'IITians are most modest creatures' jokes IIT alumnus, but internet is divided

The screenshot that kicked off the conversation on IITians and their humility or the lack of it, on X. (Image credit: @jay_modi6/X)

An IITian's satirical post on IIT alumni being the most modest creatures has captured the fancy of X users, including author Ankur Warikoo. While he shared a story on how a most unassuming IITian employed with Hindustan Unilever (HUL) left him impressed, other internet users were divided.

It started when IIT Roorkee Jay Modi (@jay_modi6) shared a screenshot of another user's post which 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." Commenting on it, Modi wrote, "IITians are most modest creatures out there." In separate posts, he added that he meant it as a joke.

But several users shared stories of modest IITians that they have come across.

"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 (to be frank)," commented X user Hemu (@itsHemu2K).

"So we have new friend who joined here and he also do the same, whenever someone ask about his education all he say he completed his Engineer from Kanpur. Never mention it's actually IIT Kanpur," added Mr.Wayne (@Ashwinnn_007).

Ankur Warikoo also shared a similar story about a young man he came across during a flight from Delhi to Mumbai who impressed the author with his demeanor and never mentioned that he had studied at an IIT and an IIM.

"Was sitting next to a young, sharply dressed guy on an early flight to Mumbai. Calmly opened his laptop, as the seat belt sign went off, working on what looked like a complicated Excel sheet. Worked through the flight," Warikoo wrote. "We got talking. I presumed he was preparing for an important presentation. He confirmed. He was nervous, he mentioned. But felt good nervous. 'That’s what the best athletes tell themselves' I found myself thinking."

During the conversation, Warikoo got to know that the man lived in Delhi and was in Mumbai for work. He had graduated from a college in Gujarat five years ago and works at an FMCG company. He did not, however, name his employer making the author assume that it must have been a small company. Warikoo said, he found himself thinking: "Maybe he is SOBO with connections. That was frankly as far as my mind went. That was the only thing that could explain a guy looking so well done working in a nameless FMCG company, graduated from some college in Gujarat. Judgemental af, I know."

After the flight landed, when they were parting ways, Warikoo said the man "cutely" gave him his visiting card. Using it, a quick search on LinkedIn revealed that the author could not have been more wrong.

The man worked at Hindustan Unilever, one of the biggest FMCG companies in the country, and had studied at both IIT Bombay and IIM Ahmedabad.

Other X users, however, pointed out that not many of the IIT alumni are modest about it.

"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," commented Tanveer Singh Bedi (@BediTanveer).

"Have few IITians in my office and every conversation has IIT at least. Like a guy was singing and this guy is like we did this a lot in IIT... talking on stock market n then one goes like I made an algo in IIT for it. They can't use 'college', for real," said Kitabwali (@theKitabwali).