Indian Couple Wins $200,000 After College Banned Microwave Curry Lunches

Table of Contents

A Story of Discrimination and Resolution

An Indian couple, Aditya Prakash and his fiancée Urmi Bhattacheryya, received a $200,000 settlement after they were told to stop microwaving curry in a shared office kitchen. The incident occurred at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where the couple accused the institution of discrimination and retaliation. Their case, which sparked a federal lawsuit, highlights the challenges faced by individuals from different cultural backgrounds in Western academic environments.

The dispute began when Prakash, who was pursuing a doctorate in cultural anthropology, was heating up a meal of palak paneer in the anthropology department’s microwave. An administrative assistant remarked that the dish smelled "pungent" and instructed him to stop. Prakash claims there was no posted rule against microwaving strong-smelling food. When he inquired about the specific foods that were acceptable, he was told that sandwiches were allowed but curry was not.

This comment resonated deeply with many Indians living in Western countries, who often feel hesitant to open their lunches in shared spaces due to similar experiences. Prakash said the remark made him feel marginalized, and when he expressed his discomfort, the staff member reportedly became hostile.

Two days later, Prakash and four other students, including Bhattacheryya, reheated Indian food in the same microwave as a form of protest. The incident escalated, leading to an email circulated by the department advising members to avoid preparing food with "strong or lingering smells." Prakash responded by calling the suggestion discriminatory and questioning why it was acceptable for another employee to heat chili in a crockpot.

The situation worsened over the following year, with Prakash and Bhattacheryya's academic standing deteriorating without warning. According to their lawsuit, faculty advisers dropped them unexpectedly, they were reassigned to advisers outside their fields, and they were denied course credit transfers, teaching assistantships, and ultimately lost their doctoral funding. The university cited poor performance and unmet requirements, which Prakash disputed.

"We were 4.0 G.P.A. students," Prakash said. "And the department at every level started trying to sabotage us and started trying to paint us as somehow maladjusted."

In May 2025, the couple filed a civil-rights lawsuit in US District Court in Denver, alleging discrimination and retaliation. In September, the university agreed to settle. Under the terms of the agreement, Prakash and Bhattacheryya received a combined $200,000 payout and were awarded their master's degrees. The university denied all liability and barred the couple from studying or working there again.

Prakash, who now lives in India, said the lawsuit was never about financial gain. "It was about making a point - that there are consequences to discriminating against Indians for their 'Indianness,'" he said. He recalled being isolated by classmates in Italy as a teenager because of the smell of Indian food in his lunchbox. "I felt very diminished, because I was not marked by my identity in any way," he said of the Colorado incident.

The couple may never return to the US. "No matter how good you are at what you do, the system is constantly telling you that because of your skin color or your nationality, you can be sent back any time," Prakash said. "The precarity is acute."

The case has also sparked widespread attention in India, where many have shared their own experiences of being ridiculed abroad over food smells. It has ignited conversations about similar discrimination within India itself. Food, scholars note, has long been used as a proxy for exclusion.

Krishnendu Ray, a food studies scholar at New York University, said complaints about smell have historically been used to mark groups as inferior. "In some ways, this kind of thing happens whenever there is an encounter across class, race and ethnicity," Ray said, noting how Italian immigrants were once derided in the US for smelling of garlic and wine.