Engineering College- The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet!!!
Starting days…..I remember it was full of fear, drama, and suspense. The fear of ragging, fear of new environment, fear of new people and of course fear of higher studies.
And now just hold your seat belt because here I am taking you all to the flash back!!
First day in hostel, pin drop silence, the jitteriness!!
The common thing between the batch mates - all sailing on the same boat, carrying no idea where in the world are the seniors going to drag us, all standing in a queue, with a serious (or, better to say a “blunt”) expression, nervousness and restlessly waiting for our turn to jump on Fire.
Then comes the first call, the intro part (the bitter gulp in almost every College!!!) in which, one has to introduce oneself in variety of amusing ways, though I must include this part , the intro in SHUDH HINDI (NO HINGLISH, which is our day-to-day Language) though sounds comical at once, but that’s the first place where we felt how far we have stimulated from our own HINDI and adapted some other funky language , that too unknowingly(for most of us, at least I admit it)!!!
Simple words like, “Vidyalaya”, “sansathan” etc. were out from the memory Bank, and we were literally fighting to recall these!!
Next, not to forget, again a very disheartening part when you need to modify your hobbies selections, making sure you are not caught in your own web!! I would like to share my own situation here. Well, my hobby is dancing, I just love dancing, but when I came to know their strategies of making you dance on any random beat, from mujra to salsa, to cha cha cha…and that too was conditional that you cannot miss any beat, else “REDO”… I stepped back, asked myself, ‘have I ever danced and will I be able to dance on multi dance beats?’
So, I tried being on a safer side by saying singing as my hobby. BUT! You cannot escape from a cage; full of hungry lions. I was caught!! I sang my favorite….till which it was still ok, but when I was asked to Sing “aankhon me sapne liye” in Himesh Reshamiya’s voice, I couldn’t help my laughter (mind you, you cannot laugh when you are being ragged, else you‘ll have to Swipe and “flush it”).
Well sorry Shan, I really messed up your song in his voice, though I was pretty much appreciated for my effort!!
‘The Juggler Monkey Session’ - Another Drama, in which we made a group of two. Funniest of all, I Played the role of a juggler by saying ‘jamure ab dance dikhayega’ and my co-partner became a monkey, jumped out from somewhere, scratching her whole body, chattering too… and that was not the end , it was a ‘Merry Go Round’ session because in the second round, nonetheless, I was the ‘Jungly Jamura’.
Then the round of proposals, I mean what could be more embarrassing than this; being a girl you have to propose a Girl, a ghastly experience.
And the last session was – ‘Q/A’ round in which they asked the question which once heard would absolutely sound pathetic , but rule was- ‘Think Positively’ and don’t go to the wrong side- like, you all must be aware of the question ‘selenium halide’ (but not the answer).
The second level of Ragging – In College
The most dangerous one: targeting at a single point from three ways; Seniors of all three years targeting at any random ‘Ant’ (the freshers). I remember they were supposed to come during recess and to escape. We even asked our teachers to take extra classes!! The 1 hour recess was used to be the most horrible part, as that was the toughest time in the whole day.
And my IT branch, famous for “Pseudo Marriages”, yes it’s a generation trend being followed that at least, one marriage has to be held among the freshers and seniors giving their blessings!
The scene goes as –
One had to sit in the middle. As a sign of fire, and one selected couple have to roam around the fire with belts in their hand which was the artificial ‘varmala’ as per them. This obviously added some more spice to our ragging part.
And how could you feel that it’s an end, the most frightened part is remaining- The Dispersal Time.
Going to hostel was again a pain. We could be caught anytime, anywhere on road and thus, we started moving in groups as a bunch of ‘worried Ants’ that could be easily spotted.
That was the time when we used to think, ’what do seniors think about themselves, don’t they know that one day we will also become seniors, and then the super seniors. Whatever, we will never do this to our juniors and with this thought in mind we all waited for fresher’s party, as after that no senior would be ragging us.
Whatever happened, whatever pain we faced, somehow, what I (people must agree to this) realized that going through those sessions (Healthy), helped us in coming out of our own net. We discovered ourselves sometimes, when we were asked to mimic someone or show the best talent we have (in front of all), to show respect, to realize that there are certain levels and we need to obey those, the acquaintance that developed with the seniors and the recognitions that we got for ourselves as INDIVIDUALS etc.
All came to an end, 1st year also got to an end, Fear was now taken as Fun, and yes, the old concept of what the seniors think about themselves, got applicable on us,
AS WE FOLLOWED THE TREND!!!!
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