How We Are Treated As Junior

How we are treated as junior? By Sirsendu Bhowmick (P.S. –This copy is the property of Sirsendu Bhowmick)

Case: 1 We just passed joint entrance exam and got admission in Haldia Institute of Technology, in the department; oh! Sorry, they call it the school of biotechnology and life sciences. Don’t worry, actually it’s a school (restriction in every step).In our departmental fresher,1 guy (i.e. senior) summoned 10-12 juniors on stage. We were to stand in a line to show various postures (everyone must act the fucking gesture with the guy next to him).After this entertainment, the time for individual ragging (they called it interaction). A thin guy of short stature asked me to put two balloons inside my shirt, and then he said “Go ask some senior girls how much they give you out of ten”.

Case: 2 Like everyday after the college hour, I put my mobile headset in my ear to call mom on my way back to hostel. Suddenly a senior patted on my shoulder and gestured me to follow him to a local tea stall. There were almost 16 to 18 seniors and they looked at me as if I had done a great mistake. After 5 or 10 minutes I got the gist of their cause of wrath. They had called me twice but because of headset, I could not hear them. For this massive fault, two of them slapped me thrice. Suddenly a giant of a senior entered the tea stall with a thick sheaf of papers. He handed over the papers to me to make a copy of it within a day.7 to 8 hours of my life, I dedicated to finish that senior’s novel assignment.

Case: 3 There was a good looking girl in our department and almost every senior had asked us to get her personal details(school, home town, phone number).Unfortunately one of her classmates,too, is in our college, in electrical department(he is a patient of asthma).Seniors converted his personal mobile number to customer care.

Case: 4 A year passed.Now we stay in college campus (in our 1st year,we stayed outside the campus).Our hostel is in between senior hostels. So in those days we preferred staying inside the hostel to roaming around the campus.As luck would have it, I got a room just beside the hostel entrance . I and my roommates always lived in an unknown fear because in our college, traditionally ragging actually starts when juniors come and live in campus. Ultimately within 2 days I and one of my roommates were called to senior hostel. They lay waiting for us like street dogs waiting behind marriage ceremony for elixir.For unknown reasons, either they were in very good mood or they were floating in the heaven, whatever the cause may be they let, us go,obviously after finishing some lab assignment.Before the practical exams, i.e. when the semester exams are knocking on the doors, junior hostels become Xerox centers where any senior (Specially those who spend their whole year roaming behind junior girls to get the test of commitment or those who devoted their lives to Mhadev Bhole Baba i.e. god Shiva) accesses it without any cost. They get their Xerox material on or before scheduled date or time.

Case: 5 In some other day some senior called me in his room. When I entered the room, I found 4other seniors sitting on a bed watching movie. They told me to sit and wait until the movie got over. At 10.30 pm the movie finished. One of them was neutral, he didn’t tell me anything or protect me from other roommates;second one, bit sympathetic. Last two guys will always sustain in my memory. They asked the sort of questions which are very difficult to answer, especially in front a senior (“Have you watched pornography?”” Tell the synonyms of male and female sex organs?”” Give a clipping or

trailer of sex with a pillow” etc). One of them is always in a clashing mood (Actually he slapped me twice or thrice. Exact number is erased from my memory because I guess the slaps were at about 108 Kilometer/hour) and they one want to live in a dump mood. This dump loving guys asked sorry forced me to act as prostitute who is waiting for her next customer.

Case: 6 This is about one of my year mate who actually famous in hostel as ‘I am the legend’ (It’s a name he used in a computer game called counter strike).Before the practical exam, one senior came to his room and said “hey you are looking quite innocent. You have to come with me”. I spent two and half year in this college still I could not find any reason why senior behaves so roughly with juniors. We come here for study. Still these guys always have a problem with their juniors. They make some rules for juniors: 1: During departmental fresher and college fest (Rivera) we have to give them lots of alcohol. 2: If they told us to bring (at the late,oh no, very late hours of night) alcohol or some smoking fantasies (ganja, charas, cigarette, biri etc), then we have to bring it from heaven or hell. 3: They can beat you without any reason (like making girl friends, looking handsome i.e. wearing handsome cloths, walking with own girl friend by holding hands together, snogging your girlfriend in lonely romantic place, chatting with year mate or senior girls ). Obviously you can’t say anything, after all, they are seniors. 4: If some senior finds you chatting with a girl on whom he had a affection or frustration or ‘Purborag-in Bengali’, god knows what is waiting for you under the dark curtain of night. 5: Etc Sorry I missed the track. Actually I personally faced or heard about this kind of situation, my mind became short-circuited. Then when this counter strike expert guy entered the scheduled room, he found two notebooks, a bunch of lab sheets, one blue pen waiting for him. After two hours he managed to finish it someway and said” dada, it’s finished”. One of the seniors took the newly Xeroxed lab sheets and said” don’t you fear to come to our room (senior hostel)!?How dare you?” Then this boy said” dada, you told us to come with u”.

Senior said” If I told you to jump from roof, then will you follow it”. Then without caution some thing hit his cheek and changed the shape and position of the spectacle. After this misplacement of spectacle, this slapping procedure continued until they became tired. He counted it almost 26 slaps.

Case: 7 Our 4th semester just started. This time is very amusing as we can spend more time in enterainment than rubbish, methodical, matrix-based study. That day I prepared for sleep little earlier(well near dawn,by normal standards).Suddenly some departmental seniors came to our room and say “hey, look whose room is this? Anyway get up, you have bring local alcohol (better known around Bengal as bangla, or country liquor)” I said” dada, where can I find it this late night ?” He said” don’t worry. Go straight to the main gate (which is closed I guess) and turn to west and walk for 30 to 40 second and then you will find lower portion of boundary wall. Cross it and go to slum area behind our campus and there you will found a hut along with a rotten pond”. He said the description without even a pause (I think he can go to the scheduled location even with his eyes closed).

Case: 8 As Usual I went to canteen to take my dinner at around 11pm. Suddenly I found there is a rush around the hostel. Two or three seniors came and took a glance of our hostel canteen. But I was so hungry that this entire notorious situation not even bothers me. I had done a tremendous mistake already by considering this situation petty. I just put half of the boiled egg in my mouth and suddenly some came to canteen and one of them grabbed my collar and said” How dare you juniors? You guys bit some of us in our hostel room! We will just.......just. Just tell me the name of those fucking bustard. “ I said” dada I don’t know anything. Not even what happened or who those guys are”. The senior said” don’t you dare to say such lies in front of me” Some of his companion said” hey I have seen him in our hostel” I think “what the hell he is saying. Is he mental? Nuts?”(Of course I think it mentally) Then without caution some rock solid thing hit my face and by basic reflex I stand up and he lost control of my collar (I think this guy is affected by

dwarfism, a disease in which affected people became dwarf and fatty. My height is exactly 6 ft and as soon as I stand up this guy can’t get my collar) After finishing such a nice dinner (canteen) along with such a superb slap I returned to my room to find none of my window glasses intact. Broken pieces of fragile glass scatted through out the room (in bed, in chair, in table i.e. every where) along with those stones who are responsible for it. I’m describing the condition of almost 100 rooms of our hostel. Every room is in almost same condition. Many of our innocent year-mates had to sleep that night with pain in their knees, legs, hands and backs. (The story which I told in this case is about our first college clash.)

Case: 9 We (I and my roommates) were gossiping but it goes long as some VIP guests entered our room, electrical seniors (Electrical word is quite strong enough to create an immune deficiency syndrome in my immune system. This ‘E’ subject and its departmental students (seniors) are allergic for my immune system. In spite of this some time I get affected by this pathogen or allergic particle but my immune system can’t adopt it. ).They were accompanied with assignment sheets. We completed it within that night. Next day some more “E” seniors came to my room. One of them said” whose hand writing is this?” By showing one copy of assignment which we wrote previous night. “Thank god, it’s not mine”, I said mentally. One of my roommates stands up. Senior said,” bhai, you have to come with me. Don’t worry, just copy some more assignments, then we leave you.” There is an assignment phobia in the junior hostel at the time of senior’s practical exams.90 percent of the juniors left the hostel. In our 4th semester I and some of my friends decided to stay in hostel during those….. those days. We are almost 20 to 25. As the time passed we found that our co-dwellers thinning out rapidly. At the dead end there were only two of us left in the hostel, me and a guy of Dhanbad. The Dhanbad fellow said “why the fucking hell are we doing in the hostel? I don’t want to stay here a single more minute. I thought that we stayed at hostel so that we can do group study. Look only you and I remain in this wings like a missing link. Please yaar pack your things. If we stay here surely we get suppli in couple of subject for this…….this bloody seniors. In previous 3 days I almost wrote 5 to 6 note book.”

He was so frustrated that his fair, smooth face went purple.

Case: 10 This case is about a guy who used to oil any senior in his way. You can still find this guy with some senior group. The worst, horrible seniors are his ideal persons in this college. When some seniors told him to bring some cigarette or alcohol, it became happiest task of his life. He devoted his 4 years, sorry, 3 years of college life to our beloved seniors. This guy has a very bad habit of showing off.

Case: 11 Just two days before our 4th semester exam we tried to understand enzyme kinetics but suddenly some of our year mates entered our room and said” today we are not going to leave these bastard seniors. Tora pala.” I understood what is going to happen. Then without caution some one switched off the main switch of the hostel. A sound full of agony came out just beside our room “oh god saves us. Mother……mother”. We closed our door and for additional supports placed one bed, two trunks (full of book) and five human beings. I and one of my roommates were peeping through doors cavity. Sound of breaking glasses brought the news of arrival of seniors. I alerted the college authority at the beginning but they were as responsible as the state police. 4 or 5 hours we stayed holding the doors. Through out the hostel people were shouting, crying in pain. At 23am when we thought that we are safe, and then suddenly some seniors said” look in this room. Here those bastards are hidden. They hit the door like a horde of angry rhino. We thought the door would be broken and if it is broken we are finished. Suddenly there was a rumor “POLICE!!POLICE!!”. And they fled. At 3.30am we went to bed as though we had just returned from honeymoon. Mamu i.e. police were there. We were safe, at least for the time being . Suddenly I woke with the sound of breaking glasses. I called my roommates and tried to find safer positions in the room as they were throwing stones. They had opened almost every room by breaking doors and had beaten as many junior as they could. At last at 5.30 am some IPS officer with 50 or 60 police force arrived to save us from these demons. That day during lunch in canteen we found out the actual truth. When first time police came, seniors

left our hostel. Officers thought that the matter was solved, they withdrew their maximum protection. This decision gave the seniors the second chance. In spite of these events, college authority designated it as a normal college clash but we called it college RIOT.