The man he was...

Ayush Joshi.. The very name sends me to a whole lot of memories. When Ram called me last night and told me Ayush was no more, a part of my world came crashing down. He was more than a senior, he was an inspiration, a role model, someone I always tried to emulate, though most of it was a failure. I broke down for the next ten minutes, and it took me quite a while to compose myself before moving to the mess.

My first memories of Ayush are when I wanted to badly give a shot at the insti cricket team, and I asked him if I could meet him. Ayush, a senior, who was never known to throw his weight around, and one who was always there for help when a junior needed him, even it were a freshie, called me to Sangam. He was going to Taramani and pulled me along. He was generally asking me about my educational details and what cricketing interests I have among other stuff. Suddenly, he asked me if I smoked. I said no! He said, "Good, Smoking reduces your stamina, it reduced mine. So, don't smoke!" I didn't why, I was already very attracted to this senior. He was a very charismatic guy, someone who was a very simple guy, and was a natural leader.

He was one who always had his priorities set. Without set priorities, it is almost impossible for one to achieve what he did in the short span of his lifetime! He was a captain par excellence. Surdy rightly said yesterday, that you could play under a thousand captains, but there is only one guy who stays in your mind as your captain, and for him, it was Ayush! Truly, Ayush was the face of the IITM Cricket team, irrespective of him captaining the team or not! I could say with some conviction that irrespective of me not having played a single match under his captaincy, as all the matches I played were under either Vignesh, Vivek or Malena, the one who still stood in my mind as a captain figure was Ayush. To mention as an afterthought that he was the only one in IITM history to score a century, or to mention that he led the IITM Cricket team on two Inter IIT Meets, one securing a gold, and another a silver, makes them seem containing a blemish, but the fact is, they were just some of the many valuable gems he earned in life.

It is no mean feat to captain an institute team, and be the Shaastra Core at the same time. But Ayush managed that! With excellence. His dedication was obvious by the fact that, two days prior to Shaastra, when his grandma passed away, he rushed to Jaipur, for his grandmother's last rites, and was back, to be present as one of the Shaastra Cores for the inauguration of the Shaastra Golden Jubilee Conclave, and there he was present in full elegance! The even sem he spent in Singapore, was obvious, when we couldn't see the guiding light of our cricket team. Decisions suddenly became more difficult, but if I have to trust what a few friends of mine tell me, the decisions time and again, were mailed from Singapore and executed here.

He was a true all-rounder. A great sportsman! Was part of dramatics teams, technical teams. a co-curricular, extra-curricular stud! He was almost a nine pointer! He got an great job offer at ITC, though he didn't take it up, to pursue his acads at IIM-A, after of course cracking CAT with a high 99 percentile.

Ayush above everything was an awesome human being. They say, god likes good human beings and wishes to keep them with himself, and probably that's why he took Ayush away! We will all miss you so much man! You were one of the most inspiring seniors who I had, and the whole insti, feels your loss! RIP Ayush!