Posted on 05/04/2006 12:58:16 AM PDT by HarmlessLovableFuzzball
KANPUR: A 23-year-old Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) student, Shailesh Sharma, on Wednesday committed suicide by hanging himself in his hostel[dorm] room. A resident of Pande Mohal, Nariya in Varanasi, the deceased was a final year student of dualdegree programme at the chemical engineering department.
IIT-K officials claimed that the student might have taken the extreme step under depression after coming to know that he had failed in two courses —advanced thermodynamics and advanced fluid-mechanics. The exams had got over only on Wednesday after which Shailesh had seen the F grading in the two subjects.
According to Shailesh’s batchmates, he had failed in advanced thermodynamics for third time in a row and had shared his failure and acute distress with his classmates. "On Tuesday, he came to know about his failure and was quite depressed. Today he committed suicide after having lunch with us," said a student, who was with Shailesh minutes before he ended his life.
"Though we can’t draw any conclusion, it is true that he had done badly in two courses. This might be the reason behind the incident," said dean of students affairs (DOSA) Prawaal Sinha. Sinha said that the body had been sent for postmortem and parents of the deceased had been informed about the incident.
The incident invited strong reaction from the students who claimed that authorities could have saved Shailesh’s life by changing his course options. Hundreds of students assembled at Hall One where Shailesh used to live and demanded that the grading be made public. They also took to task Professor RB Chhabra of advanced thermo-dynamics who was present there. "We want to know whether Shailesh was intentionally being harassed by the authorities," said an enraged student.
On November 30, a similar case was witnessed when mechanical engineering second-year student Dharaskar Swapnil Chandrakant had committed suicide by jumping from the roof of the administrative block. The IIT-K authorities had then attributed stress as factor behind the incident. Shailesh is the fifth IIT-K student to have committed suicide.
Civil engineering student M Chowdhary had hanged himself in 1981 and third-year mechanical engineering student Yadapalli Venkat and another student Vimal Jha had taken the extreme step in 1987 and 1999 respectively.
See now this is why we need to pass everyone no matter what their performance.
At least he ate ........
He could have just gotten Advanced Thermodynamics and Advanced Fluid-Mechanics for Dummies like everyboby else.
Yoi, no wonder he failed.
LOL.
HarmlessLovableFuzzball?
Hey what are you doing using Rush Limbaughs handle?
(ducks from incoming slide rules)
I'm sorry...but is this supposed to be funny ?
It may just be me, but I think a remedial class in advanced fluid dynamics might be more in order than a hangmans noose.
Of course this is India where 'classism' is rampant. It's hard to tell from the article but apparently some other students think this young man may have been treated unfairly somehow. It is possible that a higher caste professor might not cotton to a lower caste student for some reason.
L
Did it ever occur to you that I might BE the man himself ?
"Of course this is India where 'classism' is rampant. It's hard to tell from the article but apparently some other students think this young man may have been treated unfairly somehow. It is possible that a higher caste professor might not cotton to a lower caste student for some reason."
Yeah - yeah - now bring on the India=Caste=HinduPagan stereotype.
Of course it's funny! Haven't you experienced enough of life and death to have adopted a sense of humor? It's just a grade. You could change majors or career. The guy fails and goes complete lemming.
Similar things have happened at MIT, for what it's worth
If you are Rush Limbaugh then tell me the conclusion you came to as the cause of your hearing loss after numerous responses regarding autoimmunity of the inner ear.
No - its not just about a grade. Its about 'honor' , 'ego' , 'self-respect'....competition with your friends and rivals. Stuff like that. I have been through that myself. Performace in the exams is an estimation of a guy or gal's self-worth in India (and probably Japan/China).
It's always that way here when a foreigner commits suicide.
There was a story last year about a Thai guy who killed himself by super-gluing his nostrils and mouth closed. Most commenters thought it was a riot. But when Terri Schiavo comes up, all life is oh, oh so precious.
I'm so sorry to be laughing at this. It sounds so Jewish mother. "You want to commit suicide, sweetie? Ok, but have something to eat first."
He made room for persons that can handle life and failure. No sympathy from me. Suicide is a choice.
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