MAD WOMEN IN THE ATTIC OF SRFTI

You see in SRFTI, there are two kinds of women. Like during Victorian representation of women in fiction, you can be of the angelic kind. By angelic i do not mean sweet spoken or any of the conventional definitions of a 'proper' woman. On the contrary, these angelic women are very unconventional in their own ways, are expressive and in fact, are fun to hang out with. Only, if you speak about sexual harassment they will turn around and say that there is no such thing/ i am a girl too, i never faced it/ i am a girl too, i have faced it and this is not how i reacted/ it never happened/ you are insane/ you are attention seeking/ you need to be controlled/ you are threatening them etc. Now the girls who complain about sexual harassment will fall into the demonic category, those who have to be locked in attics like in Jane Eyre just because patriarchy cannot think of any other possibility of a woman to be other than an angel or a demon.

So on 10th June 2016 an emergency meeting of the Governing Council of SRFTI was held. Three parents had come to campus just to speak with the governing council members and let them know how their wards were suffering and also to tell people including the chairperson how the delay in acting upon the ICC report was costing a lot to their wards. One of the parents had flown down from Bhopal because the situation was getting worse by day. When we went in there we were asked to wait in the registrar's room where people including the Administrative Officer tried to convince the parents that nothing was wrong with SRFTI. When after forty minutes of waiting the messenger came out to say that we could go in, they stopped us students, two sexual harassment complainants ourselves. A female security personnel who was deployed there used force on us. One of the complainants raised her voice saying we HAD to see the GC members. The scuffle resulted in bruises in her arm. My own mother's arm is still aching and she has to go to seek medical help tomorrow. The letter i was carrying was torn in the scuffle. I have submitted it in front of the GC and have asked them to please mark it as proof of the violence that was thrown at us.

You can see what happened there in this video captured by Vai Vow. The women you see in here are the mad women in SRFTI's attic. This is how we are treated.

After some time, a group of students who belong to the majority who continue to harass and intimidate us came in. That included a sexual harassment complainant herself. The only thing absent there was a red carpet. They were welcomed with wide open doors. No security guard, male or female touched them. Five names had already been given to the security in charge and he had been instructed that they would be let in. All of them were women. There were three people from the SRFTI administration who were present in the GC meeting. One was the chairperson Partha Ghose, the current Director Mr. Amaresh Chakraburtty, the current dean Mr Debashish Ghoshal. I think it is safe to assume that the entry of the five girls who wanted to speak to the GC as people who 'do not wish to take sides' and are taking sides just by saying it was enabled by one of them. I know how faculty and chairperson have manipulated the angelic students to this extent. Who suffers? We do. We will be called insane and be forced out of meetings where we have to speak. We have a video of how the five girls were welcomed in with wide open doors as well. Not posting it because that would reveal the identity of one of the complainants.

Three cheers to the complainant who made our entry possible by speaking in her 'shrill' voice which people make fun of, by using her gesticulations and the truth of her soul which everyone despises. You go girl.

We spoke at the meeting. Our parents did too. I don't know if it had any effect on anyone, if it was enough to get our points across. My own mother was quite emotional and traumatized after a security personnel handled her. She later told me that it was for the first time that something like that had happened to her. I felt guilty. It's okay, i said, it will all end soon. But will it?

Today, 12th June 2016 i read this report in the Times of India. Let me quote one of the professors who have been found guilty.

...it is rumoured that SRFTI will go ahead with punishing two professors, ignoring strong advice from a number of legal experts. The professors, along with majority of students, are shocked by this action which is legally ill-advised and ethically dubious."


According to his claim, the "SRFTI authority" wants the accused to get "justice" from the court. "A number of legal experts, reportedly, made strong observations against the internal complaints committee findings and recommendations. What prompted SRFTI authority to brush the legal opinions aside? This is a burning question that is sure to grip the campus soon," the faculty member said.

Choose the Correct Answer
1. How does the professor know that SRFTI sought advice from a number of legal experts? Ans. Chairperson/Dean/Director
2. How does he know that the strong advice was ignored? Ans: Chairperson/Dean/Director
3. Majority of students are shocked by this action- Which action?
Ans. We don't know because there has been no action yet/ the action the professor has been informed that would be taken by the Chairperson/Dean/Director/ What's action?
4. The professor mentions majority of students. Who are they, how does he know all of their opinion?
Ans. The majority told the professor/the professor told the majority/the Chairperson/Dean/Director told the professor that the majority said that
5. 'Grip the campus soon'- what does the professor mean?
Ans. Only he knows because only he has been told/ Only the majority and the administration know because the professor has told them/ Nobody knows.

Coming back to the mad women in the attic, i chanced upon a letter written to the chairperson by one of my batchmates. The letter was supposed to be shared with me because it had allegations against me. This was not done probably because chairperson Partha Ghose thought that that was the best illegal thing to do at that moment. Anyway wrapping up with the part that affirms SRFTI's problem with women like me or me.

Also the complainant Kunjila Mascillamani is mentally unfit. She has tried committing suicide, is under psychiatric treatment and is self destructive. She has written so herself in her blog posts. Yet her statements are being taken. And she is free to roam about. She is writing complaints and lodging FIRs on a daily basis. This shows how mentally unstable she is.

The girl had blocked me on Facebook some time ago. After i put this up in my newsfeed she ublocked me. I am also pasting here the same girl had sent me after i returned from hospital after my suicide attempt. This is no parable to say how people change. It is just to say that when there are a hundred people telling you that you are mad, and if you are a woman, especially, be sure that you are doing something right.

I have given up hope but am still hoping against all hopes that we get justice. The fight shall continue.

OPEN LETTER TO THE MINISTRY OF I&B: INTERVENE NOW

Professor Partha S Ghose Chairman
D.O. 43029/27/Chairman/ 16-17 Dated : June 2, 2016
Dear kunjila,
I understand from your communication to Shri Deepak Kumar, Director (Films), Ministry of I & B, Govt. of India, that you have complained against me for treating you brutally. Let me assure you that I have all sympathy and support for you. When I talked about washing dirty linen in public, I had provision 16 of the 'Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace' Act in mind, which makes disclosure of matters relating to sexual harassment in any manner punishable under law. Also, when I offered to give you a personal guard, which I did with all good intentions, you seem to have misunderstood me.
Because of allegations of bias against the ICC, I am now bound by law to follow the prescriptions of Clauses 10 and 11 of the Government of India Memorandum dated 16.07.2015 regarding 'Steps for conducting inquiry in case of allegation of sexual harassment'. No hasty decision in this regard will serve the cause.
I urge you to make yourself aware of all the legal and procedural provisions mentioned above.
Yours sincerely,
(Partha S Ghose)
The Joint Secretary (Films), Ministry of I 8v B, Govt. of India Shri Deepak Kumar, Director(Films, MIB, Govt. of India The Chairperson, ICC The Dean 

This is the letter i woke up to on 2nd June, 2016.
It was for the first time that the chairperson had replied to any of my complaints. Only this time, it was a complaint against himself. So let me put this in perspective: I complain against the chairperson to the ministry of I&B and the chairperson writes back to me? Then by that procedure when i complained about sexual harassment in the institute they should have set up a coffee chat with the professors who abused me, no?

So i wrote back to the ministry thus.

Dear sir,
It is most unfortunate that i have been made to write repeatedly to the ministry due to lack of responsible behaviour from the part of the authorities. When i wrote to the ministry i had specifically mentioned various means of harassment that the chairperson had inflicted on me. Today i got a letter from the chairperson. First of all let me please point out the irregularity of the situation. It is to the ministry that i had written regarding the misbehaviour of Mr Partha Ghose. I was seeking the help of a higher authority to take action. Why is it that then the accused person himself is engaging in correspondence with me? When i approached the ICC with complaints of sexual harassment against professors, when i approached the director with various forms of intimidation by students, the practice was not and rightly so, to be asked to engage in a conversation with the accused persons. If a woman's modesty is questioned by a man should she be asked to engage in a discussion with the same man? I find this highly problematic.


Nevertheless, i am now going to address the explanations that Mr Partha Ghose has provided in the letter addressed to me.
Mr Ghose has cited the law which makes it illegal for details of sexual harassment to be disclosed. This is not only factually incorrect but also misappropriation. The chairperson who in his room had violated all my modesty as a woman is quoting from a law which is enabling women like me to complain against sexual harassment, the very crime i am fighting against and the one which Mr Ghose is supporting. Stating the incorrectness of Mr Ghose's statement. 

1. The video of the professor which was made public was already viewed by students.
2. The video is by no means related to sexual harassment. It is a video which speaks about the lack of discipline in the professor's life in hostel and in the presence of his students.
3. The person who shot the video and made a documentary film exercise out of it has raised no objection whatsoever in my making the video public.
These facts can be verified if required. This is the video in question and the second fact can be verified while watching it while the first and the third can be verified any moment by an inquiry at SRFTI.

The Chairperson claims that he meant well by stating that he would provide me with a guard who walks with me 24*7. He claims that i misunderstood him. This is not true. He was mocking me while he said it and this can be verified with the other student who was present there, Mr Kalhan Raina. When a female student is being called 'behen ke laudi' and threatened that 'this happened outside the institute. You can't do anything about it' by fellow male students, is the action to be taken that of employing a guard who curtails my freedom of movement and functioning or taking action against the perpetrators of this violence? Surely, a person holding such a powerful position as the chairperson should know better?
Mr Ghose is mentioning the ICC when i had not mentioned anything related to the ICC in my complaint. In fact the conversation was not about ICC at all.


Also numbering the harassment that was carried out in the presence of a student and the director and which the chairperson has chosen not to reply to

1. Why did Mr Ghose ask me to put my phone away saying that he would not talk to us if we were to quote him later?
2. When i started explaining the violence that was inflicted upon me why did he say 'taali ek haath se nahi bajta', and that the violence against us is response to our provocation, a clear instance of victim blaming.
3. Why did he ask Mr Kalhan Rain and Ms Debjani Banerjee to 'control kunjila'? while perpetrators of crime were and are roaming on campus uncontrolled?

Sir, i believe that the harassment that i was subjected to needs immediate inquiry and action. If it is not the ministry of I and B that i should approach, please guide me as to where to go with this complaint. I believe that no woman, no woman student should be subjected to this form of victim blaming and mockery for just having spoken up. Please give me directions as to whom to approach so that my grievance is redressed and not left with a letter from the chairperson with explanations which do not correspond to the accusations. Action needs to be taken against all forms of injustice and Mr Ghose has no reason to be exempt from it. I am willing to answer any questions regarding the incident and provide testimonies from any of the witnesses mentioned in my letter. The director himself was present during this ordeal and had later mentioned to a faculty about the way in which the chairperson had spoken to me. The faculty is willing to testify as well, if required.


Waiting for justice,
kunjila.

In the morning i also received the copy of the ICC report which had pronounced the two accused professors guilty. All four of us complainants received it and we were all very happy. This was the result of joint efforts from a lot of people. The first injustice had occurred when the institute shared the ICC report with the accused professors and not with the complainants. It is after repeated requests and talks by various people including NGOs like Swayam and activists that they agreed to give it to us. Do you know that the director was not allowed to carry the ICC report to Delhi when he went to the ministry? What is it that is in there that the chairperson fears so much so that he is now only interested in the 'ICC is biased' chorus from the professors who have been found guilty? 

SEXUAL HARASSMENT BATTLE: MINISTRY WRITES BACK

On 1st June 2016 when all children went back to school back at home, Kerala i received a mail which i believe is from the ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It was ccd to the director and the chairperson of the institute and it read thus.

Ma'm!
Please refer your emails regarding pending complaints filed by you. As you know, the Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) set up by the Institute is inquiring into them and has also submitted its report on some of them. The concerned disciplinary authority is looking into the reports submitted by the ICC and appropriate action would be taken in accordance with the prescribed procedure in this regard. You may appreciate that the management has taken several steps in this regard. You may also appreciate that in such matters, the procedure as prescribed is to be followed and you may be rest assured that the Institute will take all necessary measures in accordance with the prescribed Rules. As regards threats from certain quarters, the Institute is taking necessary steps to address your concern. 

I do not know what to make of this letter because it is not really addressing any of the problems i had written them about. Even then i have decided to believe that it is a ray of hope that they wrote back. I wrote back to them thus.

Dear sir,Thanks for the reassuring reply.
I would, however like to point out certain queries and grievances which have been left unanswered.
The reply that you sent me was ccd to the chairperson Mr Partha Ghose. It is against his harassment that i had written to you first. His brutal form of harassment towards a sexual harassment complainant needs to be addressed immediately also because he holds power and that in itself is intimidating. I hope you remember the faculty meeting held by Mr. Partha Ghose which was nothing but a plot to eradicate the element called me from campus. Please intervene immediately.
The management has not provided us with the copy of the ICC report up until this moment when i am writing to you.
The management has not taken any action based on the findings of ICC.
The management has not taken any action against the students who were engaged in a massive intimidation campaign.
Thanks,
kunjila.

I really hope the ministry intervenes and we win this battle. I am waiting.

AGENDA FOR TODAY'S MEETING: 'WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH KUNJILA'

I didn't know i was so important. So threatening. Really, i am a short woman, not well built. I can't knock anyone off even if i wanted to. I have no money. My parent is not rich. Nor is she famous. I am in no power position. I am a student and i am struggling to make a film.
So on 30th May 2016, when the chairperson Mr Partha Ghose, called for a meeting of all faculty, little did i know that the agenda for it would be 'what shall we do to kunjila'. Well, that was what it was. So the chairperson who had a few days ago bestowed the wisdom that 'taali ek haath se nahi bajta' (you can't clap with just one hand, when i complained about the harassment the student community was subjecting me to) called a meeting of all faculty members and asked what was to be done with me. I was maligning the name of the institute and was swearing at professors on social media. Surely, i had to be punished? Also, the unsaid backstory,

1. I complained against sexual harassment on campus.
2. I said that a professor had raped me
3. I said that another professor had sexually harassed me
4. I said that the institute was a hub of drunkards and weed doers who chose to make life of other students miserable after they indulged in these,
5. I said that one of the professors was guilty of instigating students into committing sexual harassment
6. I said that one of the professors engaged in absolute hate speech in company of students. I made public a video which proved the same
7. I exposed the misogynist the chairperson Partha Ghose is.
8. I wrote to the Ministry of I&B saying the same.
9.

Oh wait. What was that again?
Yes. I wrote a letter to the Ministry of I&B explaining the harassment Mr Partha Ghose subjected me to. I made that letter public. When an activist made a petition seeking the resignation of Mr Partha Ghose for the same reason, i shared the petition and asked fellow fighters to sign it. And the next thing i know the man calls for a meeting of faculty members and discusses what shall be done with me? Yes.

So why is it that a room full of people who are more than double my age decided to write a letter against me? Because i am what is wrong with SRFTI? You must be joking.

I have written to the ministry again this way.

Dear authority,
I have repeatedly written to you talking about the tremendous amount of harassment i am being subjected to in SRFTI. I have received no reply. Yesterday, i got to know from a professor who had attended the meeting themselves that the chairperson of the institute, Mr. Partha Ghose had called a meeting of all faculty members. The agenda of the meeting was 'what shall be done to kunjila'. Is this permissible? In the meeting it was decided that all the faculty members shall file a complaint against me because i have been maligning the reputation of the institute. It was no surprise because Mr. Partha Ghose himself had earlier told me that 'we shall not wash SRFTI's dirty linen in public'. This is a deliberate attempt to stall the shoot of my diploma project which is scheduled to begin on 9th June. Other than exposing the chairperson of his attitude towards women and sexual harassment, other than bringing out the truth about certain professors here, what is it that i have done to deserve this? Are the above mentioned things crimes? I know they are not.
Please intervene immediately and stop this lobbying of the chairperson and faculty members against me. I have only stood by the truth and will continue to do so till the end of my life. If SRFTI decides to kill me, then i will continue doing that till the murder.
Thanks,
kunjila.

I don't know if i will get justice. Nor do i know if we will win this fight. I am summarising telling you what a day of a sexual harassment complainant is like. This is an average day. Sometimes it is worse. Sometimes it is even worse. This is not to say that it is hard. It is hard. But this, is to say that it is possible. I am alive up until now so anybody can do it. Unlike what Mr. Partha Ghose and the faculty here think of me, i am not a superhuman. It seems very difficult when you go through it but later you can just write it down like this and tell other women the same. That it is possible.

On 30th May 2016, i went to sleep at around 6 a.m. I had to leave for recce in the morning so i had to wake up at around 9 a.m. I did. I took my actor who had come all the way from Kerala for my project t for breakfast outside because mess serves bread on Mondays. Poori outside was better and cheaper. After that i set out to the department and printed the latest version of shot division. I wrote a letter to the director asking for the copy of the report submitted by ICC for sexual harassment. I got all the complainants to sign on it. I wrote another letter to the registrar because the guest house people told me that my actor couldn't stay there. I went to the registrar and he asked me to get a copy of it made and i spent ten minutes making his PA understand what a copy is. [From the time the receptionist at the guest house told me that my actor couldn't stay there my eyes had started welling up and never stopped till noon. It happens with me when i am depressed.] I went down to the reception and said that Vai Vow, my witness in one of the student cases in ICC, would not be able to come because he is in Maharashtra and that he would have to give his testimony on phone. The receptionist who is also a member of the student ICC told me that the ICC hearing was going on. Then i realized that it was 30th May. I called Vai Vow up and informed him of the situation. Babysitted him on what to do. Most adults around me including my own mother need babysitting when it comes to getting things done, writing letters etc. Yes, it is fucking irritating. I went back to the internet room and made some changes in my diploma schedule. I went to the sound department to issue equipment and was told that they would not issue it in my name. They needed a senior sound student. No senior sound student remains on campus who even talks to me. Ostracised me, remember. I was asked to go to my own department and get a sign from a faculty. I went to one staff and two faculty members. All of them refused for one reason or the other. I went to the HoD of the department and broke down in front of him saying what kind of harassment i had to face every day when my shoot was just around the corner. He said he would make an 'exception' for me. He said he would decide which equipment to be given. I did not get the equipment i asked for but had to be 'happy' that i had got it issued because, well, that's the way things are around sexual harassment complainants, especially me. After that me and most of my crew set out on recce. We went to Port Trust. We waited a long time there. We went to Deodar Street. We went to Jadavpur 8B, a lab there and a tailor shop there, both my locations. We went to Medica hospital. I had tea. I returned. I got the news of the meeting. I cancelled the rehearsals i was going to have with my actor because i was too disturbed. I spent some time talking to Vai Vow and realized i was awfully jealous of him because he did not have to face any of this before his shoot. I spoke to sister, mother visited, babysitted her again. Fought with sister, spoke to her, argued, gave up and facebooked. On facebook i was slut shamed again. Point number three which the senior student mentioned sounded like it came out of some mallu film. Only it was from a bengali film (student). Wrote letter to the ministry. Will go have tea in some time and have a goja because i am goddamn hungry. Then will be back, work on shot division, read Bresson, twist and turn in bed till dawn and fall asleep when i come up with some grand plan in my head which will save me from this torture. Tomorrow is a new day and it will bring me sunshine and laughter. Only, it won't.

HARASSMENT BY CHAIRPERSON PARTHA GHOSE: OPEN LETTER TO I&B: SEXUAL HARASSMENT BATTLE AND THE MOB

To,

The Ministry of I&B, India,

ICC,

The Director,

SRFTI

Dear authority,

I am writing this letter to report the harassment that i had to face from the chairperson of the institute, SRFTI, Mr. Partha Ghosh. I am a sexual harassment complainant and had gone to report the numerous instances of intimidation and harassment that i was facing from the student body. After the ICC had found two professors guilty of sexual harassment, the violence from the students to me, other complainants and our supporters had shot up.

Yesterday, 24th May, 2016, i had gone to the director of the institute to report the most recent incident in which i was called ‘behen ke laudi’ and was threatened that ‘this happened outside the institute. You can’t do anything about it’. The director was in the chairperson’s room, talking to him. When i entered with junior student Kalhan Raina who is also facing intimidation and death threats, Mr Ghosh asked me what was in my hand. I said that it was my phone. He asked me to put it away. I asked him why. He said he couldn’t record what he was saying. I again asked why. He said that he wouldn’t talk to us if we were to quote him later. So i had to put my phone away.

When i started telling him and the director what i was being subjected to in the past couple of weeks, he started mocking me. He said that ‘taali ek haath se nahi bajta hai’, [you cannot clap with just one hand]. When i asked him what he meant by that he said that ‘till i saw the video of the professor i used to believe that it was a one-sided attack. But after seeing the video i now believe that it (violence against us) is response to your provocation’. He was referring to the video that i had uploaded of Mr. Subhadra Chowdhury, professor, who was found guilty of sexual harassment in which he was saying very objectionable things. 

I asked the chairperson why he was not talking about the content of the video. I told him how that video was made for public viewing and how the person who had shot it had told the professor that he was shooting it. In fact the professor himself had given inputs on edit to the student. The chairperson did not listen to me.

Later when i pointed out that i was being threatened every day he started mocking me. What can we do? He asked me. I said i shouldn’t feel threatened in the campus. He mocked me again saying, ‘So what shall I do? I can post a security guard by your side who goes wherever you go’. At this point i couldn’t bear the humiliation any longer and i got up and said that it was absolutely mean and pathetic that he was talking to me that way. I said that if a student was feeling threatened the solution was not to employ guards but to remove the elements which are threatening the student. I said this and left the room.

I went back again once more still in tears to let him know that i have received yet another threat from a female student who is asking alumni to join hands in kicking insane elements like me out of the institute.

I am writing this to bring to your notice how a girl who spoke up against sexual harassment is constantly being harassed by students, faculty and the highest of authorities. My friends who stayed back in the room after i left crying told me that Mr Partha Ghosh had asked them to ‘please control kunjila’. Why is it that it is i who have to be controlled when the students and professors who unleashed terrible amount of violence on me are parading the institute without any sort of control over them. Why did Mr. Partha Ghosh ask me not to record if not to say such humiliating things to me and leave me with no evidence. Mr Kalhan Raina was present throughout the incident and he can testify to what i have said. The director of the institute was also present while i was being harassed even though i am not sure he will testify for me.

Please take action against this complaint.

Thanks,

kunjila

Kolkata,

25th May 2015

I have sent this letter to the Ministry of I and B and i am seeking justice. Meanwhile students here have ganged up more than ever, unleashing a vicious attack on us complainants. I am attaching the screenshots of some of the posts put up on social media directly attacking us complainants and calling us liars, mentally ill, pseudo feminists etc. The amount of violence in their posts itself is such and you can imagine how it must be when we take a walk on campus. It is horrible. 

One of the students seeks the help of seniors to kick insane people like us out of the campus. The same person also goes ahead and calls me/complainants pseudo feminists. Says that we think that 'men on earth have  only one aspiration in life-to rape women'.

In the following update you can see that a student is stating as a fact which is only her opinion which is 'Not all cases are true. not all women are victims. Some are plain politicians...There has been NO death threats. I repeat NO DEATH THREATS. NO abuse. DO NOT FALL FOR THESE. SOMEONE IS TRYING TO GET YOUR SYMPATHY. THEY ARE TRYING TO PULL YOU IN YOUR SENTIMENTS FOR A WOMEN. YOU ARE BEING USED. YOUR RESPECT FOR WOMEN IS BEING POLITICISED.

 

Now let  me expose the lies mentioned by this student in a couple of seconds. 

1. There was a death threat. A student had told his junior student (Kalhan) that he would be found in a pool of blood outside some day soon. Soon after that comment which was posted on one of my own posts on facebook, he deleted it and even made fun of the student by saying that the comment was now gone. Later he went on to say that it was only a joke. He himself put up a status saying his death threat was only a 'mole' (i am assuming molehill is what he meant) and that the person who got the threat was making a mountain out of it. Here is that post in which he is even mocking the student he threatened saying he is an 'asset' to SRFTI. 

Again another student who keeps referring to me as a mental patient wrote to provide strength to the death threat student saying he was 'dealing with a bunch of insane psychopaths' and not to worry because 'there will be more dramas coming up, all you know that there's a complaint against you. Because you know complaints are the most powerful weapon for all the pseudo feminists across the world'.

2. Dispelling lie number two by the student which is that there has been NO abuse and that everything is cooked up by attention hungry students like me, i would ask the indian public plus SRFTI to go through the ICC report which has pronounced TWO professors GUILTY and have recommended the harshest of punishments. This is a quote directly from the office of the director of the institute and was reported in an article in a newspaper. There are four female students who made complaints against faculty and there are 2 complaints against one, 3 against the other and 1 against the third. I am really curious to know why the mob thinks that all these women one fine day decided to tell a bunch of lies and subject themselves to insane amounts of humiliation which is what is thrown at sexual harassment complainants in india, usually. 

In the above status the same student spurts another series of lies. Dispelling them one by one and pointing out the stupidity of the argument?.

1. 'Under psychiatric treatment' is probably a shot at me, the only person on campus who has written about her sessions with the shrink. Yes, i take anti-depressants and mood stablisers and i attended sessions with a shrink for a year to get out of depression. I don't see how that makes me have a 'dented mind'. The absolute insensitivity towards mental health issues and depression is the hallmark of SRFTI. The status just proves it further.

2. The victims who prefer to be called survivors are happily roaming about.

At least in my case i can say that i have no problem with being called either a victim or a survivor. Yes, we are happily? (not too sure) roaming about. So what are we supposed to do? Shut ourselves in our rooms and not talk? Not happening people. I don't know which century you belong to, but i will fight sexual harassment tooth and nail, sitting in room, laughing when i feel like, crying when i feel like, sleeping, eating, not eating...doing things which normal people do because that is what we are  too. People. 

3. They do their regular work with other students.

There are no other students. It's us 6 and them 150. I am working with people, even girls, who don't even believe that i was raped and it is not easy. Regular work? No. The students have tried all they can to stop me from working by creating the most hostile environment and i still don't know how i will start my shoot in less than two weeks in such an environment. Every day is a battle. Every night is sleepless.

We stick to ourselves and are always with each other because there is no one left to talk to and there are only so many people who believe us. In the mess or the canteen if you see someone eating alone in all probability it is one of us.  When we are not alone we are with one of us six.

Laugh loudly- again at me, i think, i have an extra loud laughter which is quite annoying. And yes, i will continue laughing because (again) yes, that's one of the things people do and i am people.

Badminton tournament: Happened ages ago and even on that occasion an announcement was made over the microphone that there would be a party, later corrected to 'bhajan keertan', mockingly. That was the morning in which i was called 'behen ke laudi' by one of the students and they hit an iron rod on a pole in the badminton court right in front of my room at 6 in the morning. So, isn't it better one doesn't mention 'play badminton and no one bats an eyelid'. 
By the way, why should anyone bat an eyelid? Why does it sound as if it is a miracle that nobody batted an eyelid. Freudian slips, i say. :)

4. Kalhan shooting a student only general body video. 

Blatant lie. Kalhan never shot anything. He made an audio recording upon the request of some of the complainants because such 'student only' meetings were being used to spread lies. And yes, he caught a student representative lying. We checked with a lot of sources and still haven't understood what is wrong with recording a meeting which was supposed to be transparent. My request asking for the minutes of the meeting yielded no reply. 

5. The student who was subjected to public trial walked in there by his own will.

Yes, of course he did. Such general body meetings are not expected to be violent. They are not supposed to be. The girl again makes a slip by suggesting that we be grateful that they are not from ancient india. It is nothing to be grateful or happy about. It is how things should be and it is how things were not in that meeting which was undemocratic to begin with. It is just as stupid as saying that we are nice people because we don't practise Sati anymore. 

Kalhan was subjected to harassment from 11.30 at night to 3.30 in the morning. A mob of around forty people surrounded him and kept asking him questions till the time a fellow complainant and i entered the terrace and questioned the mob. The mob turned violent against us and attacked the three of us in packs. That is, around forty students against the three or four of us. I have the audio recording of the mob in which one student can be heard yelling 'I am not scared of you Kunjila, I am not Shyamal Sengupta'. Mr. Sengupta, is a professor against three female students including me had complained. You can hear how people mocked us girls mimicking our voices, laughter etc, how we were booed and laughed at. There was even applause when the above mentioned dialogue was said. 

By the way the female student spreading these lies has blocked me on Facebook. This is just a hint of how democratic SRFTI is and what its people's understanding of democracy is. 
 
I have not finished editing the 1.30 hour long audio recording because i have a film to shoot soon. Shall upload it and update here when i do that.

While we are being called names and being accused of being mentally ill i would also like my readers to go through the series i had published in my blog about my sessions with a shrink. I did that because i knew that a lot of women were going through similar problems and that it would help them. My own mother said that it was not wise for me to write about such things precisely because of the reason which has just unfolded in front of my eyes. That people will use it to paint me as an insane female. Insane is a monolithic idea for most people which immediately paints a picture of a woman chained to a cot or something such. Nobody understands depression. In fact in the controversial video of the professor there is a portion in which he says that there is nothing called 'depression' and that my suicide attempt was only because i had a mother who had money and who could stay in Kolkata to look after me. 
The truth is that a lot of people, especially women, wrote to me after i published that series and even got the number of my psychologist from me. One of them was the girl who called us 'psychopaths'. I hope she recovers from this time capsule she has shut herself in, denying the truth and believing the fake and the false. Women, i hope you find peace. 

Much love,
kunjila.