Spring Semester 03: Counting
English

This episode talks about drug use.
If it touches your own life, support
details are below this video.
One more, Dev! One more!
The hills one, bhai!
For Kabir. The only person
here who claps on the beat.
Dev is the best thing about C-Block.
Ask anyone. Ask Kabir.
Bhai? It's nearly twelve.
Just getting some air.
Go to sleep.
In December, it was Saturday nights.
By the third week of
January, it was every night.
Kabir didn't mean to start counting.
Dev bhai! Class!
Five minutes.
Bhai, five hundred till Friday?
Mess dues.
Haan, bhai.
One more? Last one.
Promise.
Where's Dev? We start in five.
He said he'd come.
Bhai, can I say something?
You just did.
You'll ruin your life, bhai.
Your marks, your music, everything.
Do you even know what this does to your—
Arre, Kabir Uncle! Did
you read that on a poster?
Go to sleep, Uncle.
Big day tomorrow. Very big.
The night guard says students are
smoking behind the old cycle shed.
Every night now.
Smoking. We all know what that means.
Tonight, a surprise check
of every room in C-Block.
Tomorrow morning, I call the parents.
Every room, sir?
Prakash ji. What do we want
to happen to these students?
I want it stopped.
And the students? After the
search, after the phone calls.
What happens to them?
I want them safe.
And I want them to stop.
Then let's find out which of
those a midnight search gets us.
One week. Then I do it my way.
Sir, it's about a friend.
I can't tell you his name.
Good. Don't.
What have you tried?
I told him he'll ruin his life.
And?
He called me Uncle.
Lectures do that. Try
three sentences instead.
Only three. The fourth
one is always a lecture.
Start with 'I've noticed', and then
only what you've actually seen.
Missed classes. Missed practice.
Then 'I'm worried', because you are.
Then 'I'm here'. And then stop talking.
That's all?
That's the hard part.
Most people can't stop at three.
And if it gets worse?
If he ever can't be woken, or he's
breathing strangely, or you're scared for
him, don't wait. Call
the medical unit first.
Then me. Any time.
And if it just carries on, come back.
You don't have to fix this by yourself.
If he comes to you, will
you tell the warden?
No. What he tells me stays with me,
unless someone's safety is at risk.
One more thing. Counting
is what worried friends do.
Keep it to what you've seen.
Don't go looking.
Now. Say it to me.
I've noticed you're not coming to class.
I'm worried. I'm here.
Good. And if he goes
quiet, you go quiet too.
If this is Kabir Uncle,
part two, I'm going to bed.
No lecture.
I've noticed you've stopped
coming to morning class.
And you missed practice on Sunday.
I'm worried about you.
And I'm here. That's all.
I can't sleep without it.
It was a Saturday thing.
Now if I don't, I lie awake till four.
Then I miss class, and then I
can't sleep because I missed class.
Don't tell anyone, bhai.
There's someone you can tell.
Joseph sir, at the Wellness Centre.
He didn't even ask your name.
You went to a counsellor?
About me?
About a friend.
And he won't tell the warden?
What you tell him stays with him.
Just to talk. Nothing else.
Just to talk.
You'll come?
Till the door.
Most students don't use
illegal drugs at all.
Alcohol and tobacco are far more common.
In national data from 2018 and
2019, six point three percent of
about two and a half thousand college
students had used cannabis in the past
year.
First use often happens on campus.
In one small Hyderabad study, that was
true for two-thirds of the students.
And most people who
need help never get it.
In the 2019 national survey, only
about one in thirty-eight people with
alcohol dependence had ever been treated.
Lectures that only give
information don't work.
Neither do scare tactics.
Short, private conversations without
judgement do help, the kind counsellors
like Joseph are trained to have.
Even then, the effects are modest.
A friend's part, or a teacher's, is
smaller: to say what they've noticed,
kindly, and to walk the
student to the door.
Kabir's first try was a lecture.
His second was three sentences.
Good morning. Which one
of you is the friend?
He's the friend. I'm the...
other one.
Then come in, other one.
There's chai.
I'll wait outside?
Go to class, Kabir.
He knows the way back.
Try this week: practise the three
sentences until they sound like you.
And here is a phrase to keep.
I've noticed. I'm worried.
I'm here.
This episode talked about drug use.
Support details and sources
are below this video.
See you in week four.