The unfortunate incident in KIIT

 Love it or hate it, social media is a great leveler. Gone are those days when high placed authorities with contacts use to manhandle folks in public and get away with impunity. Nowadays such a person will think hundred times before enacting misuse of power in public - lest some one records it on smartphone and takes it to the next level by making it viral. Beware, now anyone with a smartphone on hand is a citizen reporter. Now we have a classic case of manhandling or you can say woman - handling video surfacing on social media related to sad demise of a Nepali girl in the Republic of KIIT (not an overstatement) in the Patia area of Bhubaneswar. 

Every person has the right to live. It hurts utmost when someone commits suicide. And it hurts more, if that person happens to be young. Like every boy or girl of their age, they too have a dream, but unwisely decide to procrastinate their unfulfilled dream by killing themselves. When does a person decide to end his or her life ? It is not just because of the frustration with life, it's more due to their lack of care or concern for rest of the world, which includes their near and dear ones. If I ever feel suicidal for some reason, I may resist that thought for a moment, if I think about my family, if not me. Apparently they don't care about their loved ones and decide to end their life at spurt of the moment, never getting a second chance to regret it.

Suicides in college campuses are not uncommon. Surging teenage hormone gone wild can create havoc in heart and mind, which can be due to failure in romance, academics or bullying by others. It reminds me of the iconic movie 3 IDIOTS where a student kills himself due to his frustration at his project being pooh poohed by the Principal of the College. The student Rancho played by actor Aamir Khan complains about the mental stress the students undergo, leading to such avoidable tragedies. As the Principal gets defensive and refuses to take the blame, Aamir Khan replies - "I am rather blaming the entire system".

Now the King of Republic of KIIT, his henchmen and women are not only in a defensive mode, they have completely mishandled this issue. Well, mishandling would be an understatement, they have royally screwed up, caught with their pants or panties down. It takes me back down the memory lane to April, 1988 during my REC (Now in NIT) days. One fine morning there was some skirmishes between students in front of our hostel. A professor nicknamed DADA for his habit of bullying students perpetuated by a servile and kowtowing staff, was known to act more like a Sadak Chhap (street) goon than academic those days.

Our Dada suddenly barged into the hostel to take the situation into control. He was greeted with a volley of expletives by the students, provoking him by alleging him of having not so healthy relationship with his mother and sister. It was akin to showing a red flag to the Bull. The loud mouthed professor got mad and went around the hostel corridor, returning the compliments by immensely praising the mothers and sisters of the students. Standing barely 20 feet away I could clearly hear him - "Kaun MC Mujhe MC Bola. Arre Mein kiski Maa ko Ch**a Hoon. (Which MF told me I am a MF. Tell me whose mother I fcuked." If there were smartphones those days a student could have easily recorded the professor's act and put it live on the YouTube. That would have been sufficient to turn our DADA into a KHUDI (Feminine Dada) irreversibly from that day, defanging him forever. Now a professor will think a dozen times before doing such utterance in public.

Fast forward to present. The video of the goon looking fat bimbos of KIIT Republic badmouthing their Nepali students with condescending remarks has gone viral, even getting the notice of Prime Minister of Nepal, all thanks to the social media. Stories galore of goons of the infamous institute (many say the KIIT Adminstrative staffs are goons and/or pimps) who tried to burn the girl's Dupatta, a rope and erase her laptop and destroy her mobile, like a criminal tries to destroy evidences from the crime scene, scrambling to cover up the screw up of enormous magnitude.

Regardless the fiasco which is currently the hot news in my home state back home, Social media has become the real game changer, a double edged sword. Love it or hate it, better learn to live with it - for it is real and going to stick around. It may not have stopped all nuisance makers go scott free, certainly has acted as a huge deterrent.