Ragging is a Criminal Offence

There are three kinds of students: ones who are sure what they want and achieve it, ones who know what they want but never achieve it, and finally (the kind that I am) those who don’t know what they want. After completing my schooling from Rihand Nagar, Sonebhadra, UP, I was like all the others who took the age-old path of engineering. There was no decision-making involved in the choice; those who took math would appear for the engineering exams, so I too joined the rat race. I joined a coaching class for the IIT entrance exam. I wasted two years in the hope of gaining admission into an IIT. Being a brahmin by birth, I had always prayed to God at the top of my voice, considering him deaf. This time, the prayers were centered on just one thing.

“God, please let it be IIT, please let it be IIT.”

Sadly, IIT and IERT sounded alike to God and in this confusion, he gifted me IERT. It seemed as though God used BSNL operator services, which go down during the rainy seasons, and with the sounds of thunder around him, God heard IERT instead of IIT. And so I landed up at IERT and finally realized that it was what I wanted. Nevertheless, I was not disheartened and accepted the same with love and respect. I was full of respect because when all the colleges had shut their doors, only IERT had accepted me.

 August 2003

IERT (Institute of Engineering and Rural Technology)

 Allahabad

I joined the IERT hostel on the second day of college and my father and I both received a warm welcome from the hostel warden at the reception. “Welcome to one of the finest engineering colleges in the country,” he said with a sense of pride and achievement. I looked at my father; his chest had swelled with pride at the warden’s warm welcome.

My father and Sachin Tendulkar suffered from a similar disease: the ‘nervous nineties’. But in my father’s case, the ‘nervous nineties’. But in my father’s case, it was his weight that was always swinging between ninety and ninety nine kilos. He certainly scored a century then as he watched his son entering the Rural Technology Institute. I was the first in the Pandey family to study engineering. My father had another reason to be happy. Finally, I had got admission into a college, which would mean an end to money grubbing by coaching institutes.

“Sir, is ragging a big problem for freshers?” my father asked the warden, concerned.

 “Pandeyji, you don’t have to worry as the Supreme Court has declared ragging as a criminal offence.”

The manner in which he had said this seemed to indicate that he was personally in touch with the Supreme Court judge who gave the verdict.

“Are the seniors staying in the same campus?” Papa asked in the same concerned tone. “Yes, but their building is a different one,” the warden answered. After sometime, when Papa had settled me into my hostel room, I sensed one of his ‘gyaan sessions’ was about to start. “Sonu, you have to study seriously. You are at a very crucial juncture of life, as you have to handle everything by yourself from now onwards. No cigarettes, no alcohol, no bad company, and no girlfriends! We belong to a middle class family, and you are our only hope.” He sighed.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***