Hey First Year, Come Here.

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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.