Hey First Year, Come Here.

If you are reading this Facebook Notes, then read the original post here, and more similar stories at my blog.



That is the last thing a fresher wants to hear from a group of seniors waiting like hungry wolves for their prey, with an attractive and friendly smile to lure that new super cool fresher with overflowing attitude.

The first day of college; you think of all the freedom your heart desired. From holding the hand of a beautiful girl and standing and rising on the escalator of that new city mall to hanging around with the new group of friends you will make in college. You come there with a lot of expectations. The ever addictive common room and the most boring lectures of that old professor you hate. Your good friend giving proxies to keep your attendance good and you kicking the ball for the best goal of the tournament; late night chats in the hostel and the "you are too late, get out" words of that strict professor who starts the day.

But after dreaming for some time your throat gets dry with the thought of "ragging" famous in common rooms, canteens, parks, hostels of colleges, and especially engineering and medical colleges. You think about reconsidering your decision and then think of how easily you will get that dream job once you pass engineering. Finally you are in the first year and the college authority welcomes you warmly but the seniors are angry and you are purely unwelcomed by them.

Here are my experiences as a fresher. I will never forget how my college life started.

First Day First Show:

My seniors escorted me and I entered my college classroom for the first time. It was a new thing. A life I always dreamt of. The class settled down. Instead of a teacher, we had some seniors sitting on the teacher's table.

I immediately thought of dating that girl on the teacher's table, but all those thoughts were very short lived, thanks to the ferocious eyes and the fake smile of the two senior boys beside her. We had been given food packets and were supposed to have them in that room after a session of inspirational and over boring lectures on life. The tension and fear of ragging and humiliation was so much that the guys did not even have the guts to open the food packets. The senior who everyone at first sight would consider to be a rude turned out to be very polite and at the next moment, almost begged us to start eating, "This does not suffice for lunch, but you will have be satisfied with this. Try adjusting yourself to your new college". I looked at my packet, it was half over. I was not being able to only smell the food and not eat it.

Next, the fresher's sat like remote controlled robots, waiting for their senior to pass on the next order they are supposed to follow. On one side I was there wanting to explore the new building and college. And the others, they wanted to get out of the college as soon as possible, to escape ragging. I was not much afraid, as by looking at the seniors you can say, they are experienced in solving problems and answering questions then questioning someone. Also most were not bothered to rag us. All they said was to follow the seniors and do whatever they tell you to escape ragging.

Out of curiosity and not being able to sit any longer I walked up to them to ask for the restroom. When one senior escorted me there, a chain of guys followed. Can you imagine people sitting with empty food packets waiting for the next instruction of the seniors' weather to eat that like a cow or throw it or preserve it in their bag?

Now it started, one guy announced that they had a wish of implementing a dress code for their new brothers and (umm no not sisters). I guess the thing that they had in mind was either to make us look old fashioned or make it tougher for us to impress the girls wearing formals with no leather belts and watches. It was kind of weird without the belt, and also because we were college students and not some manager of a bank. The girls had to wear the traditional salwar-kameez which made us forget the meaning of lust in minutes. We were also asked to visit the canteen at our own risk due to the ragging prevalent amongst the guys there. (Later on when I turned up, they did not rag me, because they did not know what to do when a junior does not follow their rule of staying away from the canteen)

There was not much interaction with the seniors after that on that day. The day ended pretty fine with the main form of ragging being the dress code and if you don't follow it, you will be ragged. Actually the ones who dared not to follow were not ragged as the seniors had no idea what to do with those out-law. They themselves had always followed their then seniors and were never out lawed by them.

The First Week of College

If you are reading in Facebook notes, then read the original post here and more similar stories at my blog.






From a kid to an adult. From seeing U/A movies to officially (!) viewing A movies. Time comes for everything. In life, if you don’t happen to be suffering from mental diseases or have died early or have committed suicide, you will have the time to enjoy every pleasure, every pain, the entire world’s happiness and sadness.

So time came for me to put a full stop to school and write a new chapter with a new pen: College. After a hell lot of brainwashing and hard decisions about my future, I chose my college. But I did not take into account weather I would be blessed with a girlfriend who looked like the moon (Well it’s proverbial).

My first day was the precursor of how boring lectures can be in college, as we were subjected to hours of lectures by some prominent inspirational personalities who can only motivate others. That was our induction programme and the management welcoming us, but I slept through half of the lectures. Imagine a teacher asking you to dream as big as an Industrialist… Why did the teacher not dream like that? They know how mobiles work, and being in the communication department, I would be taught in the next four years how it really works. They have managers who are no match for even IIM graduates (as they boosted). Yet they could not open a company like Nokia to compete in the market.

Within hours of getting inside a classroom, I decided to choose some girl in my class to ogle at. At least in that way I would have something to think while all the boring lectures were on.

It was difficult to know the names of all the shy girls of our class since most were a member of the mute creatures club of the class, who opened there mouth only to mark their attendance, as if the air would erode their teeth. It was not that they didn’t know any answer but they would simply decline to express their views. I, by nature did not belong to that club and would open my mouth to talk non-sense to my neighbour when the teacher turned back and occasionally when in mood, participate in the complex process of discussing and solving the questions thrown by the lecturers. The best thing about standing up and answering a question in class is that you get the girl you like (and the girls you don’t) to at least have a look at you and stare officially for the time you are giving an answer.

Though the college is a co-educational one, there seemed to be a virtual wall present between the girls and the boys. Just like the public buses have seats specially meant for the weaker sex, the front two benches got reserved for the girls and the nerds from the very first day. No I don’t mean that the girls and nerds sat together. There were spaces as big as football fields between them.

The next bench is usually occupied by the Romeos of the class. These guys are the ones who will pass remarks and give a running commentary and make funny sounds only to entertain the girls and tried their best to start a conversation with the girls. The most priced seat was just beside this Romeo. If you seat there you will enjoy the Romeo trying his best to flirt with the Juliet, but failing miserably.

The boy girl ratio was exceptionally large and I thought that the colleges should have a quota for the girls. Sadly in our class of about 55 or 58 students only 9 were girls. With no girl capable of modelling, you have to eye the best looking girl and competing with every one and making her your girlfriend is a tough thing to do, until and unless you have a six pack or can play the bass guitar or use Axe deodorants. I have doubts about the proven use of the last method though. The same thing was there in the other years as well. So the seniors had their way of making sure that the girls stay fresh for them and are not rotten by the glances of her batch mates.

They decided to make a rule and make everyone follow it. If not followed that would mean gross disrespect of the seniors and only your most friendly gangster can help you out of ragging in their hands. The rule was that the girls were supposed to wear traditional clothes like the salwar-kameez. That would automatically take away the lustful stares of the new batch mates who were either single in school or from boys’ school. So basically falling in love or lusting or having some real crush was a distant thing meant only after the “fresher’s”, where the new college guys are welcomed by their seniors. The management tough welcomed us long ago but we were all unwelcomed inside the campus ruled by the seniors.