THE FOURTH IDIOT

Has Aamir Khan’s “Three Idiots” been in vain? Because engineering students continue to commit suicide. The latest in the series is Madhuri Sale, of IIT, Kanpur (IITK), my hometown. This is the eighth suicide here in the last five years. The IITK authorities nonchalantly attribute it to excess internet and mobile usage by students! Are the Neros of IITK fiddling while students are hanging?

Six of my classmates joined the IITs in 1966. Three were in IITK. I occasionally visit some professor friends. But a tragic memory of IITK is of 2000, when Remo Fernandes and his musical troupe came for its cultural fest Antaragini. The next day four of them died in an accident. After the post mortems IITK dumped the decomposed and disfigured bodies on blocks of ice in an isolated room that they call a morgue. The previous day everybody had wanted to touch the living stars. The next day the fallen stars had become untouchable to both the IITK authorities and the fawning students.

It fell to me to bring those bodies to my home, arrange for coffins for airlifting to Goa, and a prayer for the deceased. These memories came alive when I saw images of how IITK dumped Madhuri’s body on ice in that same “morgue”. How insensitive is human nature, and how fleeting our glory? What are we killing ourselves for (pun intended)?

I don’t know what my classmates who went to IIT achieved in life. Another six became defence officers, four in the army, and one each in the navy and the airforce. Two became doctors, and two became commercial pilots. An illustrious class. When I organised its reunion after 31 years in 1996, I discovered that the only one who had expired was the allopathic doctor! I had my entire class’ mark sheet. Of the six officers, the one with the highest rank had the lowest school marks. The one at the bottom of the heap in class was a Member of Parliament, and had won a gold medal in international sport. So who are the real idiots?

Saddened as I am by Madhuri’s suicide, I implore parents and students to realistically assess their own potential, and limitations as well. Don’t push too hard, you could be pushing the lever to the trap door that tightens the noose.

Counselling and psychiatry are not much help. They identify the causes, but cannot uproot them. Psychiatry merely addresses the symptoms with medication, which is not a solution. Those in depression need emotional and spiritual support. Unfortunately IITs know how to deal with metal fatigue, not mental fatigue; metallurgical stress not emotional ones. Stop and think before becoming the fourth idiot.

* The writer has been actively involved in youth counselling and spiritual inner healing.

NOVEMBER 2010