When Saransh Goyal joined IIT Mandi to study Civil Engineering, he did not expect theatre to become one of the most memorable parts of his college experience. But a chance to participate in a street play during his first year opened up a world he had never considered exploring.Goyal, 20, is from Mahoba, a town near Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh.
At IIT Mandi, he found himself drawn to performances, rehearsals and the collaborative work that goes into putting a play on stage. What began with a selection for the institute’s street play team gradually grew into a deeper involvement with theatre, helping him discover confidence and interests beyond the classroom.“The most interesting thing is that I never imagined myself acting before college, but over time, the performances and the practice became one of the most enjoyable parts of my IIT journey,” he says.FROM A FIRST-YEAR STREET PLAY TO THE THEATRE STAGEGoyal’s introduction to theatre came when he was selected for the Nukkad Natak team for the Inter-IIT Cultural Meet in his first year.
The experience brought him into contact with performance as a group activity, where expression, timing and coordination mattered alongside the act of being on stage. He later performed in Barff, a stage play adapted from a play by Saurabh Shukla.
Watching other theatre performances also helped him understand the form beyond acting itself. There was the work that happened before a performance, the coordination among people and the many details that came together when a production finally reached an audience.By his second year, Goyal had become a co-coordinator of the Drama Club.
The role brought new responsibilities: organising performances, managing backstage work and coordinating with other members. Towards the end of that year, he also assisted a senior in directing a play, giving him a glimpse of the creative and organisational decisions involved in bringing a production together.
Late night practice sessions His progression was gradual rather than planned. He entered college without imagining himself as an actor and discovered theatre by taking up an opportunity that came his way.
Each experience led to another, expanding his understanding of what he could do outside engineering.HOW THEATRE HELPED HIM FIND CONFIDENCEFor Goyal, theatre’s impact has extended beyond performances. Taking part in plays pushed him to move outside his comfort zone and become more at ease with expressing himself and interacting with people.“I think theatre has also helped me become more confident, both on and off the stage.
It pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me more comfortable expressing myself and interacting with people,” he says.That change matters to him because the experience was not something he had anticipated when he arrived at IIT Mandi. Theatre offered a different setting in which to learn: one that required him to work with others, take responsibility and become comfortable with being seen and heard.His role in the Drama Club also exposed him to the work behind a performance.
Organising events and managing backstage responsibilities required coordination, while assisting with direction offered a different perspective from that of an actor. These experiences allowed him to participate in theatre in more ways than one.Rather than treating the stage as a separate activity from college life, Goyal sees it as one of the experiences that has shaped his time at IIT Mandi.
The confidence he describes is not limited to a performance; it is also about becoming more comfortable navigating unfamiliar situations. IIT Mandi Village Square AN ENGINEERING CAMPUS WITH ROOM FOR CREATIVE PURSUITSGoyal’s experience reflects a side of IIT Mandi that extends beyond its academic programmes.
Alongside Civil Engineering, students can explore cultural activities and clubs, giving them opportunities to develop interests that may not have featured in their plans before college.Coming from Mahoba, Goyal says access to such opportunities was not always a given. “Where you don't always have access to the same range of opportunities, or even know that some of these opportunities exist,” he says of the place he grew up.At IIT Mandi, he found that being interested in something was often a starting point for exploring it further. “If you're interested in something, there's usually a platform where you can explore it,” he says.His parents, Vidur Goyal and Radha Goyal, have supported his decision to explore new interests, take risks and learn from new experiences. That encouragement has helped him make the most of college as a period of discovery rather than seeing it only as a route to a degree.The shift has also shaped how he thinks about the purpose of an IIT education.
He believes students can fall into two opposing assumptions: that clearing the entrance examination means they no longer need to work hard, or that college must involve the same intensity of academic preparation as the JEE years. In his view, neither captures the full experience.“You definitely need to work hard academically, but IIT is also about participating in extracurricular activities, exploring different interests, meeting new people and developing yourself beyond academics,” he says.“For me, IIT is not just about becoming a good student.
It's about becoming a more well-rounded person.”LEARNING BEYOND THE CLASSROOMTheatre is not the only experience that has broadened Goyal’s time at IIT Mandi. In his third semester, he worked on a Snow Burrowing Bot prototype as part of the Design Practicum.
The project focused on navigating snow-covered avalanche areas and helping locate people trapped beneath the snow. The team later got the opportunity to represent IIT Mandi at Inter-IIT Tech Meet 15.0.“I'm particularly proud of it because it wasn't just a theoretical project—we actually built and tested a working prototype,” he says.He also counts Design Practicum among the courses he enjoyed most because it offered a departure from conventional classroom learning. “What I liked most was that the project doesn't necessarily have to end with the course.
You can continue developing it even after the course is over, which makes the whole experience much more meaningful,” he says.His experiences across theatre and engineering projects have not removed the challenges of campus life. Being surrounded by talented peers can sometimes lead to self-doubt, even for students who have cleared one of India’s toughest entrance examinations.
Goyal says the experience calls for continued effort, adaptation and a willingness to keep improving.For him, these different parts of college life are connected by the chance to try something unfamiliar and learn from it. A technical project can offer the satisfaction of building and testing an idea; theatre can demand a different kind of collaboration and self-expression.
Neither has to displace the other.MORE THAN A DEGREEWhen Goyal looks back at his time at IIT Mandi, theatre stands out because it was an interest he had not expected to find. A first-year street play led to a stage production, club responsibilities and an opportunity to assist with directing.
Along the way, he discovered a creative outlet and became more confident about expressing himself.His journey is not a story of abandoning engineering for the stage. Civil Engineering remains his academic path, while theatre has become an important part of how he experiences college.
Together, they have allowed him to explore different sides of himself.The student who arrived at IIT Mandi without imagining himself as an actor has since found a place in its theatre community. For Goyal, that may be the point of the college experience: not simply to follow a plan made before admission, but to remain open to the possibilities that emerge along the way.- Ends