The OP ends…..or does it?

It had been nearly 4 weeks by now, and enough has been said about what I was going through. I don’t quite yet know whether I have been able to accurately put across what every single day was like at this point. Life had become so miserable that going to classes actually provided an escape from the goings-on in the hall. Mentally and emotionally, I had about reached my limits. The scariest part : It wasnt over yet. Yes, the end was in sight, but I really did not know how much longer I hold up. I was really going through a trial by fire here.

It was a routine now i.e. getting ragged in the wings. But, for the first time ever, things were beginning to ease up. Things were visibly calmer in the mess, even jovial at times. Sure, the OP was technically still on, but for the first time, the seniors were actually talking to us sensibly. The hostility had visibly reduced, and now, they were being lax about going to bed on time. We were being cut a bit of “slack” if I may call it so. I was finally getting some breathing space, which in hindsight,  saved my sanity.

I used this extra time wisely to re-evaluate where I was in terms of my academics and my other pursuits, and plan out how to make up for the 1 month missing in my life. I could finally catch up with some of my academics,  and the process of recovery was just beginning. This was important, considering our midsems were up in less than a month.

And then, one day, it happened…we were unexpectedly summoned to the common room.  We got our usual dose of yelling and abusing, some of us (included me) got roughed up a bit physically for not displaying enough “tempo”. All our “scores” (i.e. number of intros we knew) were checked one by one. We then got a bashing for not displaying enough “tempo” in general,  and were threatened that things will be extended by a week due to our “incompetence”. I clenched my fists and felt such a rush of blood to my head that it was possibly only divine intervention that stopped me from standing up and kicking one of the seniors in the groin.

It was at this point, that we heard the magic words(albeit in a rather indirect fashion) : The OP was OVER. Finished. Complete. I remember the moment in time rather vividly. There was this stunned silence for a couple of seconds. I saw the end coming, true, but it actually came. I couldn’t believe it myself. When it sank in, there was this loud roar that resounded through the hall. Everyone ran out of the common room, free souls, for the tyranny had ended. I still walked out in a daze. Can it be over? Seriously, how is it possible?

The first meal after OP was weird. It was a weird silence that had replaced all the chaos that was usually there. The second years sat by themselves, and the seniors amongst themselves. This really struck me as odd, because the whole purpose of OP was that we should(ideally) be one. The mess really indicated otherwise. Age differences (esp. of a couple of years) should not really affect people’s ability to create a friendship.

As far as the tempo was concerned, the batch was filled with prodigious amounts of the muck. The end of the OP had coincided with the beginning of the GC events, and support for each hall was crazy.  There would invariably be moments when the crowd would come to the point of reigning blows upon each other.  But now, all this was fine for me. I had finally got my freedom, and it completely lifted my spirits. After a month of crap, I could finally get on with my life. It wasnt that bad really, I thought. I felt like I had been carried away with my emotion.

I tried to erase the memories of the month gone by, but the fact that I blogged all of it to such detail tells you how (un)successfully I managed it. It formed a very deep impression on me. I had finally seen the “crowd”. I had lived the average KGPian’s life for a month, specifically, in terms of losing my identity. It sucked.

Encounters of the ‘buzzer’ kind : Wing OP : Part – II

Well, after a bit of a break from the memoirs,  time to get back. Incidentally, the original Deep Throat,  Mark Felt, the assistant FBI Director passed away recently. So,  I would really want to dedicate this post to him. What made Mark Felt special was that, besides exposing Watergate, he saw to it that the investigation doesnt get shut down. That, in my opinion, is true courage.

Coming back to the OP tales, this was the point at which the mental torture had reached its nadir.  The restrictions were too much and too stupid. This was a time I began questioning every single belief I had in the system.  As I had mentioned,  it was living hell.  Whenever anyone tells you this period was fun, you can imply either of the following:

a)If the guy’s a senior:

i) The guy’s lying; he hated, but the sadist alive in these people will push you into submitting to their sadistic pleasures

ii) The guy actually enjoyed it; which means, he’s completely assimilated into the system. General word of advice for such people : AVOID.

b)If its an alumnus, it is still a species of people I dont comprehend. They have the strongest belief in the system, simple because they cant comprehend life without it.

Back to the wing OP :  I decided to pop into more wings, in the quest for meeting a cool bunch of guys, who wouldnt really take OP, but would talk to us and send us back. That was the first thing that shocked me : IT NEVER HAPPENED. We HAD to do stuff : Be it buzzers, or superman (Putting undies over your head. Pretty harmless, but a waste of time nonetheless),  stripping, or in some places, mock pole dances.

My hall funda was weak in general, which meant, I was always the odd one out. I got picked on for stuff like not knowing the Illu captains by face! The whole idea of having to do something demeaning was to make you learn hall funda. But people took to stripping and jugnu dances so easily, the whole idea of Orientation got lost somewhere down the line. Now, all they were really doing was orienting your sexuality.

There was one wing I recall, where, upon stepping in, I was asked to strip. This was really awkward for me;  these people were crazy, they wanted real life pornography pretty much. Wing OP was about submission; if you refused to do stuff, like I did at times,  they made it look as though you were losing a lot in life. I got thrown out of wings innumerable number of times, for not satisfying these sickos.

Then there was the smooching. That’s right. SMOOCHING. That was one of the hot favourites for people during wing OP. If you refused to do it, it was the usual justfication : “I did it.  Hence, you can do it”. What the hell is that line of reasoning? I act like a loser, and hence, you must, or else the heavens shall shackle.  People smooched, with such eagerness in some cases, that I really began questioning the whole thing. How did the seniors make these people do it? I remember one senior telling me “Its fun man..you really look back on these days”. Oh sure, I look forward to  telling my grandchildren some day “There was this guy from Lucknow, and I smooched him for 14 minutes! Man, those were the days.”

There were smooch records flying around the place. Last I remember, some guy(from RP I think) had managed a 40 minute smooch. To think that this guy was coaxed into it was sickening.  And yes, some hall(possibly RP again) had dick-fights. That’s right, you “fight” the other guy’s penis. There was another guy who was asked to buy and wear multiple condoms, after which they proceeded to do stuff with him. What was eerie was the calmness with which he narrated the whole incident. I mean, come on, the guy just sold his dignity for knowing seniors’ intros.  And sure, these people will grow up to be leaders with integrity. To reiterate, they lost their dignity (in some cases, virginity) to  KNOW PEOPLE’S NAMES! Why?  “Oh, what if one of them becomes the next Arun Sarin?”. Believe me, sonny boy, the guy who becomes the next Arun Sarin would be least interested in the size of your penis, or whether you played the buzzer round in his wing.

To me, this was the most shocking part, that people put such a small price tag on their dignity and integrity. The best part of it, is that I dont even remember the names of the seniors who made me do things.  So the whole point is lost. In fact, one thing you really should do is walk up to a senior, and ask him how many seniors’ intros he remembers from his OP days. You’ll see the guy look up in the sky,  and give you one, or tops, three names (if they’re telling the truth).  Does it help them break the ice with the seniors? Well, you’ll find most wings to be 3rd-year only, 4th year only or 5th year only wings. A mixed wing is never ever due to the seniors treating even their immediate juniors equally.  Its the same in the mess : The wings sit together for a meal.

And, this is one part I really would want to face off with anyone : How do you justify it? Most common explanation :  “Its to open up the juniors, and make them come out of their shells”. If you’re an OP believing senior reading this post, well… listen up you big ape, you dont have to get them out of their clothes for it! Ever heard of a certain thing called “socializing”?? Oh wait, you probably cannot socialize because you gave up your socializing skills for stripping to get to know people. Has it ever occurred to you, that before you set foot in IIT, you got to know seniors by just talking(i.e. intelligently carrying out a conversation)? So, how about just talking to juniors in the mess, like civilized people, instead of being a tempo-filled primate?

The part of wing OP that was really hilarious and sick at the same time : They would ask you to name the hottest girls from your batch. When you mention a name, you either have to rate that girl, or you have to tell which part of her body is the most beautiful.  Being in IIT, you’ll either hear  others complain about how the girls are really “non-male”.  When the guys say it, its absolutely hilarious, because these people think they’re all hunks, with looks to die for.  Believe me, these people usually turn out to be such dopes that no girl, even in their most intoxicated and desperate state, would want to touch them with a ten-foot pole. I’ll revisit this whole non-male concept in a later post perhaps.

Encounters of the ‘buzzer’ kind : The Wing OP – I

Well, I guess it is time I actually start off narrating the truly gross incidents that occured during the OP. If the lukewarm response of the previous post was anything to go by,  this is the time.

A bit of an explanation to the whole wing OP phase.  The wing OP system per se was really hall-dependent. RP, RK had a points system where 1 point = 1 intro from a senior. I don’t know how exactly the system worked in PAN (Patel-Azad-Nehru in case you havent figured), but they apparenty had a different term instead of points, but the idea was the same : Go to a wing, do stupid stuff, get their intros. The number of points you have at the end of the day counts (at least so we were led to believe).

Few days before our wing OP would begin, I heard sensational news one morning : That some second year from Patel had apparently complained that the ragging got excessive; I dont know much details of the incident myself, but from what I’d heard, the deans apparently had arrived on the spot, and had threatened the students with serious consequences. This was music to my ears : Someone had stood up, finally. I was hoping that these guys would face a DC (Disciplinary Committee) and hopefully get expelled/suspended for their handiwork.  Perhaps this was the beginning of the end…

…and then it just fizzled away. No one knows if there even was a DC hearing, (or for that matter, the circumstances that led the 2nd year student to lodge a complaint). Whatever it was,  life just continued as usual.  I was shocked, my faith in the system absolutely shaken. The rules clearly stated that any student caught ragging would be summarily expelled..what on earth was going on? Why did nothing happen? Did they deem the incident too “innocent”? Did the seniors squirm their way out of it somehow? Lots of questions were unanswered.

In hindsight, I really dont know if that incident had any impact on what was about to happen. What did change however, was that the vigilance squad popped in a couple of times to our hall, and that too fizzled out in the end. The security guard would generally warn us, and we would be rushed out of the common room back to our rooms. We, of course, were expected to inform them that all was well.

As I said earlier, each hall had its own distinctive wing OP style.  For example, PAN had set timings during which one goes for wing OP. RP had wing OP during the night. As far as the level of decency was concerned, I think RP was the clear-cut winner. Nehru didnt have much. In fact,  Nehru was weird, in the sense that most of the second years seemed to be involved in some hall activity or the other. Nehru really has some serious tempo in that they really push the second years to the limit, making them work for the hall. This intensity of work is unseen anywhere else.  Patel didn’t have too much work going in to the extent Nehru did, and in fact, in class, the guys from Patel seemed to be taking a little less beating during their wing OP, which was surprising, considering Patel (usually) was the most infamous for its wing OP antics.

I remember the first wing I visited.  We all gave our intros, with the seniors calmly smoking through the whole intro session. There were about 4-7 of us, I cant exactly remember the number. At that point, the seniors started testing our fundas (i.e. captains, HCM, etc).  They seemed to get bored pretty early. Then it happened : One senior looks to the other, and says, “Abhe, ye log frust kara rahe hai. Chal,  buzzer round karathe hai”. I could see this coming..and yes, I really didnt want to do it. (This is one thing about OP in general, which you should keep in mind : No one can force you to do anything against your will. You draw the line. If they force you, give them the finger and walk out.)

So well, I told them my reservations about it…They werent too pleased about it, and they threw me out of the wing, asking me not to step in again, at which point, I really had the mind to turn around and say “Thank you”, but this was wing number 1, and I didnt want to build up a rep amongst the seniors. I walked away, to the sound of people pressing each others’ testicles (not to mention enjoying it).  I felt happy in that, if this was the way things work, then its awesome. I can breeze through the whole thing.

Later on, I would learn that the batchmates I left behind did stuff such as dance around naked, then dance around in lingerie, or in provocative clothing in general  (the seniors creeped me out with the lingerie part : Was that actually what they fantasized? Guys dancing in lingerie..They really needed a life).  And my batchmates who did it? They were fine with it?! At least a couple of them were. The others in the group, clearly seemed to have been forced into it. They really did not want to talk about it, their silence clearly saying it all. It sickened me in that the seniors did not ever think back to how humiliating it was for them, when they were second years. Apparently, one of the seniors even went to the extent of saying “Hum apne second year mein itna peacefully kiye the..tum log itna load kyo le rahe ho?”.  This just spoke volumes of the mindset on campus : I did it, so should you. I went and lost my virginity in this wing, so should you.  I shoved a lighted cigarette up my a**, so should you.

In hindsight, it was a good thing I bailed out early.  I still am not on good terms with the seniors in question, even today, merely because I refused to fulfill their disgusting fantasies.

I avoided the hall for the next few days, steering clear of eating or sleeping there in the vicinity of seniors walking about.  Life seemed peaceful again, much like what first year was. Finally having time for myself, it was only now that I was beginning to realize what I had done to myself. Sure, it was just a month, but I had fallen way behind in my academics now, and I was really losing touch with myself, trying to blend in with the crowd. Things were beginning to get frustrating. But it was at times like these that I reminded myself that the end was near…

Then, something that would add to our misfortune happened. It so happened, that this year, we had a long weekend in August, the I-Day weekend. There was only so long I could avoid the hall. So I decided that it would be that Saturday that I would come back and continue life as normal. What I met at the hall was shocking : There were people with 20-30 “points”. There were people who had been to 6 or 7 wings, compared to my measly 1. I had fallen behind, and what was more, the seniors were beginning to take stock of everyone’s progress; I drew a lot of attention, attention which I could’ve well done without.  The situation could not have been worse : Acads falling behind, the seniors turning the heat on, and common room meetings of increasing frequency. I began feeling insecure, something which I never really felt my entire life : For me, food and shelter was something I always took for granted. The mess OP was depriving me of the only time I would get alone, not to mention my peace of mind. My room, well, there was some nutcase always knocking on it at unearthly hours, hauling me out for a common room meeting.

Gone was the time where my room was a place where I could unwind and then get to work. I had to be prepared that at any moment, any second, in the midst of my work, sleep or recreation time, there would be a meeting. Running away was no use, they would reach me on my mobile and get me.  The worst thing that could happen to a second year had happened : The OP got to me…academically, physically (I pretty much lost appetite) and emotionally.

I considered pulling out of the OP. But I had already gone so far, pulling out now would make my whole time so far meaningless. I still had hope that maybe, just maybe, that particular wing was sick.  Maybe there were cool guys still around, that I had not got to them yet.

This was the beginning of wing OP. What I was going to witness for the remainder of the OP,  showed me the true colours of this place.

Interlude : The beginnings of hall tempo

Well, at this point, things seemed to be following a set pattern : Wake up, go to class,  OP in the mess, lab, OP in the mess, room, OP in the mess, usually followed by a common room “meeting” (which would either be OP again or eliminations for some GC event).

Then one day, we were all made to practice the tempo shout. I’m sure the first years are aware of this ritual, but for outsiders, you can check out any this clip on YouTube (another attempt by seniors to put KGP on the world map, but this is by far the most embarassing way. The most hilarious thing about the comments is some alumnus going nostalgic. Please!) :

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds4Y4TH8xo8

Now we come to an integral part of OP i.e. tempo, or should I say, “tempo”. If I were to infer as much as I can from what I’ve seen, hall tempo is about patriotic feelings for your hall. It is about being there, in every GC event, to cheer your hall and abuse/beat up your opponents. Its about blowing away your academics “for the hall”.  Tempo is your ticket to the typical KGPian life (which will become clear as this blog progresses). Essentially, its about being indoctrinated, for the lack of a better word, to do what it takes for the benefit of the hall.

So the tempo shout is one of those rituals (very primal one at that) which is meant to unify the batch. Believe me, it does a great job. Its really a spectacle watching how tempo affects these people, when they take it to heart. I have never seen so many lives heading nowhere at the same time under the influence of tempo. As for me, it is pretty clear what my stand on tempo is :  It’s another B.S concept. It probably had its origins in 195x, when a batch of IITians, bereft of the internet, television, possibly even proper civilization, propounded to pass their Saturday nights, and has since been passed on as “tradition”, like every other piece of B.S that exists today.

Tempo does one thing : It brings you up close and personal with the seniors, who pass on their fundas to you.  You’ll see some amazing fundas passed down by seniors to you..I’ve seen seniors advise batchmates to lie on their CV, knowing very well the consequences that one may face on being caught.

So well, who is affected by tempo? And whom is it “good” for? Tempo comes to the aid of those 18+ year old minds, who still dont have an inkling of what to do with their lives.  It gives them a goal to work for i.e. the hall. How the system works is this : The hope is, in the course of your 3/4 year stay in the hall, you will rack up enough credentials  by working for the hall, to either get placed at a “top” company (“top” because the perceived No. 1  recruiter is decided by the crowd, and in very few cases, by a focussed individual), go to a haloed university abroad (by the way, if you lie on your CV to a university, bid goodbye to your career) or, the CAT.  It gives the 2nd years “happiness” as they finally, finally, finally have an aim.

There are a couple of problems with hall tempo :

Firstly,  its the classic story of the frog in the well(http://www.englishdaily626.com/stories.php). In short, you succeed in competition that is highly localized.  To give you an idea about how bad the standards truly are,  look at the inter-IIT standings of KGP for the last few years in sports.  And mind you, this is just the other IITs.

Take Formula SAE for example. BIT Mesra won it couple of years ago, and IIT-B has been participating in it for quite a few years now. The contest itself has been around for  a decade. KGP is waking up to it now.  It is rather shocking, considering people from here go abroad (and brag so much about it), they should have learnt something. Also, we have a rather gigantic mechanical department, and they’re realizing now that it might be worth a shot.  Reason? Well, everyone’s been so busy trying to put down the hall next to them and come up with silly slogans, using up the remaining energy in tempo shouts,  no one ever noticed it.

The whole point is this : You want credentials, think big. If you’re just considering ways of spending your free time though, go ahead, take part in the GC events.

I remember when I brought up this point in my discussions with people,  their logic was this : “You should go step by step with competition. Start at the inter-hall events, then go on up”. Sure, that makes sense.  But, let me tell you one thing : It takes a LOT of focus to go to the next step. It is a lot easy for the frog to stay in the well and be the overlord of its domain, rather than take its first steps into the larger world.  I’m certain I would have heard if the “frogs” from IIT went from the inter-hall to the world stage and win.

So what does this have to do with OP? Seeing the crowd, it is very easy for you to jump into the fray and give up on gunning for the top. Whenever you feel tempted to join the crowd, remember what Bertrand Russell had to say about it :

“If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it’s still a foolish thing”

Secondly, the seniors, in their quest of “tempofying” the junior batch, tend to overlook the fact that there are people who don’t need tempo.  There are people who have an aim, and are probably partially on the way to building up enough credentials to get there. The OP tends to affect these people in a different way : It makes their life a living hell (like mine for example).  You might ask me, “Wait. Why didn’t you opt out?”. I’ll get back to that in a few posts.  This is one piece of advice from me to you : If you’re sure of what to do with your life, do not, I repeat, do not give the OP.  It is the worst mistake you can commit in your college life.

Now, what if you’re a person who doesnt have an aim in life? Well, here is my advice to you : Do not give the OP. It is the worst mistake you can commit in your college life. Why? Well, I just told you. You cant aim high if you buy the hall tempo pitch.  And even when you make a decision about what to do, 9 out of 10, it would’ve been influenced by the crowd.

Experiences of an IIT-Delhi graduate

I found this link some time ago while studying some of the public opinions of ragging. This is an IIT graduate (from the 80s batch) who recounts his experiences during his stay, and how the whole system didn’t ever serve him in life any time (this by the way, is a common excuse given by seniors :  It prepares you for life. It is absolute B.S. of course. But perhaps a more charismatic IIT-D graduate may get the message across)

https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/2004-July/003920.html

For those of you who use Firefox 3 like me, you may have to add a security exception for this page. Otherwise, Internet Explorer should manage it just fine.

Events and happenings : Part 1

Well, here is where the gruesome detail begins…Of course, there was really nothing much at the start, but I attempt to explain to you the inanities of the system.

So, learning intros? Not so hard, right? Well, it gets a bit messy…you forget some guy’s name, some guy’s place or his face altogether, and so on.

I admit, learning intros seemed like a sensible thing. There are some people, who really will never step out of their rooms unless placed under enormous pressure. Knowing your batchmates’ names does make a tangible difference. It lightens up the atmosphere in the mess at least, unlike the days in MMM where, even though you might’ve sat with a guy 5 times over, you’re convinced that’s its the 5th new guy you’re dining with.

While the intro-mugging was on throughout the OP, the real test began when we were asked to learn up the names of captains and hall council members. Now the number of names to remember truly shot through the roof.  Ok, I could understand that : Its important to know the HCM’s names in case you have a problem with anything hall-related. Captains : Mmm..they were responsible for the inter-hall GC (general championship) events. Maybe they were knowledgeable or accomplished people. Worth knowing their names, perhaps.

The mess OP..well, it really depended on the bunch you would sit with. Seniors seemed to come in different varieties :

The docile bunch : Their life in the mess : Sit, eat, go.  You would waiting in anticipation to be asked to introduce yourself, but they would just move on.

The want-to-know -juniors type : They would settle down and ask you your intro. Sure, they would knit-pick at intricacies in your intro, but on the whole, upon knowing your intro, they would inquire into your hobbies and leave it at that.

The cool seniors : They would ask your intro, and then joke through the whole of the session. It was nice when they came around.

The hall seniors : This species was the most annoying. When you’re through a meal with them, you would want to drive a nail through their skulls. Why? Well, they would start off by “testing your funda”. This would be the typical conversation with them:

(S = Senior, J = Junior)

S : Intro de

J : (Gives intro)

S : tumhaare paas woh betha hain. Uska intro de…

J : (Fumbles. Says he’s from Kolkata instead of Rourkela)

(Inevitably, the junior in question says you’re wrong. The senior abuses you (m****r c**d, b***n c**d, etc). Asks the second junior to give his intro. Asks you to repeat. You give it correctly)

S :  (Points at unsuspecting junior). HCM ka naam bata

J :  General Secretary, Mess (gives name) (You get lynched for saying G Sec. This primeval species of senior cannot expand abbreviations. Too much brain power)

S : Theek hai. Captains ka naam gino

J : (Screws up. Eerie silence)

S : Abhe, b***n ch**d.  Kyo nahi pata?

J: (Gives reason) (Note : Besides, the abbreviations, this species does not believe any reason you give them. Which brings you to the question why they ask a reason in the first place. This might confound us, normal people, but this senior species is incapable of such high-level thought)

S :Agle theen din mein yaad ho jana chahiye!

(Walks away with indignance.)

The hall seniors really made you gnash your teeth when you were done with them.  I wondered back then as to what made them that way. They too were second years once upon a time. What made this transition possible? And more importantly, why did they do it? These questions got answered as the OP went on..when I saw this society in its full colours.

Thus, mess OP was about sitting in the right place at the right time.  Is this a useful skill in life at all? Of course not. This is a common defence of OP, that it teaches you “life skills”.  That it prepares you to face the world. Nonsense. If you want to face the world, then stop mugging and step out and try to do something by yourself. You dont have to submit to these people or believe in their ideologies.

Besides the mess OP, there were eliminations for various events in the hall for GC events. The GC is a big thing in many KGPian’s lives.  (I will come to the GC events in time, and how the people attain their “godly” status in their halls.) By and far, the most restrictive rule was the sleep at so-and-so time rule. Night was usually when I was most productive, so my work and studies really took a dive.

The other big thing that happened : There were people who didnt want to give the OP. These people were “opt-outs”. I was shocked. I failed to understand their motives, considering that the OP had just started. It made sense to go through with some of it at least, and then say quits. Besides, they hadnt even got to know all the seniors yet. I decided to stick. I thought that the crazy seniors might turn out to be sensible and smart people…man…i was innocent back then.

The OP commences : The first common room meeting

I remember this day like it were yesterday.
Now one note here to first years : Room allotments are absolutely chaotic. I recall having to sack in a friend’s room for a few days before I got my room. If you want your rooms quickly, come at least a day earlier than registration and your transition will be easier.

We had settled into our respective senior halls. Things seemed to be going fine, except the seniors never spoke to us, neither did we speak to them. The atmosphere was ripe with anticipation of what was to come, what was to become of our fate. I recall many being charged up to face what was to come. And then we were summoned to the common room…

I recall walking in a meek fellow, not knowing what was to happen in the next few minutes. The seniors seemed were yelling for no apparent reason (which as I learnt is the staple during OP). We were made to sit in neat lines,on the ground, maintaining a good posture and a serious expression on our faces…The fans were off, it was end-July, and the KGP summer was at its merciless best. The sweat ran down my body, and the general atmosphere in the room wasnt exactly helping me.

The warden walks in, welcomes us, introduces us to the HCM (the Hall Council Members. These are the Hall President, Second Senate Member, Student Auditor and the various General Secretaries and Secretaries of the hall). He tells us that they will sort out our problems and walks away. I braced myself..

Some of us were picked out randomly and abused for no apparent reason. I recall one guy getting roughed up (physically) for smiling. Our hall president then proceeded to announce the beginning of the OP. We were to address the seniors as ‘Sir’ or ‘Mr’ in case we knew their names. We were taught how to “introduce” ourselves i.e. give our intro (colloquially). The intro consisted of telling our names, course of study, degree, native place, and hobbies. We had fixed times to sleep at, and certain places were declared as out-of-bounds , until notified. We were to memorize the intros of others and be in a position to recite them on demand.

And yes, we werent allowed to speak in regional tongues at all (Bad luck for the guys from Andhra). We converse in English or Hindi. The telugu speaking lot were asked to learn hindi. If you’re coming to this place anew, especially from down South (where people dont seem to know any hindi at all), it is a good idea to pick up hindi. It will be a disability otherwise.

So far so good right? I mean, what is Deep Throat(yes, I’m referring to myself in third person) whining about? Well, for the record, Deep Throat wasnt whining yet : He believed it was a cakewalk. Whole batch’s intros? Piece of cake. Hmph, the OP seems so easy…like I said, man I was innocent back then…

First year : A bit of history

I dont know about the others, but ragging was something that terrified me. Being in an enclosed space with a senior was something I really didn’t look forward to at that point. One tended to hear stories about what goes on in the so-called “senior halls”, a concept which no longer exists on campus now.

For the record, a senior hall was a hall which did not have students from first years. While that would be the dictionary definition, on KGP soil, a senior hall is one which has an OP (read first post for disambiguation), while there are other halls which dont. The undergraduate halls in KGP which are senior halls :

RP, RK, LLR, Azad, Patel, Nehru

The ones which arent : MS, HJB

I remember hearing stories about what transpired in senior halls. I remember the first story I heard:

X : “Do you know about the buzzer round? It happened in RP last year”

Me : “Nope”

X : “Its this thing where the seniors ask you questions, and you have to press a buzzer if you know the answer. Except, the buzzer is the balls of the guy standing next to you. Of course, your balls are a buzzer too”

I shuddered. I thought “Maybe this was extreme. Maybe these juniors acted too smart”.

Soon, other traditions were to come through to me. There was the “Jugnu dance”, which involved shoving a lighted cigarette up your behind. There were other stories where second years had to shove other exotic objects up their behinds. And I thought this was the nasty stuff…boy, what an innocent lamb I was then…

Once I started blending into the place, I felt the need to be in touch with seniors. Not having them around, I felt I was losing something..soon I found myself at a loss, trying to explain why the wall between seniors and juniors existed. We faced a general sense of isolation from the mainstream culture, which all of us began blaming on this isolation.In a way, we wound up playing into the seniors’ hands : We needed them. We would literally do anything to be on talking terms with them.

Then in March 2008, we had to choose between going to a hall with ragging or one without. I had made up my mind : Come what may, I will choose one of the senior halls. I need advice (or funda colloquially) if I am to go places. I tended to ridicule those who didnt want a senior hall..I failed to understand what exactly they intended to achieve during their stay on campus.

Then came a shocker : The admin wanted to retain half the first years in MMM, sending the remaining half to senior halls. I remember being a vocal opponent of that move. In due course, however, the student body successfully convinced the admin against implementing that decision. Our fates were sealed : We say goodbye to MMM and enter a senior hall.

And so it all began…

The beginning : My intentions

“Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth”

- Aldous Huxley

Hello everybody,

The above quote, speaks volumes about certain traditions that exist on campus at IIT Kharagpur. I refer specifically, of course, to the ragging, which goes by the name of OP (short for Orientation Period). The official stand of the administration is of course, that ragging is banned and those caught will be summarily expelled from the institute, but like most official stands, it rarely is the case.

A bit of background on the OP:

The OP is a system that has evolved since the start of the institute i.e. since the time there were seniors and juniors. While alumni from those batches may seek to argue with the exact date that marked the beginning of this tradition, that is besides the point. The point is, the system of ragging is one that exists in all colleges, to varying degrees of impropriety and hostility.

Ragging is something that takes place to let the incoming batches of students be familiar with their surroundings, to essentially learn from people who have been there before you. Most importantly, it helps build your “network” i.e. people whom you can bank on for the rest of your stay on campus, and also, contacts that may come in handy in your professional life, given the unusually high success rates of IIT alumni in whichever field they choose to pursue. Again, you may like to add more reasons why this phenomenon occurs, but that is besides the point.

Its intentions are indeed noble. It is however, the means that are adopted to this end that vary from place to place, with varying levels of intensity. In some places, stripping is some times the first order of business, while some times,  acts which constitute homosexuality (usually forced) or outright demeaning are the order of the day, the whole idea being to make the student “open up”.

My intentions with this blog are simple : I want every first year student in this institute, and every other JEE aspirant who fills KGP on his choice sheet to be aware of what goes on in this place, to this day. I promise to reveal to you all, without embellishment, the real life of a second year on this campus, and the choices he has to make…

Perhaps once you begin to hear my story, you will understand why I chose to do so anonymously.

Guys, here is my story…