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My AIT Bangkok Journey Begins: From College Auditorium to Selection Day | Gautam Kumar Maurya

Gautam Kumar Maurya — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 01:54:23 +0000

There are some moments in student life that completely change the way you look at yourself and your future. For me, one of those moments started inside my college auditorium during my 4th semester of BTech.

At that time, I never imagined that a simple briefing session would eventually become the beginning of my international journey toward AIT Bangkok, Thailand.

This blog is not just about a selection process.
It is about confusion, self-doubt, pressure, hard work, summer heat, semester exams, opportunities, and finally saying “YES” to something bigger than myself.

My name is Gautam Kumar Maurya, and this is the beginning of my AIT Bangkok journey.

The Day Everything Started

During our 4th semester, our college organized an official briefing session in the auditorium regarding a summer training and international exposure program at AIT Bangkok (Asian Institute of Technology), Thailand.

The faculty members explained everything in detail:

Eligibility criteria
Selection process
Benefits of the program
Deadlines
Duration of stay in Thailand
Fees and scholarship categories
Documentation process
Overall experience students would get at AIT Bangkok

At first, I was just listening casually.

I was not fully sure whether I even wanted to go.

But somewhere inside me, curiosity had already started growing.

Understanding the AIT Bangkok Package Categories

One important thing explained during the briefing was the package structure provided by the college.

There were mainly 3 categories:

₹15,000 Package
₹35,000 Package
₹55,000 Package

The category assigned to students depended on their:

Academic performance
Overall profile
Evaluation performance
Selection process scores

Naturally, every student wanted a better category.

For me, things were different.

I had already decided one thing in my mind:

“If I get the ₹15K package, I will go. Otherwise, maybe not.”

At that time, I was still confused about whether I should really take such a big step or not.

Applying at the Last Moment

After the briefing session, the college released a Google Form for registration.

Honestly, I filled that form at the very last moment.

I kept thinking:

Should I go?
Should I avoid it?
Is it worth it?
Will I manage everything?

But finally, I applied.

The form was detailed and serious. It asked for:

10th marks
12th marks
JEE details
Academic records
Personal details
Reasons for joining AIT Bangkok
Career goals
Motivation and objectives

It felt less like a normal form and more like the first step toward something important.

The Evaluation Test at DLC

After evaluating the forms, the college shortlisted students for a test.

The test was conducted in DLC (Digital Learning Centre).

I still remember the atmosphere there.

Some students were using phones and unfair methods during the test. But I decided one thing clearly:

“If I qualify, I want to qualify honestly.”

The paper was not extremely difficult. It included:

Reasoning questions
Mathematics
General Knowledge
Verbal Ability

I gave the exam seriously.

When the results came, I scored around 91%.

Some students scored even higher, around 99%, but still, I was among the top-performing students in that evaluation.

At that moment, I started feeling that maybe this opportunity was actually possible for me.

The Interview Call During Semester Exams

After the test, selected students received calls and emails for the next round — the physical interview.

The interview was scheduled at UCER (United College of Engineering and Research), not at UIT.

And the timing?

My semester exams were already going on.

One day before the interview, I had my semester paper.

My mind was already exhausted with studies, pressure, travel, and exam stress.

Still, I decided to go.

Not because I was fully confident.

But because I wanted to know one thing:

“Will I actually get selected for the ₹15K category or not?”

Travelling in Extreme Heat for the Interview

I travelled from Prayagraj to Naini during peak summer heat.

The temperature was around 45+ degree Celsius.

It was chaotic, exhausting, and honestly very difficult because exams were happening simultaneously.

But sometimes opportunities do not come at comfortable timings.

Sometimes you have to choose discomfort first.

Some of my friends also came for the interview process.

Everyone was nervous.

Outside the interview room, students were discussing categories and expectations continuously.

Many students coming out of interviews were saying:

“They offered me ₹55K.”

Hearing that repeatedly made me think:

“Maybe I will also get only ₹15K.”
“Should I even continue if that happens?”

But I still waited for my turn.

My AIT Bangkok Interview Experience

Finally, my interview started.

Faculty members including Divya Bharti Ma’am, Ravi Prasad Tiwari Sir, and Santosh Sir were present there.

They asked many questions:

Why do you want to go to AIT?
What do you know about AIT Bangkok?
What motivates you?
What is your objective?
How will this help your future?
How will you handle difficult situations abroad?
What if someone gets injured there?
Questions about academics and personality

It was not just an academic interview.

They were trying to understand mindset, responsibility, and confidence.

I answered honestly.

I did not try to act overconfident.

I simply spoke about what I genuinely felt.

And then came the moment I still remember clearly.

They said:

“Gautam, congratulations. You are getting the ₹15K category. Are you willing to go?”

And without overthinking this time, I replied:

“Yes sir, I will go.”

That was the moment where my journey truly started.

The Cheque Issue and More Struggles

After selection, the college gave us official documents and asked us to submit a cheque/DD in the university’s name.

Now this became another challenge.

At that time:

My semester exams were still ongoing
I did not have a cheque system available
Time was very limited

Thankfully, my friend Aniket helped me during this process.

I gave him the required amount, and he helped arrange the cheque/DD process.

Again, during extreme heat and exam pressure, I travelled to college for document verification and submission.

Honestly, balancing:

semester exams,
documentation,
travel,
interviews,
and international preparation

was mentally exhausting.

But this process taught me something important:

Big opportunities also bring responsibility and pressure together.

Waiting for the Final Journey

After document submission, I asked the faculty:

“Sir, when will we finally go to Bangkok?”

They replied that the schedule could vary between July, August, or September depending on arrangements and confirmations.

And that was it.

Now the waiting phase had started.

But another important journey was still remaining:

My passport journey.

Because until this point, I had never applied for a passport before.

And trust me, that journey became another completely different experience filled with confusion, learning, travelling, verification, and first-time experiences.

What’s Next?

This blog is only Part 1 of my AIT Bangkok journey.

In the next blog, I will share:

How I applied for my passport
My first passport office experience
Problems during application
Managing everything during semesters
Documentation process
Police verification
Real student struggles during passport processing

And finally, how I received my passport today.

Final Thoughts

Sometimes life changes because of one small decision.

For me, that decision was filling a Google Form at the last moment.

From sitting confused in an auditorium to getting selected for an international opportunity at AIT Bangkok, this journey already taught me:

honesty matters,
opportunities require courage,
and growth starts when comfort ends.

This is only the beginning.

— Gautam Kumar Maurya

contributions. From Simple GitHub Contributions to a Production Wikimedia Merge — My Open Source Journey as Gautam Kumar Maurya (GKM)

Gautam Kumar Maurya — Wed, 27 May 2026 02:21:20 +0000

From Simple GitHub Contributions to a Production Wikimedia Merge — My Open Source Journey as Gautam Kumar Maurya (GKM)

Open source always looked exciting to me.

I used to see developers contributing to large organizations, getting their patches reviewed by experienced engineers, discussing architecture decisions, and working on production systems used by millions of people worldwide.

At that time, honestly, I never thought that one day my own contribution would get merged into Wikimedia’s production codebase.

But recently, that happened.

My merge request for Wikimedia’s Function Orchestrator repository was successfully reviewed, approved, merged into the main branch, and marked “Ready to Deploy” for production deployment.

For many experienced engineers, this may look like a small contribution.

But for me — Gautam Kumar Maurya (GKM), a 2nd-year BTech Data Science student — this journey taught me more about real software engineering than many tutorial projects ever could.

And this blog is not just about a merged PR.

It is about:

learning how real engineering workflows work,
understanding large codebases,
struggling through CI/CD confusion,
moving from beginner GitHub contributions to production-level open source contribution,
and learning how collaborative software engineering actually happens.

How My Open Source Journey Started

Like many students, I initially started with very basic GitHub

Open source always looked exciting to me.
I used to see developers contributing to large organizations, getting their patches reviewed by experienced engineers, discussing architecture decisions, and working on production systems used by millions of people worldwide.

At that time, honestly, I never thought that one day my own contribution would get merged into Wikimedia’s production codebase.

But recently, that happened.

My merge request for Wikimedia’s Function Orchestrator repository was successfully reviewed, approved, merged into the main branch, and marked “Ready to Deploy” for production deployment.

For many experienced engineers, this may look like a small contribution.

But for me — Gautam Kumar Maurya (GKM), a 2nd-year BTech Data Science student — this journey taught me more about real software engineering than many tutorial projects ever could.

And this blog is not just about a merged PR.

It is about:

learning how real engineering workflows work,
understanding large codebases,
struggling through CI/CD confusion,
moving from beginner GitHub contributions to production-level open source contribution,
and learning how collaborative software engineering actually happens.
How My Open Source Journey Started

Like many students, I initially started with very basic GitHub contributions.

At that stage, I mostly understood:

repositories,
commits,
pull requests,
and simple fixes.

But when I entered the Wikimedia ecosystem, I realized things were very different from normal GitHub projects.

There were multiple systems involved:

Phabricator
Gerrit
GitLab
CI/CD pipelines
Production deployment workflows
Code review standards
Task boards
Merge workflows

Initially, all of this felt very confusing.

Sometimes even understanding where to submit changes was difficult.

But slowly, I started exploring things on my own.

Understanding Phabricator, Gerrit, and GitLab

One thing I genuinely liked about Wikimedia was that contributors are expected to understand the workflow properly.

Nobody spoon-feeds everything.

I started reading tasks on Phabricator and understanding how discussions happen between maintainers and contributors.

Then I explored Gerrit workflows.

Then later, I learned that some repositories had moved from Gerrit to GitLab-based merge requests.

This particular contribution itself involved understanding:

repository migration,
GitLab merge requests,
branch-based contribution workflow,
and CI/CD-based merge pipelines.

At first, it was overwhelming.

But this process slowly improved my confidence.

Road To Wiki Sessions Helped Me a Lot

One important thing that genuinely helped me was the “Road To Wiki” sessions.

I actually could not properly fill the form and participate directly at that time.

So instead, I started watching the session recordings available on YouTube.

One session that helped me significantly was the CI/CD session.

Until then, CI/CD felt like a very abstract topic to me.

But after watching those sessions carefully, I started understanding:

pipelines,
automated checks,
why builds fail,
why reviews matter,
and how production-level repositories maintain quality.

While working on my Wikimedia contribution, many concepts from those sessions actually became useful in real situations.

That was one of the first times I realized:
learning becomes much more meaningful when you apply it in real engineering workflows.

Mentors Played a Huge Role

I genuinely believe that guidance matters a lot in open source.

Several mentors and seniors played an important role in helping me stay consistent and improve my contribution quality.

Ankit Sir especially played a major role.

During one event, he said something that stayed in my mind:

“Focus more on quality codebase contributions rather than documentation-based contributions.”

That advice genuinely changed my approach.

Instead of only trying easy contributions, I started spending more time:

reading codebases,
understanding architecture,
exploring workflows,
and trying deeper engineering-level tasks.

Hridyesh Sir and Sanskar Sir also played an important role through guidance, motivation, and support during the learning process.

Sometimes in open source, even understanding the workflow itself takes a lot of effort.

Having guidance during that phase matters a lot.

The Contribution That Changed My Confidence

The task I worked on was:

“Add accessors for WFFunctionCall internals”

At first glance, the task looked small.

But when I started exploring the repository properly, I realized the real challenge was not writing code.

The real challenge was:

understanding the existing architecture,
maintaining conventions,
safely modifying existing systems,
and ensuring maintainability.

The contribution involved:

adding proper accessor methods,
improving encapsulation,
replacing direct internal property access,
and improving maintainability in the codebase.

This taught me something important:

Real software engineering is not only about writing complex algorithms.

A lot of engineering is about:

maintainability,
architecture,
clean abstractions,
conventions,
and collaboration.

That realization changed my thinking significantly.

The Review Process Taught Me a Lot

One of the most valuable parts of this journey was the review process.

The maintainers reviewed the contribution carefully.

There were:

discussions,
follow-up improvements,
CI/CD issues,
and architecture-related refinements.

At one point, the maintainer even clarified that the CI failure was not caused by my patch.

That itself was a learning moment because I got exposure to real-world CI pipeline behavior.

The most satisfying moment was when the maintainer responded positively and eventually merged the contribution into the main branch.

Later, the task was moved to:
“Ready to Deploy”

and the maintainer commented:

“Thank you! This will be deployed to production in the next service deploy.”

Reading that message felt surreal.

Because for the first time, I realized:

I had contributed to a real production-level software system.

Why This Contribution Matters to Me

For many people, this may look like a small merged patch.

But for me, this contribution represents:

consistency,
learning,
persistence,
and engineering growth.

This journey taught me:

how to work with large codebases,
how reviews improve code quality,
how production workflows work,
how CI/CD pipelines behave,
and how collaborative engineering actually happens.

Most importantly, it taught me that:
even students can contribute meaningfully to real-world systems if they stay patient and keep learning.

My Wikimedia Contribution Progress So Far

So far:

multiple Wikimedia/Gerrit-related patches of mine have already been merged,
several more are currently under review,
and I continue learning through every contribution.

Every review comment teaches something new.

Every failed pipeline teaches something new.

Every merged patch builds more confidence.

What I Learned From This Journey

If I summarize my biggest learning in one sentence:

Open source is not just about coding — it is about learning how real software engineering works.

And that includes:

communication,
reviews,
maintainability,
workflows,
debugging,
collaboration,
and patience.

Final Thoughts

I am still learning.

There is still a lot I do not know.

But this journey has shown me that growth happens when you move beyond tutorials and start working with real systems.

To anyone trying to start open source contributions:
don’t be afraid of large codebases.

Initially everything feels confusing.

Phabricator feels confusing.
Gerrit feels confusing.
GitLab workflows feel confusing.
CI/CD feels confusing.

But slowly, things start making sense.

And one day, you may also see your own contribution merged into a production codebase.

— Gautam Kumar Maurya (GKM)

OpenSource #Wikimedia #GitLab #Gerrit #CI_CD #SoftwareEngineering #OpenSourceContribution #DataScience #Engineering #GKM #GautamKumarMaurya