Inside the mind of Karthik Rajaram - Serial killer?
The bizarre and gruesome murder-suicide of the Karthik Rajaram family has been widely discussed...What kind of a person was Karthik Rajaram and what circumstances led to the tragic events, was it really the events of Wall Street getting to Main Street...The Indiablogo editorial team reproduces a telephonic interview with one of Karthik Rajaram's IIT classmates. (name withheld on request)
Indiablogo: What kind of a guy was Karthik Rajaram (KR)at IIT Madras?
IITian : Well, he was a regular guy. Karthik was not too keyed up to excel or get top grades in all subjects. But if he wanted to get an A in a subject that he wanted to excel in , (for example there was one subject that folks thought was important for getting into a MBA program,) Karthik worked hard and got an A.
Indiablogo : Was he a serious intense guy at college?
IITian : Not really. He was really a guy who went out of his way to organize the Mardi Gras event at our college. Making calls to people, creating flyers, getting sponsorships.
Indiablogo: Are you saying that he was sociable?
IItian: Oh yeah. At college.
Indiablogo: Were you one of his close friends?
IITian: Hmmm! No. He hung out with a different set of guys. But remember we were in probably the last five year batch. Our civil Engineering class had about 40 students. and all of us were hostellers.
Indiablogo: Any other special interests?
IITian: Well, we would talk about track and running. Karthik wanted to learn distance running.
Indiablogo: Did anyone in your batch suspect that he would turn into a monster?
IITian : I can only speak for myself. Not at all.
Indiablogo: Did you stay in touch with him after college?
IITian : For the first few years. Karthik got married very young. I think his wife was only 19 years when they tied the knot. Kartik about 25 or 26.
Indiablogo: Anything about their married life.
IITian : I heard from a common friend that Kartik used to drink very heavily and come back home really late. Heavy drinking stayed with him even after his first kid was born.
Indiablogo : Did Karthik have any other substance abuse in college or early married life?
IITian : I wouldn't know... I was what you could call a curd-rice guy. Anyways, I would meet with Karthik later in Boston. He was with his wife and kid. A normal couple really. We met in the house of another class-mate who was temporarily unemployed. Karthik tried with a few helpful suggestions for our class-mate getting a job. We would connect every three or four years. He would call out of the blue.
He told me that they had two more sons.
Indiablogo: Any special conversations?
IItian : I did not know that he had any financial problems. Well, a couple of years back, one of our batch-mates had been laid off and was looking desperately for a job. Karthik tried to get it to the attention of the group. So, if he did have acute financial problems, atleast I was not aware of it.
Indiablogo: Your last conversation?
IITian : He called up about four months back...wanted to find out more about an exercise regimen.
Indiablogo: If he had killed himself quietly people would have understood...but this horrible murder of his wife, kids and mother-in-law. Forgive my saying this but people think he was a real bastard, a calculating monster. What was it ? Did he want notoriety and publicity or was he egotistic?
IItian : If you say so. I can't bring myself to call a class-mate as a bastard or a monster but egoistic or egotistic - a big Yes. He was deciding the deaths of his children, his wife and mother-in-law.
Indiablogo : Did the batch-mates talk amongst themselves after the tragedy?
IITian ; Many of us in the US did. One of our batch-mates who has been unemployed for about a year, probably put it best. 'Even after one year of being laid off, I could never bring myself even to think in the direction of violence. Maybe hike back to India is the extreme step that I could think of.'
Anyways we mooted the idea of maybe setting up a helpline for NRIs and IItians in distress.
Indiablogo: Thank you for giving us this interview.
IITian. Thank you...Might the family of Karthik Rajaram rest in peace.
Indiablogo: AMEN.
Posted at 04:42PM Oct 27, 2008 by ravi in General | Comments[1]
I would like to tell you a story of pigeons apparently it was a peom written in kannada, which i learnt in high school.
The story goes like this, A hunter had laid his bait in the form of a net under a tree, where pigeon had set up his family.
One of the baby pigeons got entangled in net, seeing this other baby pigeons tried to release this baby pigeons, they also got entangled in the net.
Aghast at seeing her childrens(pigeon) mother pigeon tried to save her children, mother pigeon also ended get caught in the net.
Father pigeon, which had flew out to pick bread for the family came back to nestle(home) , was shocked to see his entire family struggling in the net. Father pigeon also did not think a second, what should he do now, out of love, father pigeon also tried to save the family. Whole family perished.
This is what, my teacher analyzed.
1)Baby pigeons doesn't have experience to think.
2)Mother pigeon could have held herself back and thought, what should she do now or could have waited till her husband pigeon comes home. Both Father pigeon and mother pigeon could have taken some action, could have thought, what should they do next. If they were unable to save their babies. They had chance of having babies again, they could have raised family again in a safe place.
3) a)Father pigeon could have thought, his whole family has got victimised and is under attack.
b) I under stand , its his right to protect the family.
c) If he was not able to save his family, he could have married again, could have raised a family along with a new wife.
Karthik was a successful person, came from a good family of haves, if not have not's. He could have saved enough for his family or should have had a plan for his kids. If he doesn't have, he could have told his wife, kids his financial situation in business, what he has and what he can do for them. Eldest son is in ucla and a full bright scholar, youngest sons are in high school, they would have had good future in usa.
His wife was also working, they had enough to lead a decent life. As far his kids are concerned, he could have told them that he will not be able to support them any more, they should be on their own.
He had enough experience, he could have started a small business to sustain himself, he could have moved to a different location, if he was suffering mentally due to losses. There a n number of indian companies trying to grow globally, he could have joined them, there a small companies like hexaware, or mastek some one would have embraced him. When paneesh murthy had bad time in Infosys, IGate embraced him.
I think karthik, had nice child hood, good education, would have come to america to do Masters, had nice job, easy and nice money, so would not have faced any hardships.
If he had travelled 4 hrs to college by public bus, walked 3 miles every day to college, hostile college enviornment interms of facility and under qualified faculty, should have borrowed calculators,books, should have attend classes in sheds, waited for trickle of money from parents to buy books, should have saved his pocket money(tricklest of trickle) to buy few books, forget jeans pant, then after passing out from non descript college, should have attended walk in interviews, waited for years together before joining a small company, should have borrowed money to attend walkin interviews in other cities, roamed on the streets eating on road side eatries, should have lived in office, should have used company toilet forget guest house, or forget tea, where water is not served. Should have worked for 15 hrs a day with out getting paid for months together, should have missed interviews from fortune 500 companies because internet access is denied, telephone access is denied, should have brought cell phone on credit in india, should have brought books using credit card, Added to that peers in company should have troubled him with unecessary or un achievable targets, because they were small company understaffed and with out resources and should have faced groupism and politics, peers should have been a thorn in his projects, above all family should have been hostile.
Life is not a mathematical equation and a puzzle from GMAT, its very easy for some kids(because they are born with a silver spoon) to do MS, deliberately fly here, deliver pizza, get into jobs were opportunities are plenty. That is what has happened in case of karthik rajaram, when faced with adversity, none of his equations and puzzles have helped him, he has not learn't hard lessons of life on the way to success.
Posted by srini on October 30, 2008 at 01:41 PM EDT #