“No eye contact!!!” And he put Ayush’s face down.” Come on, move to room no. 53. Quick!!”
We tried to catch some glimpses of the person ‘ordering’ us. Everyone was confused. No one ever had gone through this. Although we knew we were about to being ragged(if thats the right word
), but no one knew what was about to happen. No one was experienced enough to know what was happening.
We were taken to room no. 53. It was supposedly chosen for its location. It was inside, the last room of that corridor and thats what favored the seniors. Untill I was walking through to the room, I was hoping for some miracle to happen. Something like what happened in Chetan Bhagat’s “5 point someone”. May be someone like “RYAN” came up and scared the seniors away. But that didn’t happen. Instead we were standing in the room no. 53 and the no. of seniors increased.
They were four. We were more. But no one among us was encouraged enough by “RYAN”, to tell them that they can’t rag us.
And infact they looked scary for the moment.
One of them was short haired, one tooth staring out from his mouth and the way he spoke, it all added to the scariness. Another one was, not so scary and he was quiet. But we were told, “better stay good, otherwise if he becomes violent…” No one ever told what he does when he became violent.!!
There was this, who took us to 53. He was slim, no, not slim. Even more than that. He was trim or better trimmed. He spoke violently though and everyone of us was definitely scared.
But one of us, kept smiling.! Gajendra Lavania. He kept smiling as if it was a joke. As if our seniors were doing something funny. He just kept up laughing as if they were they were doing some mockery.!
“you!!If you laugh or even smile again, wont be able to do it again.” the toothie once even reminded.
But he couldn’t just control. It was fun for him. It seemed he was enjoying it.
Seniors told us the “fundas” and left. They gave us few days to start following them.
They were:
- wear black plated pant whenever you are in the hostel.
- dont sleep until 1 AM
- wish every senior whenever you go by them
- etc etc.
Getting short hair was also one of them. So, we went to the barber, the very next day.!(we were very obidient…!)
He was surprised to find around 9-10 people coming to get hair cut and that too same style.
“you all want to get them 9 mm short?”
“yeah…now will you do it quick? we will be late for the SSB interviews otherwise.” Gajendra with his usual comic things.
I was sure that when we get back to hostel, our wardon would know that we were being ragged. I was wondering if he could save us. Afterall, he was the incharge of the hostel and promised everyone taking admission that there would be no ragging.! I thought there is a chance we would be saved.
The whole day we were shoping for our days to come. The only thing we enjoyed was being together. The fact that we were ragged together was something which made us very united. No one was given special treatment. We all were going to wear the black plated pants and we all had got haircut and yes we all were absolutely looking funny.
So, we went back united. We went inside the hostel. The wardon saw us. No doubt he did.! But he didn’t respond. May be he would call one of us later. May be.
We went inside our rooms and changed into the black pants we just bought. I was thinking of studying something, you know the pre-starting of studies passion for studies.
But it was not to be. Ayush came in our room.
“come on lets go.”
“where?” Parth asked.
“room no.61.?”
“did any senior called?”
“yeah. They are two and they want to meet all of us. This is what they told me.”
Another ragging class.!!

