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.
"Laughing at peoples' problems is saving lives? I'll laugh like hell if one of your love ones dies."
So how long have you been a dweller of tragedies? It was a voluntary act of pure stupidity. And, we're suppose to feel sorry for this idiot? It's because people blubber with all those sympathetic emotions that cause people to feel suicide is acceptable... don't you get it? Attempted suicide is usually a cry for help. This dude was just not fit to pass his genes onto the next generation.
Transport II I can understand, but Thermo II? Fail that twice, and it's time to change majors.
its probably him in errr...disguise..yeah thats it.
I have not in any of my posts attempted to justify the student's action, but I have attempted to understand his actions and I have questioned those who choose to laugh at his actions. Understanding may provide insight in preventing future incidents more than your laughter.
You can't change Majors at IIT. Or any college in India. Gettinga course is tought enough as it is.
"It is possible that a higher caste professor might not cotton to a lower caste student for some reason."
Could be.
Could also be this guy had other issues which he didn't deal with very successfully. People commit suicide in other countries as well.
My guess is that this kid's parents really reamed him.
Speaking as someone in medical school, I was around a lot of pre-meds in my undergrad years. Many of them had parents who not only placed unreasonable expectations upon them, but who punished them when they failed to achieve these unrealistic expectations.
I know a guy whose parents see him as a failure and will not even stay in the same hotel room as him because he is going to the University of California at Davis Med School instead of getting into UCSF or Stanford.
Asian parents are notorious for doing this to their kids, and many of them explode along the way. I'd say about 3/4 of the Asians in my undergrad were pre-med, and quite a few of them just couldn't cope with the stress.
There are a lot of kids who need more supportive parents in our society and plenty who could use a little extra shove and some stern talking to every now and then. But in my estimation, for many of these kids, this is something entirely different.
Laughter is the correct response. Too much "understanding" can result in other deaths.
Self-pitying weenies end their lives with the hope that ("finally") everyone will feel sorry for them. If people react by playing the blame game and feeling "so sad and betrayed", it only encourages another Pity Partier to do the same thing.
On the other hand, would he commit suicide if he knew that everyone would laugh at him? Probably not.
*Chuckle.* Maybe the "pressure" was too much...
I guess he couldn't take (or calculate) the pressure.
You beat me.
Not at all!
SOMEONE has to write grant proposals for Cost-Saving Hydrogen Energy systems, Free energy furnaces made from an old washing machine that uses hydrodynamic shear, carburetors that the Oil Cartels suppress because they produce 200 MPG, IPO's based on absurd power sources and ancient Tesla drawings, and all the other wonderful things that show up like a case of herpes every time energy prices rise!
Or maybe he couldn't face the reality that he wasn't smart enough to be an engineer.
And I'm certain your laughter will be heard by some individual in India contemplating suicide. Anyone contemplating suicide is so preoccupied with their perceived problems that they are immune to almost any appeal.
I am no bleeding heart and I firmly believe that most peoples' problems are of their owm making. Furthermore, most people blame their problems on others, but leaders and managers must recognize this human shortcoming and tailor their organizations to avoid the negative impact such incidents have on their organizations.
I wonder those trying to justify laughter i this case are trying to justify their boorish behavior. I can laugh as hard as any individual when someone succeeds in seeking the Darwin award, but this is not one of those cases.
You're right...These are not the most difficult courses on earth..They are not abstract. They are pure mathematics. Wonder what his problem really was?
Laughing at HIM at the time of his anguish would not be helpful, however, laughing at someone else who committed suicide WOULD help.
"There was also that wacko at San Diego State who gunned down three of his profs because his engineering thesis wasn't coming together."
Chinese guy at Berkeley did the same thing, unless we have the same story mixed up.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.