PATNA, december 31 While their batchmates chill out with friends or relax at home, 35 IIT students from Bihar are spending their winter holidays coaching and guiding young IIT aspirants, as many as 700, in Patna. As the New Year dawns against the shadow of IIT graduate Satyendra Dubey’s murder, both aspirants and mentors have in their minds shades of anxiety—and hope. What unites them at this workshop is their concern for Bihar, which they feel is redeemable with some honest effort.

‘‘Dubey has become our role model. His death will not slow us down, in fact we are more determined and we will work in Bihar to make it a better place’’, says Shyam Kumar from Begu Sarai, a B Tech (Chemical) student at IIT Kanpur. The idea of organising a support group for IIT aspirants originated at Kanpur IIT—where Dubey studied—and spread to other places over the web. So far they have gathered 35 volunteers, most from Bihar, but one each from UP and Andhra Pradesh too.

Shyam has not spent more than four days with his parents this vacation. ‘‘I want more people to get the atmosphere that I got,’’ he says. ‘‘This workshop focuses on time management, strategy and planning for the JEE exam. In the next five months to the exam, we will be available on the Net to solve any doubts the students may have,’’ says Sushil Kumar of Bhagalpur, one of the convenors of the programme.

‘‘We tell them to draw inspiration from Dubey, not from Ranjit Don,’’ say these students, who admit that they face unkind remarks about Bihar everyday. ‘‘But we are proud Biharis.’’

Less than 0.5 per cent of those who qualify for the JEE are from Bihar, which has 27 of the country’s worst 69 districts in terms of development indices. The IITians say they want to contribute for change, though they know it’s tough. ‘‘We all are willing to finish what Dubey started,’’ says Pankaj Kumar Jha from IIT Kanpur. Will any of them start an enterprise in Bihar? ‘‘No.’’ Why? ‘‘We asked the same question to Narayana Murthy at IIT Kanpur last month. He told us to ask this question to the state’s chief minister,’’ says Ranjan Kumar from IIT Kanpur. What is it that they need to start in Bihar? ‘‘Security.’

Anup Kumar, an IIT aspirant who wants to join ISRO, is from Ziradei, the block bordering Dubey’s Nautan. He, however, is not so particular about working in Bihar. ‘‘See what happened to Dubey. Here, to be alive you have to be silent,’’ he says.