Himachal Pradesh, India
8 March 2009
Aman, a medical student dies. Reason? Ragging.
No I did not get the date wrong. Neither did I get the place wrong. A student in a medical college has been ragged to death. Oh sorry, the case is still sub-judice. It may turn out that he died due to some accident or just a natural death.
Saw his father on the TV yesterday. He blamed the college authorities.
What kind of society are we? Are we any better than the barbarians?
It just reminded me of my college days ...
Engineering college
The day before the college began, I went to the college office in city to find about the transport facility. There was a notice on the board. This is how it read ...
1. White shirt with full sleeves
2. Navy blue pants without pleats
3. Black belt with simple buckle
4. Red handkerchief with no border
5. Black formal shoes
I do not remember the uniform for girls. (It was equally exotic though)
The next day brother came with me to drop me at the bus stop. The scene there made me flee. Some students, in uniform, standing in a queue. All looking down. There were some guys in plain clothes (read respected seniors). It reminded me of the famous scene of Sholay, with Gabbar and his 3 men. Yes, I could not gather the courage to go to college, first day of college.
I could not have continued it for long. Went ahead and waited for the bus on the second day. And this time I too was in the queue. Just before Gabbar could start deliver his lines, zap came a white car. Veeru (read college principal) grabbed Gabbar by his collar, dragged him to his car and took him away. We freshmen (fresh boys) were relieved. This was not the end of it, many other incidents followed. Traveling to and from college was no less than a nightmare. The sneers, slaps, what not. Even the class rooms were not safe, seniors would barge in and start slapping. Any way, all this lead to a fight. We decided to teach them a lesson. Violence followed. People were arrested too. We never had good terms with our seniors. Did we do anything wrong?
Management college
I was so excited, to be part of one of the best B-schools of the country. To study with some of the sharpest minds. What I was not prepared for was the fact that the same sharp minds were twisted too. This was a post graduate class, so ragging was given a new name - Interaction Sessions (sic). Midnight assemblies, dunking, crude comments, dehumanising talks, cat calls, the list is endless. And this was supposed to bring me closer to my seniors (sic). That never happened anyway.
Am glad my seniors were better than the seniors of Aman. Am glad that am alive.
Am I being paranoid? May be ...
Seniors, batchmates, with hindsight, do u still think that whatever happened was right? Oh no, am not the judge, absolutely not.
14 comments:
It is always that... People are individually intelligent and sensible but put together they make a senseless and unruly crowd...
i beg to differ... if a fist has the strength to hit, it has the strength to even hold hands. A finger can do none. I chose to act as a finger and stayed away from ragging but it did not affect or stop others because a fist is stronger. But it is also true if each finger decide to not make fist for hitting it will not happen.. Cheers!
From my limited experience, all that I can say is that personally everyone defies the concept of ragging, no one likes to be ragged! But it is the frustration (that you were once ragged) which you want to vent out once you become a senior and get the opportunity to.
Someday, it should stop, perhaps!
Though I had zero ragging in engineering college ( I was a day-Ski ) and pretty harmless ragging in B-School, I still stand against the very conecpt of it as I feel it just loses its purpose somehow.
Most of my friends (males) though opine that it is ragging and the slaps and the other degrading stuff that they were asked to undergo which made them all-that-strong that they pose to be now. I still fall short of success in understanding that is it the only way to make your juniors strong. Is it the only way to make close bonds for whatever time period one has to spend together?
I can never imagine anyone deriving true strength from such absurdities. All I feel is it might make them indifferent towards many a things in life (I have seen this in my male friends). And I really feel sorry for them, as they lose their ability to express the right sensitivity to issues in life. All they say is that they are strong to face anything that comes their way. I totally disagree with them.
I wish that ragging stops someday and all people should indulge into be real "interaction".
Good one!!
As far as I have seen most of the ragging cases happen in College hostels where students come from far off areas to study unaware of the horrors of the seniors. I would say look at the practical side of it, there are situations where I have seen that the seniors who rag you in the early days would be the same ones who would hug you and cry the most when it time to leave. Ever thought of it why??? Cause at the end of 4 years or 2 years (whatever the term might be) its like a family you would not like to leave. Much like the way you left home to come here. Personally I have felt that way.
So a little ragging is acceptable and I guess everyone should enjoy it and forget about it. Afterall those are the few days where you get to do some things which you have never done in life like Sid quoted in the later half of his post... Red Hanky woooo gimme a break.... never!! But also remember very few have the guts to laugh on themselves and make others laugh. If the raggiing is giving you enogh courage to do something which you have never done then why not. The points I am trying to make here is that sometimes ragging does open you up a lot.
BUT Hang On...
It does not mean that you can do anything as Ragging. I strongly oppose things that humiliate people or make them loose their self respect and dignity. Something like what is there in the first half of the post. Acts like these are completely unacceptable and people who do such things should be taken to task and punished.
I am writing too long but I would like to quote an example here. During our ragging period we have been asked many a times to behave like girls or even worse (I hope you guys get it) but all that was fun and we enjoyed it and forgot. BUT We have also gone to the extent of going up against one of our seniors when it reached the limits and mind you nothing was official about it. To be frank no-one (including his batchmates and seniors) had a good relation with him during the 4 years in college.
I would like to end it by saying There are always two sides of anything. It all depends which side you are looking at.
Some more comments that were received through other media ...
"Quite thought provoking :). Though I njoyed the interactive sessions back in campus but would agree with u that they were at times a little too much to take.
Keep Blogging :)" -SA
"well written reminded me of college days...the incident of me getting slapped not once but twice on the trot...another incident when i had reacted back upon being poked at my head...my brother (in 4th year) was at the back seat whose frineds saved me ..haha...ragging should be banned i also believe" -DM
With Power comes responsibility, being a senior at college gives you a power which needs to be handled sensibly. It should be channelized in a right direction so that the ragging sessions truly become ice-breaking sessions which should be the intended purpose.
I don't know, from where the word ragging came from, but it surely wouldn't have meant what happens in most of the engineering and medical colleges. It would have been more about interaction only (interaction here means pure interaction to know each other)
I second Saumya, about using your power as a senior sensibly. If we can channelize the ragging session in a way that really creates a strong bond between the seniors and juniors, then the objective is achieved.
To some extent its also true that it is the frustration (that you were once ragged) which you want to vent out once you become a senior that leads you to rag.
But all this does not solves the purpose.
Its not the students who are the only ones responsible for certain acts, its the authority also who have to chip in and ensure that everything is right.
I did my graduation from DU, which is all the more famous for ragging, but still our authorities had such stringent rules that no one dared to rag their juniors.
When coming to MBA college, ragging at the first instance was horrifying, but at going with it, I realized, it was a nice ice breaking for us, to know our seniors and even our batchmates(though there might be other better ways to do the same).
So in all, I think, if we have right minds in work, I think the juniors will surely acknowledge what the seniors are doing. Its just about managing the ideas to make it a success
Your post reminds me of my college days. I was slapped by senior for not saluting him when my friend had saluted him.There were many more incidents of us juniors ragged and slapped.However we were lucky to escape with minor skirmishes.
During MBA course even though some people tried to be smart and imposing yet it was a smooth affair and no force was involved.
ragging involving physical violence to the extent of causing death is despicable.
The death of young chap owing to ragging is unfortunate and despicable, yet it is a one off incident and not much has to be read into it.
there are more serious issues ailing our society which need attention of people like you.
perspective, and personal experience... two main factors in defining our views about anything.
as far as personal experience goes, "ragging" began in 11th std, which basically included the seniors (XII std students) playing a kind of holi with us, using everything from colours, ink, cosmetics like kajal and lipsticks etc.. followed by an(inevitable??) intro session and loads of jokes ( not mean ones, just a regular friendly leg pulling) and finally culminating into a free for all dance party in the basketball court, with teh seniors plying us with drinks (ornge juice n coke n all) and food - all bought at their expense, and teh DJ( on of teh seniors was amazing at the music system) taking all requests and honouring teh juni's requests more frequently. Unfamiliar with the concept of "ragging" i was very much into teh spirit of things, coloured the seniors right back laughed at all the jokes and all in all , had a ball of a time.
though i remember people crying, even then! They were just scared of the concept of ragging, having heard horror tales and expecting it to be a humiliating expreience, even when teh seniors were cute n sweet and kind about teh whole thing, and were genuinly interested in having fun ( they even let me paint them back, remember?) someone went and comlained to teh principal( who ofcourse knew of this, we were at school for heaven's sake!!) and promised to bring in teh "authorities" ( meaning, police?) if such "hideous acts" were not stopped immediately, and the seniors did not apologize for "behaving like barbarians".
i guess what im trying to say is... things are not always good or bad. a ragging session is usually among the first interaction of the Junis with the seniors, and certainly goes a long way in establishing their and the institution's itheir minds. It can be a lot of fun, and it does serve a purpose... i mean, i would never have known my seniors but for that one session, being hapily involved with my batch only ( u know me, right?)
Is it a "hideous" practice? Should it be stopped? may be , may be not, the jury is still out on that one. my view, its like a tool, neither good nor bad in itself. but as nice or sordid as teh use you put it to.
It certainly can be made more meaningful though, and the group leading this experience ( there is always a group leading this officially or unofficially, isnt there??) should make sure it doesnt become a means of people venting their frustration on junis. As Saumya poited out, dont forget responsibility just cos u have the power. may be if teh seniors would just have fun, interact, really and truly, just interact get to know teh junis, talk about any traditions you want to pass on... things would be much better.
It would also help if the Junis did not go into the process expecting it to be humiliating, de humanising or even dangerous... go in with an open mind, and form your opinions later.
remember my 11th std colleague? well she had decided to rage against the practice in any form, even in its most harmless, most fun form... it only made her a a laughing stock for our own batch, and this coloured our perspective towards her for teh next two years, which wasnt very pleasant.
As for the case of Aman, do i really need to tell you how i feel about it?
PS: wow! almost a post in itself, is it not?
Ragging, by definition, is something undesirable. Please refer to any dictionary.
The good ragging experiences that many people narrated are actually not ragging. They may be called anything but ragging.
My perspective while writing the post was the dictionary meaning or ragging ...
rag verb, ragged, rag⋅ging, noun Informal.
–verb (used with object)
1. to scold.
2. to subject to a teasing, esp. in an intense or prolonged way (often fol. by on): Some of the boys were ragging on him about his haircut.
3. British. to torment with jokes; play crude practical jokes on.
Am sure with this meaning of ragging in perspective no one will approve of it. Interaction with seniors, cracking jokes, playing holi is not ragging. Such pleasant things can be called anything but ragging.
Yes, perspective and personal experience is important, but in my view the aspect that is most important is "objectivity". What say?
For the sake of arguement:
Objectivity...Judgment based on observable phenomena and uninfluenced by emotions or personal prejudices...ofcourse it is one of the most impostant aspects.
But Objectivity demands that you view any term, situation, experience or experiment in totality, and give equal weightage to all observations. In essence, it means that you dont let disregard the pleasanter experiences of "ragging" as "anything but ragging".
Ragging.. Dictionary definitions aside, is the term used for teh interaction between the seniors and new joinees of (usually) an educational institution during the first few days, weeks or (sometimes) even months of the former's association with the institution.
Lets stick to this definition, for if u use the "dictionary definition" then we are no longer restricting ourselves to "college" ragging, but talking about such experiences across life's varied field, for example "ragging" of women by road side romeos, "ragging" of a girl with braces by her less-than- kind classmates or even the "ragging" of a "seedha saadha" professor by the naughty students.
My post was on the act of (bad)ragging.
I don't think we have an answer to Ragging. The system needs to evolve and inculcate self-rectifying mechanisms.
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