AHLAWAT
Good Ebening, my name is Arash Dev Ahlawat, a 3rd-year undergraduate student pursuing a Bachelor's in Engineering Physics with a Minor in Machine Intelligence and Data Science at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.
My roots are from the 'Ahlawat' Family from the village of Bhambhewa, in the Beri block of the district Jhajjar Haryana – where I enjoyed 'dhoodh, dahi ka khana' a lot during my childhood. Even though my roots are from Haryana, I was born and raised in the small town of Solan in Himachal Pradesh, where my father worked as a Principal Scientist at DMR (Directorate of Mushroom Research, Solan). I studied at St. Luke's there till 2017
when my father transferred to wheat research at IIWBR, and so I followed suit and joined St. Theresa's Convent, where I completed my matriculation in 2021. I then joined Delhi Public School where I gave my intermediate exams and prepared for JEE Mains and Advanced at Aakash Karnal. I have been in IIT Bombay since 2023, and I am currently in my 3rd year.
I have fond memories from my time at St Luke's, as there was only 2-3 grounds in the whole town. PT period was considered something holy of which you had to utilize every second of. Hy brother played football for the school and the city teams sometimes which resulted in my fascination towards the sports. The football matches were considered such big events and the stories told by my brother didn't help. At that time I also participated in a lot of Mathematics/Physics Olympiads and I guess I was relatively good and they seemed very interesting.
When I moved to Karnal, I was not ready for how starkly different Himachal and Haryana were. I think the social media effect had not hit Himachal yet, but in Karnal everyone was on instagram. Sports was non-existant in my school, and guess I moving in the adolescent years didn't help. I being very anti-social in Himachal had to go quite out of my comfort zone to settle to these new surroundings.
There were a lot of positive changes from it now that I look back. Everyone was more career focused in Haryana, which helped to focus on the right things in those years. Sports though non-existent in the school, was a major event if you go to Karn Stadium, or equivalent places. You needed to be sturdy and hard to live among the sportsman here, nobody was going to help if you didn't help yourselves. I learned the value of friends and relations which has shaped a lot of my future decisions. Most of my friends from Himachal don't really contact me anymore. I realized how much of a bubble places like Himachal become from the outside world, most of my friends have not leaved the state and don't really want to. And ambition is not the forefront of their decision making, they want to have settled and normal life. I sometimes think what I would have turned like if I didn't leave Himachal. The hard lessons that Haryana taught me, helped me settle in Mumbai sowewhat when I came here, I don't think I would have had the guts to go so far from here had I not moved states earlier. I wouldn't be as open as I am now, I might be much more colder and introverted, or it might be completely different, one can only speculate. One thing is for sure, I love both of my hometowns.
It is somewhat cliché to say that you have the best family in the world, but I genuinely believe so. I love them so much and can't go a day without talking to them. My parents are some of the most understanding parents I have seen anywhere, and they have worked really hard for me to be where I am. Coming from small villages in the 60s in India, they had to fight every inch of the way to be where they are now. They both did everything in their power to provide me with everything they didn't get and everything I would need to fulfill my dreams. Both of them are some of the most understanding parents from what I have seen.
I can talk to them about anything and everything. The freedom that they have given me has allowed me to develop my own thoughts and personality. They will also be the first ones to tell me to consult other people if something is not their expertise. I think that somewhat helped me build a scientific temper, resulting in me pursuing my current degree.
I learned a lot about being patient and controlling my temperament from my father. He has been a constant in my life since day one and my go-to for any advice I need. I would say we have a best-friend type of relationship, but I can't really speak over the line with him as he is still my father. A lot of my fun, outgoing nature has come from my mother. "Har choti cheez ke maza lena" is something she believes in and has taught me. This has helped me stay happy and motivated in some difficult times. I know I am going to have a fun time if I am doing something
When it comes to the person who has influenced me the most, resulting in me being the Robin to the Batman, the chote bhaiya to the bade bhaiya, it is my 'Bhaiya' aka 'Batman' and a lot of other names that can't be written here. He protected me from a lot of bad influenced and prevented me from making a lot of bad decisions. A lot of the things I love in my life have come because of him - be it football, sketching and designing. Making me watch Naruto coming to my adolescent years is some of the best thing you could have done for me. He also provided me with the tough love when my parents couldn't.
The dynamics have changed quite a bit, earlier I was the one that watched you playing and finishing games, you making me watch the highlights of the good matches in the morning when I wake up
to now finishing the games and then watching you try to do the same things I did, to us watching the same matches together at 12. From us together in St.Lukes to us together in Mumbai, The journey has been beautiful.Well, from my degree you would have figured out that I like to make things (Engineering) and learn how they work (Physics). I first learned about this degree through Veritasium, which I think is one of the best science communication channels in the world. Derek—the guy from the videos—did Engineering Physics at Caltech. Why I took this pathway is mostly because I wanted to be like the people Derek shows in his videos. They seem like the coolest people ever, and I would be genuinely proud to be anything like them. I have been out of touch with educational YouTube with all the things going on and would love to return to it, as it was there that my love for this was built somewhat.
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On your left, I made a YouTube 3x3 collage of the educational channels that affected me a lot. Dr. Becky really helped me see what a career in Astrophysics can look like. VSauce is, well... VSauce. Code Bullet has some of the best coding videos ever. Kurzgesagt adds my other favorite thing to science—art. Physics Girl has some of the best energy while explaining concepts. Prashant Jain Sir helped me with my KVPY studies and was a mentor for a long time. Numberphile is, well, there is a reason Jane Street sponsors it. I added Jet Lag for the vibes—honestly, the geography it has taught me itself makes it deserve a spot.
Astronomy and Astrophysics have always been a fascination for any physics student, I think. And it is like that for a reason: it is the unexplored horizon, the adventure that awaits humanity, the next big thing. But of all the big things it is, I'd never think that the best word to describe it would be "humbling."
Once you get to study it and understand the scale of things, you realize how you are just a speck in the scale of the universe."You only live once" suddenly seem more appealing. But it is truly fascinating to study what happens to matter under such large length and time scales. And the fact that we have managed to learn so much, even though the amount of data we get is ridiculously small, is just very cool. The data analysis part, from what I found out while studying, can get quite boring, but that will not stop it from being one of the coolest subjects. My interest in it is still strong, and even if I don't pursue it as a career, I will always love my decision to study it.
This interest in Astronomy led me to join Krittika—the Astronomy Club of IIT Bombay—comfortably the best decision of my college life. I have done a lot as a part of that club: designed club merchandise (literally did a design crash course to do this), learned how to operate a telescope, actually did astro research projects, hosted events, hosted trips across three states, explored observatories, was part of the International Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad Academic Team (IOAA) flex. But I think the best part has been what would be referred to as another cliché:
that I got to be part of a family. But seriously, the seniors I have because of it, and the people in my batch, are lifelong friends who will be there for you when you need them and are people I am proud to call my peers. I have also had some of the best times in college with them during the so-called trips and events – that night on the 31st of March, Bandhardara at 6am, Rukhsat speeches, Westin GTO, and hopefully many more in the future.
I think the t-shirt design should get a special mention as it resulted in, first, me noticing creative UI/UX design more, which eventually led to my working on this website, and second, me becoming extremely anti-AI, which has resulted in a lot of debates.It was one crazy experience of which I am extremely proud of.
Relating to other career-related stuff I'd love to do, I don't know yet. I am still figuring a lot of things out—sometimes I love physics, sometimes I like electronics, sometimes I might get so deep into Linux that my mom thinks I should have taken CS. I am still exploring, but I am pretty sure I'll find something, as I have loved something about everything so far.
Other than that, as I said, I love sketching and designing stuff, though designing is pretty new and very specific niche—video game UI/UX design.
Scrolling Twitter would be another said hobby, I think. I absolutely love that app.
Yeahhhh, this deserves a section of its own. I can't just call something for which I was ready to go to Europe and leave everything behind To persue it - a hobby.
I love football. It's as simple as that. Joga Bonito – the beautiful game.It has taught me as many lessons as everything I mentioned above has. It has made me feel emotions that few other things have.
It has taught me how to get up from the bottom of the barrel, to keep fighting even in the darkest of times, to fight for yourself, to work in a team, to understand the importance of confidence, and much-much more.
It's the game you play with the boys, the game you play when you're stressed, when you're relaxed, and when you want to take your mind off things. If I can one day, I would really love to become a football manager, but that's for future me to worry about. I'm also really liking the data scientist to football technical director pipeline right now, haha.
THe freshiesta tournament I had in my fresher year was absolute cinema. I recomment heading to my instragram pinned post to get the full story. I wanna get to more tournaments in the future but the next semesters are probably gonna be more career focused, but we will see.
I have been properly supportinh Manchester YAANITED for 6 years to date I think. Why you say? Well click the United logo above to find out I guess.Well my brother also played a big part I think, Ronaldo 'Bhaiya' was a big influence, but That Daniel James debut goal still sometimes send chills down my spine sometimes when I see it back.
I guess Bruno is a also a big part, I wouldn't have been a supported for so long because we would have been relegated if we wasn't there lmao. I am so excited about this year, Our team is genuinely exciting after a long long time.Cunha, Sesko, Mbeumo, Bruno, Amad, Deligt and Yoro; This season is gonna be fun.