Strictly Not for Entertainment: 1

First Part

"No one is a Monday or a Tuesday for us. Every student is important and so is every meeting."

Dated: October 10th 2021

The Quarterly Report

Intro

The above quote is from an email (sent in early July) by the director of IIT Delhi. I had mentioned to him that I was treated as a designated day¹ (not a student) on the email communication. It was during the process of filing a complaint against the faculty in my department while getting harassed in the hostel by the warden. I got a meeting in the next few days—my first and only meeting with the director in person. Before that, I had a conversation with him online in which several promises were made. They were swiftly ignored in the in-person meeting.  The meeting was made futile by revolving around the importance of the degree. Just for a moment, I thought that guy would address the issues, and I could leave that place peacefully. But they chose to follow the fad, treating students like insects studying at the mercy of authorities eager to show their power–too busy to make the guidelines work in reality. I would've never written this essay had there been a hint of progress in the initial months. There were none, only revelations of their motives and treacherous efforts to subdue yet another student, who they feel will disturb their cozy government jobs and cycles. The case in focus here would be classified (in corporate lingo) as Retaliation Harassment.

Methods

Boring part.

In the middle of June, I finally put the pen down to complain against the head of my department. He tried to sabotage my degree (yet again) by asking me to fill up the course in a certain way and then sit tight for his decision on it. The decision was supposed to come before the end of May as the time to do the courses was the month of June. Nothing for the first ten days, and after that, all-out rejection without any reason or basis. And this was not the first time it happened. And this was not the only thing that happened. So, I decided to do something about this whole thing. I had consulted with a Dean on “How to…” and “What to…” and “Who to…” in the previous semester. That should have been sufficient for him to stop the forthcoming events of the coming months. It was the only choice left.

The method the Dean had suggested was sneered away by the admin department to stall time—early warning—so I took it to the director. No one was ready to address it despite having the designations for such cases. It was their sole job at that moment. It went on for about a week or so. Then, I got a reply from the director full of promises of palpable resolutions and so-called fairness. All I had to do was to submit a written form of everything unfair. I started writing. Simultaneously, from that very day or around, the warden of my hostel started harassing me–prohibiting me from basic hostel amenities, applying additional rules on my stay in the hostel, and contacting my guardian to notify him about my complaint–the heresy I committed. When he discovered my guardian was not my father, he started forcing me to give him my father's number. I denied. My father is usually a suffering individual who can not deal with these matters. But mainly, that warden or anybody had no right. They had a guardian's number, which is to be utilized at times of emergency. That was it. After all, I was a twenty-five-year-old adult. Despite this, he didn't stop. He kept badgering me and my guardian on call, threw my stuff out of the public reading space, and even arranged for some security personnel to follow me wherever I went, even outside the campus. Later, I realized that the director was pulling the strings. At that point, I didn’t know how serious that was. At the very least, it was illegal. That’s what one would consider, I thought.

Stalking is illegal in India, but only for women–the one-gender rules. They knew that and exploited it. They had experience in taking such measures. The main objective was to seize the student doing something he was not supposed to do, like smoking or peeing on the road or doing something illegal. In a typical scenario, the student gets afraid and locks himself in the room. Or, he can confront the stalker and deal with him aggressively–stalkers don’t respond to anything like why they pursue an individual, or who ordered them. They are instructed not to. I know because I did (ask). And they were a bunch. All of this was just to prevent me from submitting my written complaint. I even complained to the dean about this stalking and misuse of authority. I had to do. He acted like he had no idea. Another stalling attempt. Another spire of gaslighting.

Observation

The key agent in this whole ordeal was Time—one of the agents back then. The IIT Delhi administration fidgets with time on one hand and procedures on another. Not to forget, master analysts and managers graduate from this college. They have been handling students like me for decades. They know how to turn the dials to seize time from the students. You can beg and cry all you want, but they won't respond unless you sit down, be humble, pay for every objection you make, and suffer until you get your degree and start toiling somewhere else as a loser. Eventually, you move on, and they carry on.

Getting Paid for Passing Time!

On the day when I had my meeting with the director, I realized how silly they considered my case. The meeting was an attempted implicit warning: do your courses and get out. Of Course, I had already conveyed to them that something as such could only happen once my complaints were addressed. So they dismissed me with more promises (or you can call them innuendos). Words like investigation, committee, and resolutions were tossed around, as per tradition. None of them came in sight later. Yet, they were all there, on paper.

When I returned, I was issued to leave the campus the same day! I formally complained against the warden to the corresponding Dean. He shrugged it off by calling usual domestic residential issues, avoiding answering their legality and provisionality. There was a theoretical committee formed for that, too. They even tried to provoke my father and kept politely harassing my family. They provided some so-called findings after a month of denying everything yet again, without asking me for anything, consoling me by portraying the stalker as my protector in times of self-harm. Such cunts. On the contrary, I purposefully started carrying a butter knife to protect myself, even having to flash it before the stalker. He seemed to ignore it, so much for a protector. Ordinarily, any concerned official would have asked something. That was it for their whole sham.

They tried to incorporate that trick because of my drop from college in 2018 for about a year. I left because the department treated me poorly. I was depressed. So, I took a break to become better. That was the mistake, an idiotic decision. Apparently, two years after my return, after many incidents of harassment, now they put protection on me without my permission, just when I decided to take a stance. And just like that, I was forced out of the campus. Then, the real stalling process began.

Numerous emails were unanswered. Occasional fascist judgments were given, denying absolutely everything I wrote, ending with the requirements for specific incidents. I provided more specific incidents/facts (just like this report). But again, no response. And this went on for another month. Meanwhile, wardens and teachers were harassing other students with low grades and poor mental health, bending the rules, and abusing their power to the fullest. Because, just like anyone else before, I was supposed to give up, do my remaining few courses and leave. Or maybe leave without anything. Quit. They won't address anything. No matter what you do. They were occupied with various festive occasions, autonomous government vaccine drives; award ceremonies, and numerous baseless chores on paper. Spitting in the face with do what you dare can…

Bury them all

Upon receiving no update for a month, the estimated time i.e. two months that were suggested, is over. The online communication yet again failed the regiment and a proselytizing result was expected of me out of despair to see any fruitful future. Unlike them, I couldn't sit on the issue for years and get paid all that time. I demanded a meeting at the beginning of September, and yet again, a Dean countered with one of his online meeting proposals where everyone except me would multitask throughout and then abruptly end with some emergency. It was a pretty common parlor trick because they even did it in the open (I had first-hand experience.) I respectfully denied it, highlighting the only difference was my presence in that office (which I could fulfill.) Then again, no response. Classic transparent vacuity to provoke tragedy. So I went anyway. I needed an appointment with the director or any person concerned who could tell me how they were going to proceed with their broken mode of communication. I pleaded to the Dean and waited days outside their office only to have a brief futile conversation of general feigning and ending with more false promises.

Meanwhile, efforts were being made to divest me of what little I was doing by contacting my guardians, notifying them that I had once again reached there. The stalkers had returned too whenever I entered the college premises and it was well known that they were from the security after one of them recorded me going to the train station when I was kicked out from the hostel. After a week of trying and getting assurances that a meeting was getting arranged, I showed up at the office asking for an appointment one day and was given one hour to check-in. When I went there after an hour I was greeted with security personnel in the director's office. The receptionist who gave me the time window was nowhere to be seen. I was then asked to wait with the security, forcefully, after denying any reason possible, they took me downstairs, and when we reached I was ordered to leave the campus and come back with an appointment. I was a criminal now. When I explained the situation, I was denied using false covid restrictions which I was fully aware of. I was not allowed to make contact with the Dean or anyone concerned, nor was I provided with the information of who sent them. The security stalkers reported of course. I was kicked out again using inappropriate motives and physical means. and I had nothing to do but to complain again.

We buy everything here…

So, I went to the separate police station to file it. The precincts near the campus are in the administration's pocket (it was general knowledge). I made clear of that fact there, too. After hours of denying, they couldn't file an FIR and asked me to submit it in written form. I did and got more false promises. They didn't respond to me for another five days, and when they did, it was to notify me that my complaint was transferred to the college precinct. In despair, I went there half-dead, only to find out they had no idea. And just like that, they had misplaced it and asked me to wait. Still Waiting. The Station Heads had no interest in my FIR, so they scolded me off. I went away. Cops were just manservants to the college authority. I just needed to prove it.

Utterly lost, I asked the receptionist in the director's office about the presence of security and why I was not informed. He feigned, then denied any information about that (since he was on lunch at the time, of course). Everything was obvious, but I had to try. I demanded an email regarding the original appointment. I got it three days later, only to find out that my complaint was already addressed. A meeting was supposed to be arranged in a few days. I was asked to make key points on my issue, and then they will contact my parents. Frustrated, for the hundredth time, I forbade them as they had NO RIGHT to do so. And there was no response again. A week passed. And just like that, they swallowed the whole month.

Result-
There is none. It spiraled down into the worst-case scenario. This is the way they deal with complaints of harassment and all the other afflictions, including those related to mental health—faculty taking advantage of students and exploiting them to the core. It’s just one of many that have prevailed before me. The academic experiences were even worse, which led me to do all this. Think about worse for a second. They have a regular inflow of high-grade nerds, typifying their general facade of the best education you can get. And then there remains a significant number of alive students, like me, but not as strong mentally, to bear such oppression. They just remain sat down and humble. Or not.

This post is reposted and edited in 2024, see the original version here.

There will be more.

1. When you raise a grievance in a government institution, you become a number first for consideration. When compliance bodies work to address these grievances, in a typical administrative setting, the agenda is marked day-wise. If you fail to qualify to provide entertainment to these bodies, the agenda and the person is dismissed as a whole.