Every elite engineering college has a structure; the toppers at the front, the backbenchers somewhere at the back pretending they meant to sit there. It is funny how backbenchers do not get much attention until the star students start to change in ways nobody recognises. Out of nowhere, it is the ones with the poorest attendance who are still around.

The virus arrived the way most disasters arrive inside institutions built on pressure and performance. Quietly at first, then everywhere at once. One student behaving strangely in the library. Two faculty members who seem off during a morning lecture. By the time anyone thought to ask serious questions, the hostels were chaos and the corridors belonged to something that used to be on the dean's list.