paint a flowery picture of the IITs.

13. When a student questions the college authorities on the increasing number of suicides at the institute and expresses concern of their safety.

14. Talking about the effect of campus suicides on everyone, this student tries to reason out the hows and whys after a student he knew died by suicide.

The series brilliantly captures the life at IITs. Getting into the premier institute might be every student’s dream but it’s not the end, tbh. Moreover, it’s just the beginning of new life, new struggles and new learnings.

You can watch it here.