Sonam Wangchuk, the engineer and climate activist who brought you the ice stupa and inspired a Bollywood blockbuster, is now bringing everyone a new level of concern. The 59-year-old has been on a hunger strike in Delhi for 16 days, and the latest health bulletin is the kind of update that makes supporters reach for the phone to order him a pizza. According to the bulletin, Wangchuk has lost 8.2kg (18lb), his blood pressure is 107/70, and his sugar levels have dropped to 67. Doctors are alarmed, supporters are pleading, but Wangchuk remains characteristically stubborn. “I have to take what I’ve begun to its logical conclusion,” he told the BBC, which is a very noble sentiment until you realize the logical conclusion might be a hospital bed.

The protest, which started as a satirical movement called the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), is demanding educational reforms in India - specifically, the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan after a key medical entrance exam was cancelled due to a paper leak. Pradhan has dismissed the protesters as “the B-team of disruptive elements,” which is the political equivalent of calling someone a cockroach and expecting them to scurry away. But instead, the cockroaches have multiplied. Hundreds of people have been gathering at Jantar Mantar, Delhi’s historic protest spot, despite temperatures hitting 38°C (real feel 46°C) to support Wangchuk and the CJP.

Wangchuk, who spent 170 days in prison last year on charges of inciting protests (later dropped), is now in such bad shape that he can barely walk to the washroom. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke told the BBC that Wangchuk scolds him whenever he suggests ending the fast. “Don’t you worry about me,” Wangchuk says, which is exactly what people say when everyone should be worrying about them. Meanwhile, supporters like engineer Animesh Sahu and farmer Satyaprakash Bharadwaj have come to show solidarity, with Bharadwaj calling Wangchuk “a diamond willing to sacrifice his life.” Diamonds are hard, but they don’t do well on hunger strikes.

Educationist Prof Nandita Narain summed up the situation: “It’s very sad that someone like Wangchuk, who has made such outstanding contributions to public life, has to resort to a hunger strike to get the government to act.” She appealed to him to end the fast because “his life is in danger,” adding, “We need a sustained protest, and the movement has to be sustained. It’s important that he lives to fight the battle.” The government, however, has not sent anyone to talk. So the protesters are taking the show on the road: they plan to march to parliament on 20 July, when the next session starts. Because if the mountain won’t come to Muhammad - or the cockroach to the education minister - the cockroach will go to parliament.