First Day, First Show

Today starts a new series, about me and my life in an engineering college. This was my first day at the Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology ^{[I know the name is a mouthful, so no it will be simply referred to as MAIT].} The journey to college could someday have a series of its own, but I’ll get back to it later. As is with all things Indian, our first day was marked by a havan ceremony (a sort of group prayer to God, thanking Him that we got into the college and asking His divine guidance in our 4 long years there) ^{[So much for secularism]}. After the flames had been extinguished ^{[and a couple of students fainted from the smoke]}, began the grand welcoming of the students by various HoDs and the chief guest. After about half of the speech of a Mr. XYZ, only half of the students were left sitting there. Then I too decided to leave the place and perhaps explore the campus. As soon as I had placed one step on the stairs, a group of seniors called to me and I knew it was time for the yearly ritual, ragging ^{[also known as introduction, but mostly by seniors]}.

They summoned me to a room and closed the door behind me. Here I was, a single little fresher, surrounded by 4-5 guys, all in second year. They started off by first introducing themselves, putting my mind at ease. Then they asked me to give my intro. As soon as I started, couple of more guys entered, and someone shouted close the door. The new guys asked me to show some respect to my seniors, by bending 90 degrees and saying ‘Good-Morning, Sir’. After I bowed down about a dozen times (the seniors kept pouring in, with continuous shouts of ‘close the door’), they called me over to continue my intro. This time, I was asked to speak one word in English, next in Hindi and so on. As I was getting the hang of it, someone came in, said something I didn’t catch properly, and everyone ran out, asking me to do the same.

I didn’t understand what happened till I got out into the open. The reason was – there was an anti-ragging squad, consisting of 4^th year students and some teachers. That’s when I realized that the seniors were more scared than freshers, in terms of ragging. This upped my confidence, and started roaming around the college ^{[the speeches were still going on, but no sign of classes]}. Then I came across a seminar for first year students, being conducted by NEN (National Entrepreneurship Network). At first I thought it was a ploy to get many freshers in one place and group-rag us. But I was proven wrong, and the seminar itself was quite interesting. It was being compered by a 4^th year student, with help from a couple of 3^rd year students. I don’t remember exactly what they said ^{[I was half asleep]} but I do know it was better than the speeches that were STILL going on. By the time the seminar ended, it was raining cats and dogs. The guys pushed us out of the auditorium ^{[guess all the niceness was only so that we would sit through THEIR speech]}. Then we ran into the canteen, hoping to get some cover there. But, as luck would have it, it was just a shack, with a leaky roof, and it was also at a lower level, thus quickly filling up with water. There, fight broke out between a member of the anti-ragging squad and some senior. The squad member accused the senior of ragging, and he in turn said that the squad member was ragging someone, and he in fact stopped him. Looks like life is gonna be interesting here…