I’m a Maharashtrian girl from a tier 3 city, and I started college two years ago in a tier 1 city in MH . I’m extremely introverted, so in the beginning I had very few friends. About a month into college I became friends with this guy. I didn’t really vibe with him but I was very desperate for more friends so I kept talking to him. He’s a local gujju guy and a day scholar . I’m a hosteller. Within a week he asked me to be his girlfriend. I said NO. He clearly couldn’t handle the rejection. Soon he and his group (around 4 guys) started spreading rumors about me. At first I didn't give a fu*k but it escalated quickly , there literally were rumors about me sleeping around with PG students and even a faculty . I confronted them and they completely denied everything. One of them even said -“Even if you find out who’s spreading rumors, what can you even do? Your family is into farming right ..what will they do?”
For context, I do come from an agricultural background but my family is quite wealthy and we're in the sugar business. I had only casually mentioned “agriculture” to that guy and the fucker just assumed I was poor. They started stereotyping me, calling me “poor Bhide from TMKOC” because my nickname is Sonu. I snapped back once saying that stereotyping all Maharashtrians as poor like Bhide is like saying all Gujarati men flirt with neighbor's wife based on TMKOC . That really pissed them off. A few days later, it was my birthday. My plan was to go home and celebrate with my family. My older brother and cousin came to pick me up a couple of days before. One of those guys saw me getting into a high-end car with two guys (my brothers) n clicked a picture and then spread it around saying I was a gold digger. That picture got circulated across multiple college groups and to make things worse they even morphed my photo. My friends found out and told me. MY BIRTHDAY WAS COMPLETELY RUINED. I told my brothers they were furious, but we initially didn’t inform my dad or uncle because they’re very hot-headed. My brothers came back with me to college and we reported everything. The college didn’t act immediately so we had to involve a local politician who’s a family friend. Later we also informed the parents of those guys , there dads were doctors (u can guess what course i'm doing from this) . Eventually my dad and uncle found out too, which made things even worse . In the end things did settle down but it was messy and exhausting.
Just sharing this because people really underestimate how far “rumors” can go, especially when egos and group mentality get involved.
(Also ik what I said about gujju men was inappropriate but it came out of frustration in that moment and I apologize in advance for that)