More Updates: Suicide at IITB

Since I was out of the town for about a week, I could not update this space with latest info. First, Sharmila replied to my email -

..meanwhile i'd like to assure you that there is a healthy discussion on among the faculty about all the is wrong and should be put right about the B. tech course. if you and other alumni have suggestions based both on your stay here and perhaps in other institutes/universities which you have found (more) conducive, do send them along. i promise to circulate them. and perhaps somethng will come of it all.
sharmila

It's very encouraging that contrary to initial reports, IIT authorities are giving this issue the due attention. In the comments section of my post an anonymous (appears to be a IITB punter) poster has posted excerpts from dean's email to students. Presenting the same here (emphasis mine) -

It is obvious that a lot of people have raised a number of issues relating to the sad end of a young life. I wish to make it abundantly clear that if there was one "authority" who had to be responsible for communicating the news of Vijay's death to students, it was me alone. It would be wrong to blame anyone else. However, there were a number of compelling reasons as to why it was not done right away: 1. My own feeling was that with exams on, it was not proper to disturb students who were anyway going through a low then. I saw that abundantly on the night of 16th, both in the hospital and later at the Hostel. Just ask what his wing people went through. Adding more to that list was undesirable. 2. Vijay's father wanted a bare minimum of his friends to know and to be there. He did not want any news being made of this event at any cost. So the question of posting till Saturday morning did not arise; that is when they left for Vizag. 3. Between Thursday evening and Sunday morning, mothers of atleast three IIT students called and after seeking details and also expressing their concerns on what needs to change, told me to keep it low and make sure that their wards are least pained by the happenings in their neighborhood. This echoed with my own thoughts and made it easy for me to think that I was doing the right thing. 4. We have never had a system or protocol on communicating such matters, trust me this experience on what the students really desire, and a need to end rumour-mongering now tells me that even a two-line note on the event would have been fine. As for reports appearing in the media, some statements are true and some "edited" or even made up to create more hype. Nobody wants to talk to them when going through this kind of a phase. While I was reluctant to speak to them, the PRO's office told me that the death being in student space, I should talk to them just so that "no comments" does not add more dimensions to their attempts in making the news more sensational. It was never my intent that students learn more through the media than a direct reporting from someone within the system. In fact, on Monday morning, Vijay's father called and I had to convince him that inspite of best efforts to keep it down, the press had done the damage. If you feel that these are excuses and question my motives, then I have nothing more to add. If you believe the above reasons, but feel that my judgement was bad, one can still debate on how to change things for the better. This is a serious incident, I do not think anyone in the Institute wanted to sweep it under the rug. In fact, after the semester begins in January 2006, there will be a review of how we can try and hopefully avert or prevent such tragedies, to the best we can.

The role of media has been outright horrid, especially ToI who didn't stop short of distorting facts and creating unwarranted hype causing pain to both IIT and relatives of the deceased. Nikhil Jha, who is a current student has already written about how far from truth the ToI article was. Now Dean's mail too tells us how irresponsibly press treated this issue.

The same anonymous poster has posted another excerpt from an intranet newsgroup thread (Sadly, that forum isn't accessible to outsiders).

At the end of Third year summer, the student had a CPI of 4.05 and had a backlog of eight courses having earned six FR grades and dropped two courses. Number of FF grades were quite a few and he had been clearing them in summer every year. Till recently, he had picked up XX grades in two laboratory courses (ME --118 and EP-213) which he subsequently cleared. Before the endsem began he was awarded one XX grade in a Departmental course." Hope that helps you to see that assumptions don't help you much, however convenient they may be and however heroic your stand may look.

As it suggests, Nakula's academic records were actually at the bottom of the class, so XXs probably can't be the prime reason. Some are suggesting that the reasons might not be academic at all. Whatever be the reasons, the deceased soul can't be brought back. But the review of the current system is definitely a positive out of this tragic incident and it should not stop.