This is a first hand experience at the Pilani campus. It was the summer of 2015 and I was in Pilani for PS1 (I’m an aluminus of the Goa campus). We were living at Rana Pratap Bhavan, which was apparently the oldest hostel on campus. I don’t doubt that as the hostel gave the feel of an old haveli. The campus was all but deserted as it was during the summer vacation.
One fateful night, six of us, having returned from dinner, decided to linger for a while and talk. We were standing at the only entrance of a pitch dark corridor that was unoccupied as far as we knew. At the entrance was a dimly lit water cooler. We were alone, or so we thought. We drifted from topic to topic until I randomly said, ‘you know, I’m from Punjab where 50% of the population is addicted to drugs.’ No sooner had I made this remark than a voice spoke out from behind us, ‘dude! Even 30% of the bitsians here are addicted to drugs.’
Startled, we spun around to see the thin, dark figure of a teenager leaning over the cooler. He wore a black T-shirt and black jeans and had black hair. He was facing away from us and so he looked like little more than a silhouette and was filling a water bottle. Despite his odd demeanor, we took this to be an ordinary situation and laughed at his comment.