e word "Ragging" conjures up visions of horror in the hearts of many a pro spective boarder of college-hostel. So many tales of torture and humiliation have got associated with the practice of "ragging" that it is virtually impossible to look at this practice from any angle other than that of disapproval. Ragging means perpe- trating of insult, humiliation and torture upon the freshers by the seniors. The former apprehend that they are in for a series of practical jokes and constant teasing at the hands of the latter. There is no way they can escape this unpleasant fate.
The status of one's father or the standing of one' family is no surety against rough handling of their body and mind by the "dadas" of the hostels. Dadas run the show in the hostels and nobody — neither the principal nor the warden — dares to interfere with the ways of the "dadas". Ragging has not always been the nightmare it has now become. Ragging origi- nated in the west as a sort of initiation rites. The fresh entrants to colleges/hostel were initiated into the manners and way of life of the hostel by their seniors. The latter had also gone through their share of ragging at the time of entry. It was now their turn to have some amusement at the cost of the freshers. They would tease the freshers about their looks or about their manners.
Abnormally tall or short students would be easy targets as also the fat and the lean. Students wearing glasses would have their glasses snatched away and made to read without them. Some freshers would be asked to run errands for the seniors. Sometimes the seniors would insist that the freshers bow be- fore them and greet them with folded hands. The fresher would face a major calamity when eatables brought by him from home would be consumed by a battery of senior students within a few minutes in his presence. His protests would invite teasing, ridi- cule and charges of selfishness.
Ragging frequently consists of mock-interview and mock-trials of the freshers. The seniors would constitute themselves into an interview board and would inter- view the freshers one by one. The latter would be asked detailed questions. There would be probing questions about the sexual experience or exploits of the freshers. Any attempt to evade the questions or circumvent them will invite snubs and ridicule.
