GnIITian

I am an IITian too.
Not the poster‑boy, not the baba, not the bestselling author.
I am the gnat variety — Invisible, Irrelevant, Troublemaker.

Buzzing at the edges of your grand introductions,
I hold up the mirror you don’t want to see.
While you chant your alma mater like a mantra,
I hum a counter‑tune: credentials are mosquito nets,
and I slip through anyway.

You call me irrelevant,
but irrelevance is freedom —
I am not bound by your entitlement,
not shackled to your hierarchy.
I am the itch in your social skin,
the reminder that “IIT” is not identity,
just three letters stitched onto insecurity.

Invisible? Yes.
Because truth is rarely invited to the banquet of status.
Troublemaker? Absolutely.
Because gnats don’t flatter, they sting.
And every sting is a question:
What are you hiding behind your introductions?
What fear buzzes louder than my wings?

So forget your Bhagat, your Tripathi, your IIT baba.
I am the gnat IITian —
the one who refuses to be pedestal or parody,
the one who insists on being mirror,
even if you swat me away.

inspired by: https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/every-person-who-has-been-to-iit-european-man-notices-a-surprising-indian-social-habit-after-just-6-meetings-in-ncr/ar-AA2bNIiw?ocid=socialshare