How does one tackle this ? How does one deal with this pernicious worm which has found its way into the hearts and minds of the once-upon-a-time chosen ?
The meek were meant to inherit the earth, weren't they ?
P.S. I had sent the above text through email to the community as well. For the FIRST time in my life here I had a hate message (actually an attempt at hate shairi, in Hindi) waiting for me, slipped surreptitiously under my office cabin door.
For the times they are a-changin'.
3 comments:
Interaction is wierd. When I was in second year, I was all enthusiastic about the prospect of 'taking-case', and I did as well.
In third year I was on the interaction committee as well as the anti-ragging team (just to make a point, that both aren't the same). Most of the duration of interaction, i spent making sure the freshers were ok, most of the time getting into arguments with seniors.
I think interaction is one of the last few dregs of any attempt that can be made in NID for seniors and juniors to get to know each other. It is increasingly becoming redundant, thanks to the increasing population.
I have always felt senior-junior bonding almost invariably always happens over a smoke/drink/joint, none of which I wanted to be associated with..which meant I lost out on a LOT of getting-to-know-seniors-and learning-from-them business. I still feel my foundation would have been better spent if I had had peers whom I could look up to, and be inspired by.
Given a chance now, I may not 'interact', but ironically, I wish I had my case taken a lot more when I was in foundation. I often wonder how I would be now if the shell-shedding that I eventually did in the end of 2nd year, had happened in my first semester.
Shreyas
I am sad to read your response. It reflects the deep-rooted effects of successful conditioning, which makes an activity like ragging so insidiously auto-regenerating. And no, there is NO difference between the so called 'interaction' and ragging. A mistaken zeal and self-assumed authority to "break in" the young to the charmed circle DOES NOT consecrate intimidation based on externally imposed hierarchy. A bully is a bully. Period.
Incidentally another senior student, who is not a ragger himself, said to me recently that ragging/social interaction is a "necessary evil" - meaning one cannot curb it, only regulate it. More than quarter of a century earlier, in Delhi, I had heard the same defence - that time in reference to the blatant eve teasing which used to go on there, especially during Holi.
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