25 September 2005

Every one knows that the Panjab University Elections are over. And the end of elections marks the continuation of ragging season!! Fortunately the sessional exams were scheduled just after the elections and the seniors (as well as the freshers) were busy studying. But unfortunately the sessional exams ended and ragging resumed. Generally ragging takes place during the weekends and we are always on the run during the weekends (Best is to spend a long time outside the campus or visit home during the weekends). But last week we were not lucky enough!!

Last Saturday we decided to watch the movie Chocolate which would serve two purpose- entertainment and safety!! We went for the 6 to 9 show and as usual we bought the upper stall tickets and watched the movie in the balcony. A wonderful suspence movie, you all will love it, if you like suspence stuff. When I returned back to the hostel hungry and starving at around 10:20pm a senior caught me at my hostel gate. The senior was from hostel no. 7 (the most dangerous hostel as it only has UIET
2nd year students). I was instructed to wait for them in the mess while they hunt down the other freshers in our hostel. I quickly informed my other friends who were also returning from the movie to stay away from the hostel but by then they had already reached the hostel and the seniors soon caught them too. Ok, fine, no way left to save ourselves. We were taken to Hostel 7 and then it all began….

Firstly their instructions:-
What will follow is not RAGGING. It is PDP. Full form? Personality Development Program.
Incase they abuse us then some of the definitions:-
Behen - Girls who study wth us.
Maa - Girls who study with the seniors.
Baap - Guess who?? the male seniors of course.
Not a bad concept. So if you face some of the abuses related to them, need not be emotional.

All Right, All set. Firstly intro:- You must specify the following things. Name, School, X and XII board results, Father’s name and occupation, AIEEE rank and branch. Select one language(English/Hindi/Punjabi) and you must not speak even one word of any other language throughout the introduction. Next you have to turn into Phantom? In case you do not know what phantom is then look at photo (If you still don’t understand, ask me). The lights are switched off and you are given 1 to 2 mins to transform yourself into phantom. Next everyone must take off his shirt. Then you are taught a few things:- UIET wish, how to apologise, UIET song, UIET anthem, how to think(instead of scratching your head you have to scratch something else…). “DO NOT FORGET THESE” is the instruction. Now you have to dance, to what?? NOKIA 1100 ringtones. Thus your steps have to match to those ringtones. After that we were
made to dance and sing the anthem to the beats of the ringtones. And then the MunnaBhai stuff. You have to give your intro exactly the way it is done in the movie MunnaBhai MBBS. Show you muscles(doesn’t matter if you have a well built body or not) and give your intro. This was followed by several questions/sex oriented quiz etc etc etc.

It continued for nearly 3 loooooong hours. And finally some favours like filling up their water flasks etc. We were also given a homework- difference between CDMA and GSM in details(which like any other homework has not even started). They also told us a policy that the institute will return us Rs 25000/- if we lodge complain of ragging. Thus the instruction was that if we get the 25000/- bucks we must give it to them!!!

Finally when it ended they introduced themselves(only their name and branch, not the way we have to do it). They also gave us their mobile numbers and took our mobile numbers too. And the final instruction before leaving, until the fresher’s day party, they may call us again ANYTIME and obviously we have to respond!!

All those who have not been ragged yet- Beware you might have a worse experience.