Did you know that there’s a third elephant and a supposedly haunted well on the campus? Rumours and myths passed down from seniors to juniors keep the fresh batch of students entertained every year
Aenakshee Roy
No educational institution is spared from myths and rumours. Apart from survival tactics, what also gets passed down from our seniors are the must-see places on campus and relatable stories; some shared with laughs, some with hushed whispers.
At IIT-M, take the Aerowell, for example. It’s the most famous spot on the list given to us. Ask any student what happened there and they all claim to know. Yet, it is likely that each version of the tale will contradict one another. For instance, people say that someone jumped into the well and died. Regardless of what people claim to know, almost everyone seems to believe, to some extent, that the Aerowell is haunted.
This well is usually a place to tick off the bucket list for freshers. That too, from a list that one can easily ignore. But those who visit the well are often spooked by the eerie atmosphere of the area. Or they get confused by the scribbling on the nearby walls; one of which says: “Kalyan Kumar (with roll number and department name) was here.” The adjacent wall has this written: “Until he wasn’t.”
People who see the scribblings on the wall tend to return to their hostel rooms thinking about what really led someone to write those words there. Who knows, it could well just be a prank or an attempt to scare freshers. But only a select few are privy to the mysterious tale of Kalyan Kumar, the boy who existed until he didn’t.
Perhaps the older batch might recall a boy in the Aerospace Department who was exactly like any other student: attending classes, holding PORs (post of responsibility), living in the hostel and making friends with people. Except one day, the person everyone knew as Kalyan was not even Kalyan to begin with. Apparently, he was a different person who took the identity of Kalyan Kumar on campus. The most impressive part was that he somehow managed to get all documents verified as Kalyan Kumar. The only time he was caught was when he attended a class that the real Kalyan hadn’t registered for. Now whether or not the real Kalyan Kumar was on campus is yet another unsolved mystery.
Legend has it that the imposter just disappeared. No one knows where he went. Some joke that he lived near the Aerowell and hence, the creepy evidence on the walls. We cannot ignore the mysterious graffiti in front of Godavari Hostel if we are talking about mysterious things. There are so many spray-painted faces and caricatures on the walls, most of which were done by seniors from the 2015 batch. But the graffiti in the middle remains unclaimed. No one knows who drew it. The graffiti now stands tall as you enter Godavari.
Another interesting IIT-M trivia is the existence of railway tracks in the midst of trees. If you look at it in passing, nothing would seem out of the ordinary. But if you look at it closely, you will find that the tracks don’t lead anywhere, nor do they have a starting point. What are these random railway tracks doing here? We never know. 
Of course, no one really knows or has any explanation for these myths and legends. For example, as silly as it may sound, once you spot a white blackbuck on campus, you wish you saw it on the morning of the quiz. There is a belief that the animal would fetch you an ‘S’ grade. The reasons might seem silly but these legends make our experiences memorable. For example, the noise from the jet propulsion lab that we hear randomly in the thick of the night.
There is no rhyme or reason. But these campus myths get passed down to the next generation and someone would end up believing that the Sangam Ground is the safest place on campus. Like J.R.R. Tolkien in the Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, we too tend to believe that myths and legends are based on some “truth”. Like the existence of the third elephant (excluding the two at Gajendra Circle) proves this point.
Originally meant to be a treasure hunt question, freshies would be asked to locate the rumoured third elephant in IIT-M. Now, over the years, many people were in fact able to locate the third elephant, although how it ended up there is not known. But at some point, people were made to believe that this particular elephant was once part of the Gajendra Circle.
And so the list goes on. Whether you believe this or not is up to the individual. But it doesn’t hurt to look out for the lucky blackbuck.
This article first appeared in The Fifth Estate, the official student body of IIT-M. You can check out its official website: https://www.t5eiitm.org/
