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“Life as an international student is tough, man…There were no signs of anything until the last 2 weeks,” wrote Baneet Sidd in his post on Saketh Sreenivasaiah
Saketh Sreenivasaiah’s body was recovered on Saturday.
Baneet Sidd, the roommate of a 22-year-old Indian student, Saketh Sreenivasaiah, who was found dead in California, has put up an emotional post, highlighting how “life as an international student is tough”.
The body of Saketh, who went missing in the United States on February 9, was recovered from Lake Anza on Saturday afternoon.
His roommate, Baneet Singh, said in a LinkedIn post that police informed him the death was being treated as a suicide. He described the incident as having left the campus community “shocked to the core”.
Saketh hailed from Karnataka and was enrolled in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering department at UC Berkeley. His LinkedIn profile said, “I’m a Masters student in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering department at UC Berkeley, with an undergraduate degree from IIT Madras.”
‘He ate less, engaged less, slept less, survived on chips and cookies’
“I am sorry, I wish I had a positive update. The entire community has been shocked to the core. The police shared this with me so far and I am currently working with the authorities to fly his family to the US from here on an emergency visa,” he wrote.
“Life as an international student is tough, man…There were no signs of anything until the last 2 weeks, when he ate less, engaging less and slept less, surviving only on chips and cookies. On Jan 21, he also invited me to Lake Anza, hoping I would come with him (I was too lazy to). Little did I know that would be the same place he’d take his life,” said Sidd.
‘I don’t care what anyone thinks of me’: Sidd’s last conversation with Saketh
“We had found Saketh coming from class with a smirk on his face. He said, “I have stopped caring, man, I am cold and don’t care what anyone thinks of me…I don’t care about anything…At the time I laughed it off, Saketh was just being silly as usual…He was always up to something silly. Now I know that he really meant it. The opposite of life was never death, it was indifference. To stop caring. Which led to him not caring for his own life, either,” he wrote.
“Take this as a reminder to please reach out to your loved ones and check if they are okay. I didn’t expect this from a friend who lived, ate, travelled, laughed and joked with me. It hurts… Take this news as a way to bring together love with friends, instead of sitting in sorrow…Saketh would have wanted that for you all,” Sidd said.
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February 15, 2026, 11:47 IST
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