Kashish and ragging-then and now

We have had a long vacation, starting from Thursday when we had our elections till today. In between the cultural festival organized by the college officially welcoming the first yearites .Now the restrictions governing the interactions between the first year students and the students from the senior years. In other words the amount of ragging is bound to increase. But if I were to put myself in the shoes of a greenhorn I would have far less dread for this word. I believe serious ragging ended with our batch in our college. Compared to other NITs,Surat did not have much of a reputation as a place for serious ragging, unlike say Bhopal. Of course we were made to do a lot of silly things to do-for instance thoroughly knowing the CVs of your batchmates, wearing shoes and full sleeved shirts in the hot summer and carrying about a condom with you. But perhaps the most dreaded was when we received calls from seniors. There was no knowing what was going to happen to you. It was like a sheep going to a den of lions. I received most of my share of slaps in these calls. But these interactions helped me a lot. Looking back, the seniors who had ragged me the most were the ones whom I most clearly recall. Anyway after the ice was broken ragging sessions also became fun. Finally we had a party and were more or less accepted like all members-no restrictions.

During our second year, the college authorities put in more restrictions, restricting the interaction between us and the new first year batch. We made some attempts, but had to tread carefully because of the fear of getting caught. This trend has continued ever since then. And the net result is that juniors and seniors don’t know each other as well as they should. And this is sad indeed.

Now this cultural fest which we call “Kashish” lasted two days .Almost everybody had a great time rocking and rolling away. Since it is meant as a welcoming party most of the participants were the new students. Some participants were also from the senior year. Most performances included singing and dancing to the tunes of popular songs. And there is also a personality contest among them. Personally I enjoyed these two days. I’m an enthusiastic dancer and anything racy sets me dancing. I also met my new juniors though I suspect the chances of interaction is limited