A Journey to Remember: Nikhil Tiwari (1992-2021)
Both Nikhil and Akhil were fascinated by the Indian Armed Forces since their childhood. Nikhil joined the National Defence Academy after school but he was unable to continue after a year due to personal reasons. He then completed his graduation from MIST, Indore in Information Technology. Akhil is now a Flight Lieutenant in the Indian Air Force.
Nikhil began his IIFM journey in 2015, from Room no. 20, Nilgiri Hostel. A room that did not just remain as brick and mortar walls but surpassed to become an abode for Nikhil and his friends.
He knew each and every nook and corner of Bhopal and Indore for his tea and food delights. His tea stories took a turn when he was posted in a remote area in Telangana, but this didn’t last long and his quest for tea won over everything else.
When others strived hard to get their last-minute preparations done by burning their midnight oil, our friend with all his wit and strategic mastery of remembering things in the easiest of ways possible, up his sleeves, would sail through the syllabus even with the most difficult subjects in the blink of an eye and would come out with flying colours. As his roommate recalls, “I literally saw him change slides within seconds of reading them. After hours of loitering around, he would start preparations for the next day’s exam at around 11 pm and would finish it mostly by 12:30 am and then off to bed! On the exam day, he had this habit of finishing a 3 hrs exam in just 2 hrs and then leaving the exam hall with that look on his face.” (sic).
One particular incident which cannot be missed at all – “Roll No 70.” Everyone used to wait for Nikhil’s turn whenever Prof. S.P. Singh would start taking attendance. “Roll No. 70, Nikhil Tiwari. What a blunder. Such a bright student cannot have bad marks, only due to a mistake”.
Story goes back to the first term’s result declaration; Nikhil had failed in MEA (not actually!). It was due to a small mistake – Roll no. 69 left IIFM in between and his internal marks got swapped with Nikhil’s. The mistake got rectified eventually but there was not a single class in the following trimester when the professor would go without mentioning the incident. Hence, he became our Blunder Boy.
Being exceptionally talented in academics, his approach towards problem solving cannot be stereotyped. He was a master of all. You name a sport and he excelled in it. He was an extremely great sportsperson and earned many accolades at IIFM. Even before IIFM, he represented Madhya Pradesh in the National Games for Kho-Kho. He was one of the finest goalkeepers IIFM has seen and an exceptionally good basketball player and this led him to represent the institute twice in the All India Forest Sports Meet. (The sight of him hogging on food during both the Forest Meets was adorable, he loved to eat and lived to eat). No one in our batch or the junior batch can forget the final match of the cricket tournament where he hit a six on the last ball to win a very critical match and the whole crowd echoed with the sound of “Ek Tiwari Sab Pe Bhari”. No one can forget his bruised palms while wicket keeping for the Institute’s cricket team, poor lad never complained, one of the humblest, patient sportsmen there is! He was a leader, a teammate, and someone everyone trusted and looked up to. All these and many more achievements during his time at IIFM made him win the rightly deserved “Sportsperson of The Year” award.
His strong academic profile and skills secured him his summer internship in the first go, with the first organisation. Being in the SI committee, he then along with the team, did great in getting other land their internships. As a friend and batchmate, he assisted many in getting placed and motivated them to follow one’s instincts. His internship was with MicroSave at their Delhi office. For the 10 weeks during the internship, he and a few more from the batch stayed at the IIT Delhi campus hostel. He spent a lot of time going for walks after dinner and exploring the vast campus. Looking at the streets he always got reminded of the Need for Speed gameplay. His food stories make a comeback here again, this time from a new location, IIT Delhi campus. He was on his late night explorations of the canteens of different hostels, always up for munching anytime, or have his newfound favourite aloo paratha with chai in the evening after coming from internship. His internship project was to study DBT via India Post channel and analyse implications of the recent IT initiatives for India Post Payments Bank. This project won him the Director’s Award for Best Summer Internship and was appreciated by the faculties.
Nikhil was more like a brother to anyone, than a batchmate. He was one of the few guys who showed high calibre, grit and potential; yet, he was humble, quick-witted, polite, adept. He was such a well-mannered, humble and down to earth person that he would gladly help you if you needed and would come to ask for help if he needed it. Very few people have the experience of almost everything one can imagine or do, and Nikhil was one of them. You could talk about anything to him and he had a sound experience and knowledge on it – be it studies, sports, general knowledge, spirituality, food, or any other discipline. Even after IIFM, despite his own professional life, he was always just a call away, ready to listen to your woes for hours at a stretch. His calm and optimistic view of life was infectious and always rubbed off on others who were in his circle. In May 2017, Nikhil got placed as a Management Trainee at Dr Reddy’s Foundation in Hyderabad. On completing his traineeship, he got promoted as Assistant Manager DTMSU in May 2018, stationed at Kothagudem, a town serving as headquarters of the Bhadradri Kothagudem district, Telangana. At DRF he worked with one of our senior IIFMite. Nikhil was only the second IIFMite to join DRF after him, and he was delighted to have another one of the same tribe, an IIFMite. He describes Nikhil as a delightfully genuine guy, a joy to hang out with after work. He was a thoroughly dependable and competent professional who made invaluable contributions at DRF, including to the foundation of DRF’s entrepreneurship promotion program. After working for almost 1.5 years, he chose to end his stint at DRF and was ready to pursue his dream, returned back to Indore and started preparations for the Civil Services examination.
A doer, a thinker, a foodie, a sportsman, an avid anime and movie lover, a friend, a mentor. Nikhil was multi-talented and above all, he was a brother to all. Nikhil was the most upfront and genuine person one could find. It’s not easy to let go of such a person from your mind but he will be in our hearts forever.
He deserved more and this world deserved more of him. As most of us still yearn to hear “Bhai chal chai peekay aate hain” from Nikhil, for one last time……
But you know what they say,
“God only takes the best.
So, as we sit here and mourn the loss of a beloved friend,
We have to keep telling ourselves that we will meet again.”
Written by the Batch of PFM 2015-17
https://www.iifmalumni.com/index.php/alumni-in-focus/
