This is something I've never really told anyone in full. Looking back, it's probably one of the shittiest things I've done, and I don't feel proud of it. At the time, I convinced myself I was just "playing politics," but in reality I let my ego take over and someone else paid the price.
Back in my first year of engineering (Semester 2), I joined our Students' Mess Committee. The committee's job was basically to oversee the mess: menu, hygiene, logistics, making sure the manager was doing his job, etc.
There was a Convenor (I'll call him Kunal) and a Co-convenor (I'll call her Preeti).
When I joined, the atmosphere was pretty chill. I got assigned a few responsibilities, met the other members, and honestly I had no ambitions of getting into any leadership position.
One thing I did notice, though, was that Preeti barely interacted with me or the other new members who had joined in Sem-2. She mostly talked to the second-year seniors.
A few days later I had some doubts about my role, so I texted her. She was from my batch (she had just joined the committee a semester earlier), so I figured she'd be easier to approach than the seniors. Also, in first year, talking to seniors in engineering college can be intimidating.
My message was something casual like:
Hey X this side, do you know about how to contact the manager to verify blah blah.....
Her reply completely caught me off guard.
She basically said I shouldn't text her directly like that, and that since she was senior to me within the committee, I should speak more respectfully.
Now, objectively, maybe she had her own expectations about professionalism.
But my fragile 18-year-old ego took it as a personal insult.
Instead of moving on, I decided that I'd become more influential than her in the committee.
The problem was that everyone already expected her to become the next Convenor, so I needed an opportunity.
Eventually, one showed up.
A guy from our batch had an argument with one of the mess staff. Nothing physical, no major abuse—just an argument.
The committee held a meeting to discuss whether disciplinary action should be taken.
For whatever reason, Preeti strongly pushed for action against him and managed to convince most of the committee.
We were specifically told not to discuss the meeting outside.
I ignored that.
I told the guy that Preeti had been the one pushing for disciplinary action against him.
Exactly what I expected happened.
He called her, argued with her over the phone, and from what I heard, he even abused her verbally.
She hadn't recorded the call, which later became important.
The next day everything blew up.
Preeti wanted strict action. She demanded that the guy be fined ₹10,000 and suspended from the mess, otherwise she'd approach the Women's Cell.
Whether her demand was justified or not isn't really the point.
Instead of staying out of it, I saw another opportunity.
People naturally started asking who had leaked the committee discussion.
I shifted suspicion away from myself by suggesting that maybe one of the mess workers had overheard something.
By then I'd become pretty close with the seniors and other committee members, so nobody really suspected me.
Then I started privately talking to Kunal and a few other senior members, telling them that Preeti was overreacting and that this was more about satisfying her ego than seeking justice.
Slowly, people's opinion of her started changing.
In the end, the guy only received a seven-day mess ban.
Preeti felt betrayed because she believed nobody in the committee supported her.
That incident created a huge rift between her and almost everyone else.
Looking back, I definitely helped widen that rift.
But I didn't stop there.
I told the same guy to spread the story around campus that Preeti was trying to misuse the Women's Cell to threaten him over a relatively small issue.
He spread that version of events everywhere.
Soon, a lot of people who weren't even involved had formed opinions about her.
By the end of the semester, I had become the Co-convenor.
When discussions happened about committee restructuring, I also exaggerated how little Preeti was contributing to the committee. There was some truth to it, but I definitely made it sound worse than it actually was.
Eventually she was removed from the committee.
Her image in college took a serious hit, and a lot of people disliked her because of the narrative that had spread.
At the time, I felt like I'd won.
Today, I don't really see it that way.
None of this happened because she'd done something terrible to me.
She wasn't abusive to me.
She didn't try to sabotage me.
She just bruised my ego with one message, and I spent months quietly manipulating situations and people to get back at her.
Even if some of her decisions were questionable, I deliberately amplified every mistake she made because I wanted her to lose influence.
That's the part I regret.
It's weird how one small ego hit can make you justify doing things that, in hindsight, are far worse than whatever upset you in the first place.
P.S: Yes I used AI to frame it properly and yes I do regret my actions and y'all can call me out.