CHAPTER FOUR: RAGGED?

CHAPTER FOUR : RAGGED?

It was about 8 pm when we, I tapasvi and biren, were called by some seniors for introduction . the hostel looked normal from outside. We climbed the stairs to reach the room where we were summoned. No one amongst us was in mood to say anything.when you are expecting hell to fall on you from the blue surely you would be in no mood to discuss it. We completed our robotic walk within five minutes.

The room was closed. Some one opened it as soon as we reached.as we entered, We saw a group of seniors awaiting us eagerly. Some were sitting on the cot, some were standing and some were in their chairs. The crowd was ready for the circus-us! most of the seniors looked more like us in height body and no one was scary by looks.we stopped just a few steps near the door and the door was closed with a bang.we vacantly stood in front of all the senior boys in the room.

“hello boys!” we were greeted by their leader. we hated but said ‘good evening sir’ in salvos as was taught to us the whole day. Naturally we were not offered to seat. We stood in front of the crowd with flat expression.

“ hey are you all sick? Why cant you stand straight like men?” the leader started speaking. one very interesting thing i noted was - Probably he was trying to be harsh. He was so sober it seemed to take great effort on his part to act ruthless to us. “hey you three! stand straight and listen carefully what i say." he paused a bit, looked to his friends probably for silent approval and looked to us to continue " you know boys, We are to stay in this campus for about next four years.this is a peculiar situation. if you wish to live nicely in this campus, You ought to learn to respect your seniors. Ultimately seniors will guide you for your exams and viva voce.seniors will help you out in your day to day problems also. You must behave properly to have good relations with all” we listened to him standing still. The group was awaiting some fun but the leader was concerned about giving us proper instructions. He elaborated further “ at the time of our exams, you will give us preference in the library and will vacate seats on your own. You all will use the bathrooms only after we have used. You will not make noise in hostel when we are reading. Our turn will be first in the mess. Do you understand?” he spoke last two words aloud again to look unkind to us. it was clear, either he was doing this job first time or he was forced by his group to take our introduction. However, what he said was really genuine. We nodded.
“ now tell us your names and from where you are..”
“ my name is tapasvi from ahmedabad” responded tapasvi in flat voice.
“ I am biren from gandhinagar.”
“ neh.. from bhuj”
“ speak loudly you morons! We hardly can listen.” One other boy said and the crowd shouted along. We probably expected such language for us. though it was first time in our lives we heard such low words for us, it did not feel abnormal to us. few moments passed in the clatter.
“ ok tell us your hobbies.” finally Said the leader.
We spoke one by one as all paid due attention to us.
“ I like gazals” I said on my turn.
“ oh great ! can you sing one for us?” it would have been my pleasure otherwise, but charred in the situation, I found it difficult to sing one. Still I had to attempt one. I remember singing a gazal by ibn – e- insha sung by my favorite singer gulam ali.

Ye bate juthi bate hai , ye logo ne failaee hai, tum inshaji ka naam n lo kya inshaji saudai hai!

All clapped generously as I completed. It really flattered me! It brought my tension down. I felt our fear of ragging was really unfound and they were really good boys. We took so much tension on our head for nothing!
“what is you name? neh? you sing nicely.” the leader appreciated officially.
“ oh thank you sir.” I said.

Our turn with that group was over. We were dismissed. But before we could enjoy our release, on the way back to our room we heard a voice from the darkness.


“hey you rascals!” a boy with big spects ordered us. “ come here”. Something new was awaiting. my beats increased. To my surprise, he was the same senior boy whom we met before when shanti , my best friend from my school, and his friends from kachchh mitra vartul vallabh vidya nagar came to meet me. Ironically, they requested this same mr big spects to take care of me! Now he was here to bully me!

Door of another room was opened and we were forced in slamming the door. the seniors seemed ready to take on us. they did not look artificial in handling us rudely like the first group.rather, they seemed pioneer of this activity in the campus! They were bigger in body frame and looked like demons that night.
Mr big spects appeared happy as he caught us for fun.
“you come with me idiot!” he ordered me. “while I screw this lad ,can you please take care of these two?” my friends tapasvi and biren were given to the other big boys while mr big spects took me to balcony of the hostel room. He Looked at me, as if he is looking to some waste material. Expecting again some more hurting words, I stood in front of mr big spects in the balconey. “what is your name?” he inquired loudly.
As per my 10 std mark sheet my name was nehalkumar dilipbhai Vaidya-but I never liked that big name and so I had chance to correct it in the college.
“neh” I replied promptly with my voice trembling.
“so what hell are you for here?”he leaned toward me. his eyes looked bigger and scary.
“to study medicine” my voice trembled abit more out of fear.
“ what is your father’s name?”his voice deepened like an interrogating officer. He looked bigger and demonic than he really was.
“dilip”
“what?”
“dilip” I said fearing some harsh action from him.
“hey boy don’t you have any respect for you father? Why cant you say dilipbhai?” he shouted. I had no answer. I stood like a statue. Looking at me, he walked making circle around me. “ I am so sorry our medical college admitted a fool like you. You know, you not only appear like an idiot but you also behave like one! It is our great responsibility to make you something like a medico.” A few seconds passed in silence as he tried to figure out what next should be done. Finally, he gestured me to enter the room and told his friends as I entered the room “friends we have an item here which does not have any respect for his father…!”he laughed as if he caught me red handed for some offence.

“Leave him for me” another big boy came forward. damn! he probably had better idea as to what to do with low creature like me.

“you rascal! Your parents fed you, spent a lot on you to make you a good doctor. all in vain? now come here and take this pencil” he gave me a small piece of used pencil “measure length and breadth of this room with this. If you make any mistake, I tell you , I will create a hell here for you right now ! Understand you bloody fool?” he used many more such words which are out of the dictionary.

I saw my friends doing the same kind of exercise with different measuring tools.probably that was the sole great demonic idea liked by our seniors that night to rag us. We had no power to resist. How could we? All of us did the assigned work quietly. the big boys in the room kept bullying us. We were reminded our low existence on the earth repeatedly with some special offensive words in between. Within few minutes we completed the work. We stood in a corner awaiting questions. No one asked us the measurement of the room which probably all of us did very honestly despite the tension.

“now listen you all bunch of crap! Whenever you see any of us in the campus just stand up and wish us.is that Clear?” the big boy ordered . “now get lost!”

Just listening to some low words and measuring length of a room with a small piece of pencil – is that something very bad that can happen in ragging? Obviously not. More over
nobody hurt us physically or asked to remove our clothes. But definitely it dented our self respect and that was what pained.

Such introduction became a routine for initial few days.All the new creatures like me really feared introduction or better, ragging. It was only few like jasmin and biju were frank enough to admit that. We were asked to go to groups of seniors for getting so called introduced or better,ragged .nope, no one was like rancho from 3 idiots!!. We were pitiable and feeling very low.

As I, tapasvi and biren were room mates, our turn was usually together. There was one big group of students headed by a senior boy called GD. Other was upstairs 2nd floor headed by achal and co. there were still some other smaller groups which were demanding us to their room for introduction.

So then there was turn at GD’s group. We were taken there. we already had now some idea about the introduction.
The room was full of seniors. we felt like entering a stage.Gd appeared big, authoritarian and handsome.he had square spects with plus glasses making his eyes look bigger than it were.

“so boys tell your names..” demanded GD as a routine. His next question came out without any bullying.
“what are your hobbies?”
they were more like taking real introduction and looked less like police party taking remand. they asked me to sing a gazal. i sung one which i do not remember presently.
“ so neh, what have you leant in you physics class?” that was setu, a fair boy, coming from the same street of bhuj where I lived, from same our nagar community. “you know Newtonian rules?” he further inquired.
“oh yes sir” I replied, now fully trained to use ‘sir’ for any senior.

“so go ahead and speak all of them.”

we started speaking the rules one by one wondering the purpose of the exercise.
“These are only three. Don’t you know the fourth one?” he asked. fourth? we looked at each other. there was no such thing.
“NO sir”we said ultimately.

“so your study is not complete.”

Big laugh in audience! .we were confused. We looked at each other with big question mark on the face.
Finally,Then whole group of seniors described the fourth rule in chorus to our advantage.

“is this clear?’ they said “now mug this up and answer us whenever you are asked.”


Pretty cool nitro. (If any one is interested right now in the fourth rule of Newton, kindly ask setu in personal email!!)