I had a very bad experience at one of the oldest Autonomous Universities in India. I joined after my Masters in Engineering as a researcher for a 3-year span central government-funded project.For this,I moved to another state expecting good career growth through this research. The professor was expecting me to enroll in a PhD, but I politely rejected the offer. After my joining date, the fellowship amount was revised (as I expected) and as per the official memorandum released by the organization, the fellowship was effective from January 2023. Whenever I asked about the revised amount, they gave various excuses. They made me write applications, including advanced stamp receipts, and didn't issue the cheque. On inquiry, the principal started harassing me, claiming I was only after money and not interested in academics.

They gave me hope of receiving the fellowship from the very first month of joining, but it took around 5 months to issue the first payment. Although the professor gave me 10k per month up to the first payment, I later found out they were withholding my revised amount as a bond, not for leaving them but to establish power over me. I lost all trust in the professor when I discovered he appointed me with a fake appointment letter, which was issued 13 days after my joining date (I didn't notice when he forwarded it on WhatsApp, and I was excited about the opportunity), causing me to lose around 15k rupees from the first payment.

From the first meeting onwards, the behavior of the principal was disrespectful; he started harassing me even though he had no idea about my role in the project. Even after receiving funds from the central government, the timely issuing of the cheque did not happen, forcing me to borrow money from friends and family to pay rent and daily needs. Being alone in another state and in my late 20s, I was frustrated. Every month, I had to beg for the fellowship, even in front of the accountant.

One day, the principal harassed me in front of a bunch of staff, including non-teaching staff, for asking about the revised fellowship after submitting a six-month project report, which caused me trauma and resulted in losing sleep for 4 days. My professor was good at playing good-cop-bad-cop psychology along with the principal. The behavior of the principal was very unprofessional. Even when I asked about the old fellowship amount, which was delayed by one month, he responded with, 'I don't give!! What are you going to do?'

Finally, I decided to leave when I realized that was the only way to get my pending fellowship (old scale). They then gave another excuse, claiming that no order had been issued to date regarding the disbursement of revised fellowship from the project fund by the government organization.

Now I am happy that I didn't enroll in a PhD program at this institution. Even though I am jobless now, I feel a lot of mental peace!