India, Jan. 14 -- On September 5, 2023, roughly a year after joining the University of Colorado Boulder's Anthropology Department as a PhD student, Aditya Prakash was warming up his lunch - palak paneer - in a departmental microwave, without any idea that this routine act would turn into an incident he describes as racist.

Without warning, he says, a staff member approached the 34-year-old, objected to the "smell," and instructed him not to use the microwave to heat his food, Indian Express reported. According to Prakash, the staffer described the smell as pungent.

Prakash says he did not lose his calm. Instead, he responded firmly, saying, "It's just food. I'm heating and leaving." The episode, however, did not end there.

In September...