Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is among the alumni of IIT-Kharagpur. Pic/PTI

Practically everyone I met at IIT -Kharagpur, whether 5 or 9-pointers, was from small-town India, from states as diverse as AP/UP/MP, or towns as distant as Gwalior/Gonda/Bhusawal/Bhagalpur. These were, of course, young, bright, nerdy, boys (mostly) - much earlier versions of whom, I recognised, used to study in my own Delhi Public School, which was often called the “Factory” for the number of kids it would send out to IITs every year.