Dosa at 3 am, deer begging for food: IIT Madras student captures candid campus life
Aryan Kala's Instagram video captures IIT Madras students studying and enjoying late-night snacks at the campus.
An IIT Madras student has captured what campus life at the prestigious institute looks like. Aryan Kala shared an Instagram video showing how students study and chill at IIT Madras during exam time. His video shows students preparing for exams, enjoying late night snacks and interacting with animals that roam the campus freely.

Campus life at IIT Madras
Aryan, a second year student pursuing a BTech in Biological Engineering, shared his video on Instagram, where it has crossed 1 lakh views in four days. The video was taken on November 20, when he and his classmates were preparing for their end-semester exams.
In the clip, Aryan explained that after taking an exam in the morning, he slept during the afternoon and woke up at night. After waking up, he and his friends decided to grab dinner at the campus food truck.
(Also read: Viral clip from IIT Delhi captures the real 3 am campus life with students roaming, posing and looking for tea)
The truck, which serves dosa, is open till 3 am — which makes it the go-to choice for any student looking to grab a late night snack. But Aryan and his friends were not alone at the food trucks. Besides loads of other students, there was also a deer looking for a bite of food.
Wildlife at IIT Madras
It’s “very common” to see wildlife at the campus, Aryan told HT.com.
IIT Madras occupies an area of over 600 acres. The campus was formerly part of the adjoining Guindy National Park.
“If you go for a walk for 5 minutes outside you will see around 15-20 deers at least. There are also 80-90 blackbucks in IIT Madras which is very rare in India. Every hostel will have approximately 10-20 cats roaming here and there,” he said.
While their dosa was being prepared, the students went to an on-campus event where they played some games. The video also shows the deer trying to beg for food. However, Aryan explained that feeding the deer is not allowed, so the animal did not get any snacks from the students.
Back in their hostel room, the IITians were joined by one of the aforementioned cats.
Aryan’s video shows the cat napping peacefully on the bed while the students studied for their upcoming exam.
“Other than cats and deers there are blackbucks, monkeys which are seen often. After this there are snakes, crocodiles and a lot more animals but they usually stay inside the forest part of campus,” Aryan told HT.com.
“When we first came to campus, our director reminded us that we are here for only four years. This campus belongs to the wildlife — we are merely guests — so it is important that we remember it is their home. They have adapted to this environment and, in many ways, accepted our presence,” he added.
ABOUT THE AUTHORSanya JainSanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience - from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment and global affairs. Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trends and looking for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation. She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amuse social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsmakers and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers. When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spends a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.Read More

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