Shooting in IIT Madras

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There have been as many as 2 incidents of shooting in the campus of IIT Madras at 5 PM today. The first one occurred inside the Central Library and the other just outside the Library building. The shooter shot himself after killing at least 35 people. The shooter has been identified as final year Mechanical engineering student of the institute. His name is being withheld for security reasons as speculations suggest that he had more than 1 accomplice.

This shooting comes just 5 days after the deadly act by Cho in Virginia tech, which claimed 33 lives.

The reasons for this barbarous act are still being analyzed. The history of victims is also being considered as past relationship with the shooter can help trace the reason. This might be very well an act of vengeance as there are more girl victims in the shooting. Love can be a reason but other reasons are not being ruled out.

IITs are known for their intense academic pressure. The work load and subsequent fear of failure has driven people to suicide in other IITs. The killer’s friends have informed Serendipity that he was under great depression because of impending danger of extension in this project. An extension means spending another 6 months in the campus. His employer could cancel his selection and he would have ended in a precarious situation as far his career is concerned.

His friends, without an exception, have told us that he used to weep in front of them because of his fear of extension. His fear can be gauged from an incident in which he is supposed to have begged in front of his ailing guide, in his home towel, to let him finish his project within 2 months as this is the maximum delay his employer would accept. The night before, he cried on everyone who offered him a shoulder. He even broke into tears at a recent institute day function when the mention of seniors leaving the campus came up. He would spend most his time asking others whether his work is enough for a degree. He would carefully listen to everyone’s project and then draw parallels with his own project. Tears would again wet his cheeks if other’s project would exceed his in terms of

1. The total lines in the simulation code

2. The total number of research papers referred to.

3. Number of times a student has met his guide.

4. Number of graphs obtained.

He seems to have gone ‘nuts’ (as described by his friends) during the past few days. He forced his friends to obtain at least one graph for him using the software they were using. He is supposed to have varied his work in MATLAB, ANN, FLUENT, C++, MARK, ANSYS, PRO-E, AUTO-CAD and our own Excel!

One of his close friends has told us that he called up today morning and asked him to get few floppies. But as floppies are not available in shops these days, he asked him to get a digital camera so that he could take snaps of the results. When he last called his close friend, he informed him that he is going to the library to ask the librarian to help him categorize the data as they categorize books.

The success of IITians around the world brings a lot of pressure on the fresh graduates. Out of their naiveté, they take the initial failure as fatal to their career and end up ruining their lives.

Stay tuned to Serendipity for further developments on this shooting incident.