The Summer of 2001…

And what, Aman, did you do about ragging as a senior?

``Three years on, this experience remains etched in my memory as one of the most exiting I’ve ever had. ``
Boy you`ve led a boring life...

Despite the horrible stories that most people tend to associate with ragging, I think it is one of the best tools to `break the ice` between seniors and juniors.

Most educational institutions have traditions of ragging, that are passed on from senior to junior (call it a fraternity/sorority in the making if you will). Friendships are forged amidst the obscene-singing, enforced acting (singing to a lamp pole was a campus regular) etc etc that last for a long time.

I remember being ragged by a bunch of seniors for the better part of an evening, and then being offered course textbooks and notes the next.

ragging should be banned. its senseless and could be a frightening experience for young fresh impressionable minds.

I never had to go thru it...aur agur koi maira saath karta tau mai nai tau uski tangaaIN tor dainee theeN..

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Aman,
Your write-up reminds me of 2 ragging incidents at IIT Delhi. In the first incident, we had a fresher Sikh student who had done his schooling from the Northeast. There was a music competition going on in the auditorium and some girl from another college was singing. The fresher was given the challenge to go and kiss the girl singing on the stage, in exchange for a complete moratorium on his ragging. Before we could say anything else, the sardar jumped up, ran to the stage, kissed the bewildered girl and ran away with half a dozen security folks chasing him. He showed up a week later in the hostel, by which time, he had already become a legend. He mentioned that he actually felt like kissing the girl anyway and the challenge from the seniors gave him the perfect excuse!! If he were caught, he would blame the seniors. People were going - ``Surd, tu to baap hai``. His ragging was over right then and there!!
In the second incident, there was one southie guy who use to love scaring freshers about drugs. He had the whole thing nailed down to an art form. He would show up with a couple of guys to the fresher`s room and start a conversation about drugs. The other guys would tell him not to do drugs, while he would blame his parents!! Then suddenly he would ask the fresher to do drugs. The fresher would be sweating and scared by that time. He would then drag the fresher to a room, which would have dim lighting (preferably pink glow). He would take out a syringe, some dettol and chalk powder passing for cocaine etc. Usually at that time, the fresher would freak out and start bawling and running away. Then this guy would give his intro and reveal the whole charade!!! By the way, this southie guy is now a successful IT enterpreneur in the Dallas area.

Much ado about nothing.......

The reason why Aman is romanticising his ragging is because in his mind, consciously or unconsciously, he wants to justify the ragging he did the following year. While he devotes a lot of space to the parathas of Ghanta Ghar and other such interesting things, only a line or two tells you how he would often try to escape ragging and sometimes a particular ragger. So if ragging is so much fun, why were you trying to escape? Obviously, ragging isn`t fun when you are undergoing it. If you were given a choice a) Interact with your senior in the way any two strangers become familiar or b) interact with him by cleaning his room and fetching parathas as though you were his slave, you would any day choose option `a`. No? But you have this great need to romanticise ragging because obviously you became a ragger next year. But why has he left out the details of unsavoury incidents from the experience of his own ragging?

Ragging is a crime is a crime is a crime. Period. See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/anti-ragging