IIT Girl Chooses Sainthood Over Engineering

A 26-year-old student of IIT-Madrasdecided to leave everything behind and headed to the Himalayas to attain Sainthood. Vedantam L Prathyusha, the second-year MS student at IIT-M's department of engineering design went missing from her hostel on Tuesday, and left two notes behind her, one in English and one in Telugu.

A police officer said Prathyusha's notes stated that she wanted to have adventure and do research in spirituality instead of studying engineering. Her pages on social networking sites also indicate that she she had an avid interest in spiritual texts like Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita.

Students said they last saw Prathyusha on Sunday morning. Police said that some of the students had complained about her disappearance later on Sunday. "As far as we know, Prathyusha informed no one about her plans," an official said. "Her friends tried calling her on her cellphone but couldn't get through. They later contacted her parents who said she hadn't returned home."

IIT-M director Bhaskar Ramamurthi said Prathyusha's parents have requested them to file a police complaint as they are worried and are unable to locate her, furthermore it would take them some time reach Chennai.

"Based on the family's request, we filed a complaint with the Kotturpuram police," he said. The Kotturpuram police registered a missing person complaint and are trying to locate her.