In an interview with ET Now on the sidelines of the 53rd annual general meeting of Berkshire Hathaway in the first week of May, investor Warren Buffett recalled a decades’ old conversation with Bill Gates. The Microsoft founder let on that, if he had just one university to hire from when he was building the tech giant, he would have chosen the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).If Gates was still building Microsoft today — he stepped down as chairman in 2014 to focus on philanthropy — he would have 23 IITs to choose from, as against just a dozen-odd in the ’90s. But the numbers coming out of these hallowed institutions would be just a drop in the Microsoft ocean which, at last count, had a workforce of close to 1.21 lakh.Today is the day when around 1.7 lakh students all over the country will be taking the JEE (Advanced) examination in their endeavour to grab a seat on the IIT express. This is a shortlist from over 11 lakh who appeared for the first exam, the JEE (Mains) in April. Around 11,000 will make it past today’s test.That’s 500 more than last year, but still clearly woefully inadequate to meet the appetite of not just Microsoft but many of the most respected global tech majors. It isn’t, therefore, surprising, that an admission into an IIT is a dream for some, a prestige issue for others (not just the student) — and hence, for a few quite literally, a do-or-die battle.Like for most battles, preparations start early, are rigorous and call for single-minded focus. Propping up the success stories that hit the headlines are heart-wrenching tales of parents making extreme sacrifices for their children to reach the ‘holy grail’.Tuhin Dey suffers from arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC), a congenital birth disorder that has left him physically crippled. He aspires to be a cosmologist like Stephen Hawking. And his parents now have just one goal in life — to help their only child achieve his dream. They left their home and business in West Bengal to be with him for two years in Kota, the epicenter of coaching in Rajasthan.“Stephen Hawking is my hero. IIT is the only gateway in India that can help me become like him. I want to study physics and am 100% confident that I will get admission in an IIT,” Tuhin says. Kalpit Veerwal from Udaipur, who scored 360/360 and topped the JEE (Mains) this year, started coaching when he was in the eighth standard. For the last two years, the world for this 18-yearold meant model papers, revisions and mock tests. As the exam inched closer, he stopped taking mobile calls, minimised his conversations to keep all distractions at bay. At this stage he has only one dream in life — to study computer engineering from an IIT.“He was motivated by his elder brother who is studying medicine in AIIMS and requested me to let him join IIT coaching at an early age. Gradually this became a kind of passion for him,” says his father Pushkar Veerwal, a nurse at a hospital in Udaipur.Ayan Jain, who was ranked 32 this year in JEE (Mains), feels that more than being a ticket for some of the best jobs, IITs can give you wings to fly. “What I understand from the people who have travelled through this IIT journey is that, apart from being world class institutes of excellence, they represent a philosophy. A philosophy of excellence, of entrepreneurial spirit and an urge to do better every day,” says the 17-year-old.Jain is in a minority in that he is self-driven, something most IIT contenders are not. Days before the JEE (Mains) exam in April, Geetanjali Kumar, a Delhi-based counselling psychologist, got a call from a boy who spoke in a hushed tone, lest his parents heard him. He wanted to pursue photography and his parents couldn’t think further than the IIT exam.“It is kind of a frenzy built up by both the parents and students. They perceive IIT to be a channel for success without gauging the capabilities. There is a wide mismatch between the child’s abilities and his goals. Parents claim that they know what is best for their child, which is not correct,” shrugs Kumar.Parents, for their part, may still be stuck in the past, when prospects beyond engineering and medicine didn’t exist. Soumitra Dutta, an IITDelhi alumnus and Dean, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business in the US, says that success in the IIT entrance examinations is often seen as the golden passport in India. “Graduating from a prestigious IIT can have important social and economic benefits. However, there is less to gain and higher risks of harm from putting extreme pressure on our high schoolers to crack the IIT entrance exam. Parents should shoulder the major responsibility for this mindset change. They should remind themselves and tell their children that success is not guaranteed by an IIT degree and there are many very successful executives and leaders in society who do not have an IIT degree.”Jyoti Bansal, founder of AppDynamics, a Silicon Valley startup acquired earlier this year by Cisco for $3.7 billion, agrees. “Having gone through IIT exams myself, I can certainly imagine how nerve-racking they can be. But, at the same time, students should realise that there are multiple paths to success in life, and an IIT degree is neither a guarantee nor the only path to success,” says the IIT-Delhi grad.Nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar, a former chairman of an empowered committee on IIT reforms, maintains that IITs as a group of higher technical education and research institutions are clearly a class apart. But an IIT seat isn’t the end game.“While cracking JEE (Advanced) would be the immediate goal for all those who are appearing, there is a long march beyond, regardless of whether one is successful or not.”Anand Kumar, a mathematician and founder of the renowned Super 30 programme for meritorious but economically backward students eyeing an IIT seat, says that one of the main reasons for the huge jump in awareness about IITs is the mushrooming of coaching centers.Some have even gone to the remote terrains and a few even offer free coaching. “The kids today are very intelligent. Parental pressure is there but the kids are also aware that a berth in these academic institutions can change their professional profile. An easy accessibility to coaching has helped some not very bright students also crack the exam.”Over the years, Kota in Rajasthan has become a hub for IIT coaching. Nearly 1.5 lakh students come every year to the city on the Chambal river banks. Two years of ‘self-exile’ with just books for IIT as companions can be mentally devastating. The district administration has in the recent past made several interventions to ease the pressure in the system. Through regular advice to coaching institutes, notes to children and letters to parents, the officials have spelt out the need to reduce stress and to look at life in a broader perspective.Abha Srivastava, who has been staying in Kota for several years now — earlier for her elder son and now for the younger one — says that the city provides the right ecosystem for IIT preparation.“There could be some flaws in the Kota system but these are negated because it provides a right dose of competition. What is important is that the parents keep counselling the child to ward off frustration if not selected.”Those in the coaching business concur. “One can understand the kind of frenzy for selection since the exam is more of a rejection rather than selection, demand being much higher than seats available. If not selected, the kids should reset their goals. There are so many non-IITians who have done equally well in life, some even better,” says RL Trikha, director of the coaching institute Forum for Indian Institute of Technology and Joint Entrance Examination (FIITJEE). An example of contemporary success: Vijay Shekhar Sharma, billionaire-founder of Paytm who apparently couldn’t write the IIT entrance exam because he lacked proficiency in English.However, most IIT chasers are more likely to be influenced by successful IITians. Explains Naveen Maheshwari, director of Allen Institute, a coaching center in Kota: “IITians like Google CEO Sundar Pichai have become role models for the young aspirants. What they do not understand is that everyone cannot become a Pichai.”Lamenting that there is virtually a ‘free distribution’ of marks at the school level, he advocates the need to change the school education system. “When a child gets cent percent in school at an early age, he is motivated to follow IIT dreams, without actually introspecting on whether he is actually a right candidate for the IIT system.” What is more, parents have a proclivity to keep up with the Joneses. “What they do not realise is that if their neighbour’s child is serious about IIT, it does not mean their own child should also toe the same line. The irony of education in India is that we do not allow the child to think independently and choose a career that is suited to his taste,” adds Maheshwari.Agrees Pramod Maheshwari, director at Career Point, a Kota institute that is listed on the stock exchanges. “It is healthy to have ambitions. But this should not result in a do-or-die syndrome. Why are only the IITians glorified for their success? There are many non-IITians who have done exceptionally well.”The exam has over the years become more intense and difficult. Besides being transported from a subjective to objective pattern, a major change took place a few years ago when it became two-phased. An emphasis was also laid on performance in the school boards.RC Kothari, an alumnus of the 1960 batch, says that the widening of the gap between the demand and supply has taken a toll: “While the intellectual capacity of students has increased, stress on personality development has taken a backseat. Selection in the exam at that time required a blend of many ingredients and not just cramming.”G Srivastava, who wrote the exam in 1956, says that his father actually wanted him to join Roorkee University instead of IIT-Kharagpur. “What computer science is today metallurgy was in our times. It was a new branch and we were advised to go for it. The stress was zero, we just studied our school text books. And we just followed what our teachers told us.”Agrees VP Gupta, from IIT-Kharagpur who stood second in the entrance exam in 1956. “Around 29,000 aspirants had written the exam of which 350 were selected. There were eight exam centers for admission to the lone IIT.”As Tuhin settles into his wheelchair to be taken to the coaching center, his mother accompanies him, carrying his laptop. This will be the daily ritual for mother and son for the next two years. She smiles at him and reads out a sentence from Stephen Hawking’s bestseller, A Brief History of Time. It almost sounds like a prayer. Tuhin shouldn’t worry. After all, it was Hawking himself who wrote: “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”