Reggae in colleges.

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OinkBoink

Adept
Okay. I absolutely despise ragging. I've never ragged a junior. Sometimes they try to call me 'sir' but I always ask them to use my name. I'm almost certain, statistically speaking, that some of you have ragged your juniors. I don't get it. People pseudo-rationlise to themselves that ragging builds character (although this may be true in some cases, it isn't the right way to go about things) etc. I mean, if you want a junior to introduce himself/herself to you, why don't you just go up and talk to him/her and ask him/her about himself/herself ? I am against mild forms of ragging like taking intros and crap too. I think people who indulge in 'moderate ragging' pave the way for nutcases to engage in severe and debilitating ragging. And I think you know what the consequences of severe ragging are.

I think this should be stopped. Seriously.
 
OinkBoink said:
Okay. I absolutely despise ragging. I've never ragged a junior. Sometimes they try to call me 'sir' but I always ask them to use my name. I'm almost certain, statistically speaking, that some of you have ragged your juniors. I don't get it. People pseudo-rationlise to themselves that ragging builds character (although this may be true in some cases, it isn't the right way to go about things) etc. I mean, if you want a junior to introduce himself/herself to you, why don't you just go up and talk to him/her and ask him/her about himself/herself ? I am against mild forms of ragging like taking intros and crap too. I think people who indulge in 'moderate ragging' pave the way for nutcases to engage in severe and debilitating ragging. And I think you know what the consequences of severe ragging are.

I think this should be stopped. Seriously.
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I think you'll be joining a college soon and you are kinda scared.
Well in my opinion, mild ragging is actually good.
You see, most of the guys are very introvert when they join college.
Taking intro and all, kinda makes you a bit confident after sometime.

You'll hate it initially, but later you'll see it's benefits and laugh at you own previous shyself.

However anything more , and in my view it's a crime.
Torturing new guys for your own amusement is very low form of act.
Making them run in undies, or telling them to propose a senior girl etc. are not right.
It's not helping them in anyway , and it'll just put some bad experiences and memories to them.
Even after years if you look back and remember getting slapped by a girl for no fault of yours , you'll never feel good about it.

Which bring me to my second point: Why do people rag?
In my view 1) They've been ragged as a junior and it's revenge time.

2) To feel good about themselves by making someone else suffer. Somehow the guy will feel better by seeing some one else suffer.

None of the reasons are justifiable to rag anyone.

Many of the guys will be away from their parents for the first time, maybe in different city and with new friends..on top of it added pressure of Ragging is a nightmare.

I've never been ragged or ragged anyone in college. But I've seen it all happening with my hostel mates[/quote].
 
I just know that there were some sissies in our juniors batch who found the intros too 'intimidating' - apparently these guys had no clue what happens in other colleges like REC for instance - and complained against us. That seriously improved our relationship with our juniors. Most of us (barring may be the odd dozen) never spoke to them again. We learnt from our seniors (who ragged us, and with whom we had a great rapport) that they would sometimes be approached by our juniors for help. LOL.
 
Those who think that mild ragging is acceptable are shit hole bullies themselves. Ragging of any sort is pathetic.
 
eggman said:
I think you'll be joining a college soon and you are kinda scared.
Well in my opinion, mild ragging is actually good.
You see, most of the guys are very introvert when they join college.
Taking intro and all, kinda makes you a bit confident after sometime.

You'll hate it initially, but later you'll see it's benefits and laugh at you own previous shyself.
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I disagree. It isn't anyone's business to change introverts. The atmosphere in a college and the social skills you require to survive there (and in life) tend to change your personality anyway.

Taking an intro makes you confident ? It makes me want to punch the idiot asking me to give an intro. I will introduce myself to whom I want to. Not to some bully fool who asks me to.
 
OinkBoink said:
I disagree. It isn't anyone's business to change introverts. The atmosphere in a college and the social skills you require to survive there (and in life) tend to change your personality anyway.

Taking an intro makes you confident ? It makes me want to punch the idiot asking me to give an intro. I will introduce myself to whom I want to. Not to some bully fool who asks me to.
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I'll tell you from what I've seen
During my first year , the seniors asked the freshers to talk about themselves for one minute in front of others which excludes details like name, from where you are and all.
As expected no one could go one for more than 20 seconds.

Oddly enough, during our 3rd or 4th year we had some personality improving workshop done by our dept and the trainer made us do almost identical thing.

Point being, although it's branded as ragging and the seniors technically don't have any kind of right to interfere in your lives, this is still not harming you .It may instead help you.
Although at that moment you'll be embarrassed and stuff, it's not really torturing .
You can share these stories with your friends later and all can have a good laugh at how shy you were or something.
I'm not saying this is right or wrong, but I personally don't see anything wrong with that. You might.

Most guys during first sem would be quite reserved outside of their friend circle and this little pushes can help you.
Just like in gym, the trainer might irritate you to do more push ups , but at the end it's for your own good.

Now mind you,I've not ragged anyone ever in college (it's a different story in office :p ).
And I'm totally against any kind of ragging that is done for personal amusement or psychologically or physically hurts the person even in the mildest form.
Many seniors think that they have the pass to control freshers like a puppet for fun, it's absolutely heinous.
 
I find it very easy to make friends. So when I was asked for an intro and to speak continuously for a minute on my first day in the hostel, I was actually at ease. Seeing that I wasn't taking it in a bad way, those seniors became my friends the very first day.
The very first week itself I was playing TT and Snooker with those guys. One of the seniors even warned others that under no circumstances was I to be troubled or given assignments to do, because he always used to win when playing with me as his partner.

I must say being on friendly terms with seniors really helped me in my first 2 years in the hostel. Right from having a say in the menu for the week to letting me watch movies in their rooms, to letting me in on the admin passwords they had got their hands on to remove the restrictions on torrents and websites.

Needless to say I never had to buy any books after my first semester. Plus they were always there to guide me and help me in difficult subjects.

I don't think that getting to introduce yourself should be treated as ragging. In most places that is considered as a common courtesy. Won't one introduce oneself to his seniors at his workplace on his own accord. So why to label that as ragging when it comes to colleges.
 
@rdst_1

If the seniors are so worried that they will lose out on the opportunity of getting introduced to freshers, then why not arrange a freshers party and have everyone introduce themselves. Or just go to the class when it's free and introduce? Picking out each single student at random and having him introduce himself serves no purpose?.

In our final year of college, a few of us seniors went to our juniors' class and introduced ourselves, then we invited them all to a freshers party and had two guys appointed in the class as in-charge. At the puny event that was freshers party, we gathered up everyone in a circle and had everyone introduced. We did give them samosas, sandwiches and a few soft-drinks to while away the time. Our class band played some music to set in the mood.
 
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rdst_1 said:
I find it very easy to make friends. So when I was asked for an intro and to speak continuously for a minute on my first day in the hostel, I was actually at ease. Seeing that I wasn't taking it in a bad way, those seniors became my friends the very first day.
The very first week itself I was playing TT and Snooker with those guys. One of the seniors even warned others that under no circumstances was I to be troubled or given assignments to do, because he always used to win when playing with me as his partner.

I must say being on friendly terms with seniors really helped me in my first 2 years in the hostel. Right from having a say in the menu for the week to letting me watch movies in their rooms, to letting me in on the admin passwords they had got their hands on to remove the restrictions on torrents and websites.

Needless to say I never had to buy any books after my first semester. Plus they were always there to guide me and help me in difficult subjects.

I don't think that getting to introduce yourself should be treated as ragging. In most places that is considered as a common courtesy. Won't one introduce oneself to his seniors at his workplace on his own accord. So why to label that as ragging when it comes to colleges.
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You do NOT force people to introduce themselves to you. That's hardly common courtesy. As you mentioned yourself, the only reason your 'TT senior' kept you away from trouble was because he would beat you at TT. It suited his needs. The fact that he 'warned' others to not touch you shows where this intro stuff extends to.

I don't understand why people confuse college with the workplace. At work there's a chain of command that's followed in order to accomplish a specific task. Often you're working for/under someone and that someone is paying you. Even in this case, there's a code of ethics to be followed. Your senior/employer can't treat you like a puppet for his personal needs.

I've been on good terms with my seniors too. Not by being asked for an intro. Simply by being treated and treating them normally as people.

If you want to get to know your juniors you can do so the way you get to know ordinary people in everyday life. By talking to them normally as a friend.
 
To all of those defending 'mild ragging', what about those who do not give a damn about socialising and do not want to mingle with the rest of the crowd? There are people like that too, you know. I am one of them.
 
Mild ragging for the person who is ragging might not really be taken as 'mild' by the person at the receiving end. Don't assume things.
 
Well I went through hostel ragging, over a month; long back when I was starting college. :( Bad times. What happened after that, we would sit with seniors and drink booze. Stupidity. I remember some batch mates left the hostel never to return. Crying was common. Bad.

We put our juniors through the same shame. Regret it now, and again some left the hostel. Thank God, my hostel was shut down. Shit-hole.
 
raksrules said:
Mild ragging for the person who is ragging might not really be taken as 'mild' by the person at the receiving end. Don't assume things.
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Life's not exactly mild either .. its not always to your convenience and pleasures. If a person can't handle any discomfort in a controlled environment as college then god forbid what will happen to him as a grown man everyday.

I don't assume that if a ask a Junior whether he will like to give me his intro .. I assume that as a 18+yr old he is stable enough to answer a straight question.

During my college years I saw a very different picture each year, when the gap between various batches grew wider because of "no-tolerance" to ragging .. by the 4th year it was like having 3 different colleges in the same campus
 
dexBG said:
Life's not exactly mild either .. its not always to your convenience and pleasures. If a person can't handle any discomfort in a controlled environment as college then god forbid what will happen to him as a grown man everyday.

I don't assume that if a ask a Junior whether he will like to give me his intro .. I assume that as a 18+yr old he is stable enough to answer a straight question.

During my college years I saw a very different picture each year, when the gap between various batches grew wider because of "no-tolerance" to ragging .. by the 4th year it was like having 3 different colleges in the same campus
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Life's not mild. Problems arise naturally. You don't need to go about creating problems (or paving the path for problems to arise) to teach people that life isn't mild. If you ask me my intro, assuming I'm an 18 year old, would you be stable enough as a 19/20 year old to accept it if I told you NO ? And ragging hardly ever stays 'controlled'. That way even the workplace is a 'controlled' environment.

Ragging isn't the way for seniors and juniors to get to know each other. There are other ways of doing that. There are many seniors and juniors who interact as friends. I've seen it and that's how I do it with my juniors too.

So what if you felt like your college was split into three different groups ? I'd prefer that to ragging any day.

People are kidding themselves if they think that it stops at intros. It never does. Even if you want it to stop there, there's always a nutter to take it further.
 
dexBG said:
Life's not exactly mild either .. its not always to your convenience and pleasures. If a person can't handle any discomfort in a controlled environment as college then god forbid what will happen to him as a grown man everyday.

I don't assume that if a ask a Junior whether he will like to give me his intro .. I assume that as a 18+yr old he is stable enough to answer a straight question.

During my college years I saw a very different picture each year, when the gap between various batches grew wider because of "no-tolerance" to ragging .. by the 4th year it was like having 3 different colleges in the same campus
Click to expand...

Giving an introduction is not ragging. But the following are:

1. Made to stand up in front of a crowd and mocked, while an introduction is given. The persons past life is nit-picked and counter argued.
2. Detailed information asked about parents, and siblings; and home-town.
3. Asked if a virgin.
4. If 3 = NO; further probing is done. In perverted mannerisms.
5. Being sworn at.
6. Being asked to swear.
7. Cross questioned about academics, and refuted to be dumb. (I was asked the focal length formula by a 3rd year student). When answered corrected, further agitation is incurred.
8. Asked to sing songs.
9. Recite poetry.
10. Narrate the last "10 overs"; of a cricket match.

What will all the above to do develop a persons personality / character / nature, apart from creating him to be an animal like the morons standing in front of him, ie ragging him. Usually in the above manner, INTRO's are asked at colleges in India. If your college underwent a drift / partition cause of normal introduction requests (and the above was not done), then probably all of you: by coincidence were groups made to be separate naturally, or were all abnormally similar but dissimilar as the years progressed.

All of the above is mild ragging, if I recite the hostel stories you all might just puke. Rather not get into that. Basically example: Doing that athanee-chawani crap (3-Idiot Movie), nude is one such activity.
 
I don't buy the argument that 'mild ragging' in the form of forced intros help in making a fresher more social. Ever notice the tone in which these people speak when approaching/calling a junior for an intro? From what I've seen, it's NEVER been friendly/soothing. There's always that tone of superiority in their voice ('Oye, idhar aa', 'Ey, fresher!', etc.).
Like it was said here... the best approach would be just go to the person and get to know about them, treating them like an equal.
IMO the crappiest tradition in India is being made to call your college seniors 'sir'. Hell, it's so ingrained into peoples' psyche that even if you explicitly tell juniors not to call you 'sir', they'll still address you that way.
 
Those who think that mild ragging is acceptable are shit hole bullies themselves. Ragging of any sort is pathetic.
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Who is to define what is mild and what is not. I was ragged in a mild manner "proposing a senior girl" was extremely embarrassing for me at that time, but its been 10 years since the incident and am actually very good friends with the same set of people. I would generally term something which is uncomfortable for a prolonged period as not mild.

But yeah, what may be mild to one person may not be mild to another. However you like it or not, mild ragging is the unfortunately the best way to break ice with seniors. I was an introvert initially, but you have to break ice at some point in time. Whether you like it or not, thats the way human society works. Most of us realize it later during college, and especially during the initial phase of career. I have seen so many really talented folks (talented at the work they are doing) get sidelined because they absolutely have no social skills to speak of. And hey, guess what if you shed your introvert nature during college days, your social skills would be fine later on in life. Trust me whether you like it or not, if you want to progress in any career, after a point you have to have to have a minimum level of social skills.

This is a very touchy topic especially when I read of people committing suicides because of the pressure from peers. I guess ragging in medical and engineering hostels would be extremely nasty especially for students who have just left the comfort of their family and are thrust into a completely alien society to them.
 
Santa Maria! said:
I don't buy the argument that 'mild ragging' in the form of forced intros help in making a fresher more social. Ever notice the tone in which these people speak when approaching/calling a junior for an intro? From what I've seen, it's NEVER been friendly/soothing. There's always that tone of superiority in their voice ('Oye, idhar aa', 'Ey, fresher!', etc.).
Like it was said here... the best approach would be just go to the person and get to know about them, treating them like an equal.
IMO the crappiest tradition in India is being made to call your college seniors 'sir'. Hell, it's so ingrained into peoples' psyche that even if you explicitly tell juniors not to call you 'sir', they'll still address you that way.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly.
 
asingh said:
Giving an introduction is not ragging. But the following are:

1. Made to stand up in front of a crowd and mocked, while an introduction is given. The persons past life is nit-picked and counter argued.
2. Detailed information asked about parents, and siblings; and home-town.
3. Asked if a virgin.
4. If 3 = NO; further probing is done. In perverted mannerisms.
5. Being sworn at.
6. Being asked to swear.
7. Cross questioned about academics, and refuted to be dumb. (I was asked the focal length formula by a 3rd year student). When answered corrected, further agitation is incurred.
8. Asked to sing songs.
9. Recite poetry.
10. Narrate the last "10 overs"; of a cricket match.

What will all the above to do develop a persons personality / character / nature, apart from creating him to be an animal like the morons standing in front of him, ie ragging him. Usually in the above manner, INTRO's are asked at colleges in India. If your college underwent a drift / partition cause of normal introduction requests (and the above was not done), then probably all of you: by coincidence were groups made to be separate naturally, or were all abnormally similar but dissimilar as the years progressed.

All of the above is mild ragging, if I recite the hostel stories you all might just puke. Rather not get into that. Basically example: Doing that athanee-chawani crap (3-Idiot Movie), nude is one such activity.
Click to expand...

To recount my fresher year ..

1. yep, but nothing offensive.
2. Done - no harm in that, hometown is the first thing any senior wants to know especially if you're a hosteler.
3. Nope,
4. probed about a GF though.
5. Yep
6. kinda, as a Joke.
7. Was asked to "define engineering" .. some are genuinely interested in knowing what you're interested in or good at. (sports/arts/tech)
8. No
9. Yep (I picked Robert Frost) .. I was told stop after 3 lines
10. No ..

This was just the second day.

--

The various batches separated out because by the time our first year ended there was ZERO tolerance to any 'ragging' behavior including intros. Floor of juniors was off-limits with a guard posted there. different lunch times .. faulty would question us if they saw a junior nearby.

We had very no interaction with the day scholars, only hostelers. by the next year our juniors had even less interaction with their juniors .. and by another year .. it dropped further.

Yes .. for one it unites a particular batch. you get to know your fellow batchmates better and you watch each others back's .. In a new environment people generally tend to seek out their comfort zones .. and usually form tight small groups outside which they dont want to interact or trust .. with ragging everyone has a common situation to deal with and band together in larger numbers .. no one is cooler or smarter that then other when 20 are lined up by a senior .. despite what you've believed your entire school years. You have to rely on people with whom you would never have wanted interact ..

--

Few things that I believe are quite unreasonable ..

1. making juniors do your assignments.
2. making a person eat, drink or smoke .. against his wishes. Some just succumb to these habits fit in.. which quite sad.
3. physical ragging.
4. public ridicule .. (being asked to wear a hairband the entire collg day)
 
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