Life3 min read

The Last Letter

This thought is an excerpt from the last memo I sent out to SRMKZILLA before I passed on the torch. From the heart. For you to infer.

Software Developer

Ishan Chhabra

Software Developer

The Last Letter

It has been an amazing journey so far. Yet we have barely begun.

SRMKZILLA has always strived to provide students with a platform to enrich their skills. We’ve always known that developers are a powerful group of creators and that they can achieve anything they imagine with their code. SRMKZILLA has always proudly been a part of their odyssey – fostering the best of their abilities.

This letter brings back a flood of memories.Four years ago, I was recruited as a member on the Technical team. As I look back at Aug 16, 2017, the “2017 Ishan” could not have fathomed how this small club will become one of the most prestigious ones out there. As a new joiner I was awestruck by the kinds of projects that were being developed at this club full of dreams.

We have always been known to develop projects that few ever can imagine. These four years at SRMKZILLA were the days of my life and they truly chiselled a diamond out of this coal.

The pandemic hit hard. Nonetheless, SRMKZILLA managed to make the best out of it. If I were to look at numbers: SRMKZILLA released six full fledged mind-boggling projects under Open Source. That is more than we have ever had. And with a dozen more in the pipeline, SRMKZILLA is on its mission of redefining what campus clubs can do.

We launched KZILLA.XYZ, a tiny replacement for those bit.ly links with best-in-class analytics. KZILLA.XYZ is actively being used by people from varied walks of lives. And we often receive a good chunk of appreciation for it. KZILLA.XYZ fulfils its mission – Shrink the link. Broaden the reach.

Mosaic is a tiny color palette generator that lives in your browser. While we were searching for one on the Chrome Store, we were baffled at not finding anything even subpar there. So we built one, and released it to the community. That’s indeed very SRMKZILLA like.

We welcomed Yvette to the team. The greenkeeper of our Slack workspace. Yvette is a bot full of life. She helped us survive the pandemic and oiled the wheels of the SRMKZILLA train. From scheduling meetings to singing happy birthday to providing integrations with KZILLA.XYZ, Yvette did it all.

With October, comes Hacktoberfest. With Hacktoberfest, comes SRMKZILLA. Hacktoberfest is one of the biggest celebrations of Open Source around the world. And as you can probably guess – SRMKZILLA pioneered this year’s Hacktoberfest in and around the campus of SRMIST. With 5 projects to contribute to and 7 mentors available at the disposal of learners, SRMKZILLA impacted so many lives and became the first step in so many learners’ stairs of becoming great builders.

Billboard joined the family. An Open Graph image generator for all blogs out there. Soon, Springboard bounced in too. Springboard helped developers kickstart their projects by bootstrapping the initial setup for them.

On the events front, we flourished well too. We hosted and instructed a multitude of workshops in marketing, web development with React, algorithms and so on and so forth. With international speakers coming in this time, SRMKZILLA reached an all-time high (yet). We also moved. We got a brand new HQ. We now live virtually on our Discord Servers where we never stop building for the better.

I know this letter is long. Yet, it is just an insight on the rollercoaster ride we have had this year.

As I, along with my batchmates, graduate away from this college and SRMKZILLA – I wish I never had to go. But that cannot happen. It’s about time we set our feelings aside and pass the torch on.

People love SRMKZILLA for the legacy it holds. The legacy of saying no to mediocre. The legacy of building everything emotionally. The legacy should continue. The legacy will continue.

I list below the team that shall continue earning more and more laurels for the club. I am sure they will take SRMKZILLA to the stratosphere and do amazing things that I hope I probably cannot even imagine.

It has been an amazing journey so far. Yet we have barely begun.

Signing off,

Ishan