IIT Student from Reserved Category Commits Suicide!

A student at IIT Bombay in Powai killed himself by hanging! Why? He couldn’t cope with the study load and the exams there at the IIT. Fact: He was a student who got in through the reserved seats category. He was an average student who happened to be at IIT due to his caste as opposed to his merit!

His suicide note:

I feel I could not make it because of the backlog of exams that I need to clear. But I want to thank all my professors who helped me immensely and I am sorry for causing all these things.

However, he did feel REAL issues. Are these issues unique or would they be faced by every self-respecting student who is competing?

Some more on him..

By most accounts, Srikant Mallepallu, the IIT student who committed suicide on Saturday, emerges as a student whose grades were ordinary, came from a family of modest means, did not open up with friends, and yet managed to maintain a front of easy camaraderie and convey a sense of belonging.

Struggling to keep his all-important grade point average (GPA) above 5 and with backlogs, Srikant was nonetheless fun-loving, according to classmates in IIT Mumbai who are shocked by his death.

Srikant was a Dalit student, who came through IIT’s reservation system from a family of modest means in Hyderabad. Friends say that he steered clear of the debate over reservation which rocked the campus through the year and, in a way, divided it.

His biggest passion was gaming. “Srilu was hugely into X-Men and Japanese animation styles like Manga,” said a hostel-mate.

He had a large collection of DVDs and games related to the Japanese fantasy animation style called ‘anime’ and frequently played them late into the night. He was also addicted to the computer game Counter Strike and used to stay up late playing with other IITians.

When it began to affect his attendance and grades, faculty members and his mother had intervened. His personal computer was confiscated for a while; it was returned to him later but he stopped playing Counter Strike after that, his friends said.

The 21-year-old, who lost his father a few years ago, has left three suicide notes one to his friends, one to his mother and one to a professor. All three said he was ending his life because he could not cope with his studies.