“Take this jar of chawanprash also”, my mom said and started to find a place for it in the already overfilled bag with half the belongings that I have never used but now when I am going out of home, I was carrying them. Chawanprash too fell in the same category.
“C’mmom Maa, I will buy one if I need. Why to carry it from here”, I said in a pleading way which I knew fell on deaf ears.
“Ok. Almost everything done. what else? You took the toothbrush right?” mom inquired. “Maa. You are asking this for the fifth time now. See this is it”, I said pointing towards the toothbrush. “and if you want I can take the other new one also kept in the rack”, I continued in a slight irritated tone.
“Oh yeah. I forgot completely. Why are you taking this old one? Wait I will bring it”, she said while approaching the rack. “Maa…please”, I said with my voice getting a bit louder.
“What?”, she turned back towards me.
“Nothing. Just tell me when it’s over”, I said and left the place with rapid steps.
“Done with the packing” my dad asked. He was sitting in the drawing room with yesterday’s newspaper.
“why yesterday’s paper. Todays?”, I asked.
“I think today the hawker didn’t come at all. How far is the packing”, he asked again.
“I am done many hours before but I don’t think maa will be done for the next many hours also”, I said in a monotone.
“Make it fast! We are leaving after the lunch”, he said.
We reached NIFFT hostel and it was already evening. My mom had packed yet another bag and now the total count became six including the bedding and the two big bazaar bags meant exclusively for food stuffs. Even the guys going to the arctic pole for trekking do not take this amount of food with them. I could survive for my whole Btech without even going to the mess a single time, I thought.
I opened the room and found it to be a descent sized one. My room partner had not arrived yet. Two cots lied bare faced, two wooden almirahs embedded in the walls, two tables and two chairs. Dad checked the fan and the lights.
“Take this side of the room. Here you won’t get the direct sun from the window”, my dad said. He had already started examining the room. I thought if my mom would have come she could consult me on the vaastu part as well, if she had any. Of course she would have.
“Baba, I think you should leave now. You won’t get auto after this”, I said as it was getting quite dark by the time.
Dad left after some more adjustments and changes he could incorporate so that his son is ever comfortable as he feels at home. But he didn’t know of the storm that was coming. Completely unaware of the fact that his son has now been stranded in a place where bloodhounds in the form of maverick seniors come for their prey, the poor juniors, when it is dark, much dark and where no dad or mom can come for their child’s rescue.
I went to the water filter and saw the guy who sat beside me in the counseling. He recognized me at once and passed me a smile.
“What is your name”, I asked.
“Amit Sinha”, he replied. A tinge of rural background was still on his tongue and told the whole story and the place where he came from the moment he spoke a word. Dark complexion, round head, hair sticking to the skull, carbon frame glasses and behind those two big eyes, belly hanging a bit and a descent height of about 5’10, he wore a checked blue shirt and stitched pair of dark brown trousers. The fitting told that they have been with those legs for some time now, may be some alterations to fit the increasing waist had been done too.
“Hi. I am Saikat”, I stretched my hands. He was more than happy to shake hands with me which probably until now he had only seen in the TV’s.
I knew he was uncomfortable with English, so I continued in hindi only, “where are you from?”
“Nadiyawan”, he said as if it was the capital of India.
Clueless for some seconds I asked back, “Where exactly?”
“It comes in lakhisarai district”, he said very convincingly as if the name lakhisarai is enough. I still didn’t get the exact hang of the place but ya as I have heard the name lahisarai before I didn’t question further.
“And where are you from”, he asked assuming I too will name some village.
Ranchi village comes under Ranchi district; I thought and said, “Ranchi”.
“Ok. So you are a localite”, he said nodding his head a bit.
I thought it takes some 2hrs in an auto, only if I had travelled in a train and reached this place after some 1 hr journey I would not have been called by this name. Somewhere the name stung, don’t know why.
“Yes, I am”, I replied.
“So lucky, you can go to your maa and baba very often. I can only go in the long holidays”, he gasped.
Lucky you, I thought.
“And even you can run away from the ragging too”, he continued.
My ears heard the word and sent a signal to my brain, which then told me that, not a good news son.
“What ragging?” I asked.
“Yes you are coming today right? That’s why. We are here for the past 2 days and have already faced them twice. They come after 12 in the night”, he said thrusting on each word.
“And then?” I asked.
“Stuffs. They make us do stuffs. They take ragging. You don’t know ragging”, he said.
I thought to ask, did somebody with the name bhaiya came looking for me but I didn’t.
“How many of them come?” I asked and started to forecast the pain that was waiting.
“Varies. The first night about 10 of them came. The second some 6 or 7. Some common face in both of them”, he said taking his time and modulating the tone.
“Will they come today?” I asked.
“Yes they will. Yesterday they were discussing something like tomorrow the localites will also be here. So they must come in a large number I guess”, he said.
“What? For localites even a greater number. How many localites are there in our batch”, I sounded quite troubled.
“I don’t know that”, he replied.
“Ok. Let’s go back to our rooms”, I said.
“Why? You won’t take your food? Its mess time”, he said.
Food reminded me of the two bazaar bags that my mom had packed. I thought if somehow I could bargain those in return for not being ragged, at-least today.
I said, “Yes let’s go”.
Food was indeed horrible and the words of the guy whom we met on the mess table on the counseling day resounded in my ears.
“Meet him, he is Kamlesh Ji. My room partner”, Amit brought a similar looking guy, a shorter version of him. And what was that Ji thing?
Anyways I said, “Hi, I am Saikat”. Kamlesh extended his hand and gave a warm smile.
“He is from Lakhisarai, proper, from the city”, Amit said.
Is half the batch from Lakhisarai, I thought.
Kamlesh smiled again. So a city guy, huh? I thought to ask him, dude what about the night life of Lakhisarai. It must be a rocking place for sure.
Kamlesh in his carbon frame glasses though didn’t enjoyed the statement and he knew the difference between Ranchi and Lakhisarai. He kept quiet and continued indicating Amit to shut up.
I met some more from the Metallurgy branch. One of them, Navneet was also a localite. He too was in his first night in a hostel. May be it was his face but the fear clearly told stories going inside him. I thought, maybe I too looked similar.
Mine was the Manufacturing branch, the only other branch apart from Metallurgy. Both Amit and Kamlesh were of my branch.
“Amit Ji. Do you want some more roti?” Kamlesh spoke for the first time. And I knew why he didn’t spoke uptil now. He had this gifted voice that if you hear him on phone you surely can bet that you are talking to a girl. And again, what is this Ji thing? Both of them addressing each other with Ji. We even didn’t said Dilip Uncle, Ji when our cricket ball used to fall in his campus which was always prowled by his two Doberman dogs. A Dilip or a max of Dilip bhaiya was what we used to shout until he appeared and threw us our ball back. And here two similar aged guys are addressing each other with Ji. Where are they from. Ok Lakhisarai, they told, I answered myself.
“Saikat, you want any?” Kamlesh asked with that same smile on his face but with no Ji after my name. I felt a bit lowered down.
“No, I think I am done”, I said, thinking that it’s not a better idea to eat too much. Before the drill one should eat the less he can.
Our rooms were on the second floor of the ADC (Advanced Diploma Course) hostel, a different hostel allotted to first year’ites to avoid their ragging. But it seems the senior were a valiant lot and the distance didn’t mattered to them a bit. ADC hostel is the oldest hostels of NIFFT as originally many years before NIFFT used to run ADC course only. Almost all the ADC batch was filled with Bankura-Bishnupur bengali’s of the West Bengal who loved piling up their mess plates with rice mountains and needed a peeled onion dipped in mustard oil to gulp down each handful of rice and daal mixed with the mess tarkari. ADC and Btech maintained a war that ranged as long as the history of NIFFT went. Although a much fewer lot and all the times victim of Btech hooligans they still didn’t submit to the Titans. Btech’s called them Titans. However their only skill, to play flawless football overpowered the Titans most of the times. Besides ADC hostel, we had the M.Tech hostel where we went to fetch water from the only water cooler in that 1km square area. M.Tech hostel always remained silent to the power infinity.
We reached our floor and my room was just on the verge of the stairs that went straight to the mess. AmitJi and KamleshJi moved on speaking something to each other with many ji’s in their sentences. I heard them till they entered their room.
“Hi Saikat”, a matured voice said from behind.
I turned back. A five foot, thin and geeky looking structure stood there.
“Hi. And you are?” I asked.
“I am Sandeep. Call me Sandy. Your room partner”, he said and attached a grin that stretched his already opened lips towards one side of his face. Surely not malnourished, I thought, but then definitely had not utilized those carbohydrates and proteins he had consumed till now to make some fat that was highly needed to suffice that skeletal structure.
“Ok. So when did you came. I was in the mess actually”, I said.
“ya heard it from the nearby guys that you have arrived, actually the supervisor ain’t there so I couldn’t get the keys. All my belongings are lying here only”, he said.
“Where are they? I mean where the luggage is?” I asked.
“Ya, I had kept them on the ground floor only. Actually need some help to lift them up to here”, he said with that remarkable grin again.
“Ok. Lets go”, I said.
There were some 10 in total, small plus big bags waiting to be pulled for some 100 odd steps. He was one step ahead of me, I thought. Anyways we carried them to our room in three go’s.
“Are you also a localite?” he asked after settling on the side where sun would come directly from the window, as told by my dad.
“Yes. You too? From where”, I asked.
“Doranda. And you?” he asked back.
“Jail road”, I replied.
“Aren’t you guys ready yet? They will come early today”, a guy briskly came inside our room. He wore such thick glasses beyond which his eyes could hardly be seen. If you go by the looks then definitely a scientist in the making, he was pale much like Sandy but was taller than him. He wore a plain white shirt all buttons tied and duly tucked inside his grey trousers and formal shoes well polished that even the bulb in our room looked fainter before its shine.
“Oh yes. Hey this is Jeetendra. And Jeetendra he is Saikat”, Sandy introduced us.
“No time for intro guys. You can give it to them. Get ready quickly. I heard Ashok Roy is coming today”, he said and went away faster than he came.
“What did he say”, I asked.
“I don’t know. Let’s find out”, Sandy said.
“You don’t know Ashok Roy?” a guy said and broke to laughter, much dressed like Jeetendra but 180 degrees different in looks. He was of the dude category, the ones for whom the girls can fall for in the first sight.
“He is a terror when it comes to ragging. I was there in the first night when he just came for some 5 minutes and boss…”, he stopped to catch breath, “he almost did it to one guy”.
“What he almost did?” Sandy was curious.
“That you will come to know today”, he said, “and by the way I am Abhineet”.
We introduced each other but hardly my mind was there in the introduction. The terror of ragging was rising eponentially inside me. What did Bhaiya said his name, Ashok Roy? I gazed for some moments trying hard to recollect but wasn’t able to. What the hell is this and why I am a localite, I started cursing me and the place.
Meanwhile Sandy was learning how to get dressed for the forthcoming party.
“Ok. I got it but what to do about the hair. You can’t cut them now?” Sandy was busy with Abhineet trying to understand the party wear.
“Right. Ok, we will get ready then”, Sandy concluded his important discussion and tapped me on the shoulder and indicated me to dress up.
It was 11 pm and we waited dressed in our room. Full sleeve formal shirts along with formal trousers, shirt tucked inside, formal polished shoes, and hair combed with ½ litre coconut oil so that it starts trickling down from the sides. But Sandy and I both failed on one front, our hair wasn’t trimmed like the west-indies players.
“Room 105. Move it fast”, said a tin faced thin guy and went away to other rooms.
“Was he a senior”, Sandy asked with a whispering tone.
“How would I know? Come let’s move before he comes back”, I said.
We started to move towards room 105 inside which havoc was falling upon the first year’ites. Voices kept rising as we approached the room, slaps and sobbing could easily be heard. A husky voice kept dominating and did most of the talking. I tried to recognize the voice but it wasn’t Bhaiya.
We went till the door and stopped. I and Sandy looked at each other waiting for the other one to take the first step. Some seconds passed and we kept standing on the door.
“Why you basterds are still here? Need an invitation to enter the room or what?” said the tin faced guy. He was returning after informing all the rooms to gather at 105. I looked at Sandy saying, yes he is a senior.
“What are you looking at? Don’t you know the rules? Hey wait, I am seeing you for the first time”, he said bringing his face near to mine. He smelled of fresh cigarette. “Come inside you need a proper introduction”, he took me by the hand and pulled me inside the room. Sandy followed me.
The room was choked with cigarette smoke. I stole a look into the room and saw almost half the guys standing naked. They looked like a herd. Most of them I was seeing for the first time. The first time you see a person and see him naked, what goes inside your head. It felt as if I was in the stone age where I need to do aaabbbbaaaa……aaauuuu..auuuuu…..to communicate with them. Amit and Kamlesh also stood in one corner, naked with their heads down. Their dark body was looking even darker now.
One senior, sitting on the nearby chair said, “Hey who is this new chick?” pointing his cigarette towards me.
I tried looking at him, following the line through the pointed cigarette and then reaching his face. He was a fat guy, much fat that I pitied the chair he was sitting on. Sandy almost was hiding behind me all this time and the tin face this time pulled him out and make him stand beside me.
“These are the bloody localites”, the husky voice said. One thin guy with a black t-shirt and blue jeans and posing the ever dirty smile he could manage approached us. He came right in front of me. I didn’t look into his eyes. He lit a ciggaratte some 3 inches away from my face and looking towards me he said, “Tell these nasty ones the rules. Who will tell?” he said and looked behind to find his guy. All were silent, heads down as if someone had spell bound them to statues. One of them moved a bit, may be some macchar bit him.
“Yes you, what’s your name?” he asked pointing towards that guy.
“Ajit sir”, he said in a meager voice.
“What sir”, he asked again.
“Ajit”, this time he was a bit loud.
“Yes, tell these localite monkeys the rules. Fast and dare you make any mistake”, he commamded like the hitler commanded his army.
Ajit started like a six year old, being said to recite the tables he had just learnt a few minutes back. “Never look towards a senior. Always look towards your third button. Always be in formals. No jeans, no t-shirts. Hair should be chopped down to the size of 1 cm and should be always oiled. Whenever see a senior wish him. And…..” he slowed down towards the end trying hard to remember something he was missing.
“And what else? You forgot? How dare you. Come I will make you remember”, the black tshirt said and started to approach Ajit with a plan to plant some slaps on his face.
“And always remember the NIFFT anthem”, Ajit somehow recollected it in time.
“Yes. Never forget that in your life”, he said and laughed like the Ravan in the Ramayan serial.
“Yes you, little dwarf”, said the chair guy, puffing some dozen cigarettes at a time. His face completely invisible behind the cloud of the smoke he had formed.
A guy came forward from the naked lots. They all looked the same with no clothes on them, just that some were fair and some were dark.
“Name?” he asked.
“Abhishek”, the poor chap replied.
“Recite the NIFFT anthem”, the chairperson said.
Poor Abhishek started immediately after hearing the order like the Brahmans of ancient times reciting a shlok.
“We the first year’ites take this oath that we will always bend before the masters, the guru’s, the real mentor of ours, the seniors. Hail seniors. I hereby promise to abide by the fresher rules and completely devote myself to seniors and whatever their orders are. I am extremely happy to live under his mercy till I am baptized”, he said in a single breath.
“Did you hear that”, the tin face kicked Sandy from the back.
“Yes”, Sandy replied, his voice had already started shaking.
“Only yes?” the black Tshirt said.
“Yes….sir”, Sandy corrected himself.
“And now you”, pointing towards me he said, “Give your intro”.
I waited for a moment trying hard to recollect what Abhineet had told about the sequence of things you need to tell in your intro. And just when I started to speak the black tshirt said, “It’s your first day rite? So introduce yourself the way you want. Just one condition. With every sentence open one of your clothes. And dare you finish your intro before you are completely naked. Fine? Start”, he said as if I was a veteran in shedding my clothes in front of 30 odd guys.
I stood as if I haven’t heard him. I somehow wanted him to forget what he said just now. I thought why Mr Einstein didn’t invent the time machine. We need them so much, actually.
“Yes. Heard me right? C’mmon start and don’t waste my time”, he repeated. The other two freaks giggled. The tin faced said, “Hey see, he’s feeling shy like a girl”.
Girl or boy, everybody wants to be covered, my dear senior. Do boys feel proud when he is forced to get naked in front of a mass crowd? Molestation is never easy to take, be it a boy or a girl.
I stayed silent and didn’t move a bit. I saw Sandy through the corner of my eyes. He had already started looking towards the other corner. He didn’t want to see his room partner go naked just after some hours they have met.
This time the heavy weight champ who had been stress testing the chair all this time, stood up. And came up to me and without any prior notice slapped me. His hard palm thrashed a million bacteria residing happily on my cheek. The sound echoed in the room. I looked up to him in disbelief that what he did is really what he did? He slapped me again, this time harder and on the same side. I felt my cheeks getting warm and I knew it had turned red. I saw the herd; they all stood with their heads down
“Don’t you hear what he said?” he said this time shrieking near my ears that I felt my eardrums would almost collapse.
“Ok”, I said and thought it’s either way round, either lose your dignity by getting naked or lose it by getting slapped.
I started with my name and began shedding my clothes. I stopped a bit before it was the last one left on my body but then saw the other naked ones and thought not a big deal and dropped the last one too.
My intro was not even complete and they started to laugh like the villains in south Indian movies. What happened dear sir, saw some space animal?
“It’s ok. Get dressed”, the tin faced came and told in my ears.
I quickly started picking them up.
“What?” the black tshirt asked the tin face.
“His first day yaar”, he replied.
I heard the reply and the thing that had not happened yet started to happen now. In the midst of atrocities when you see some sympathy for you, the biology of our body becomes active, human emotions are one thing that humans cannot control until he is a master of it. I wasn’t a master. Drops of tears accumulated in the corner of my eyes.
Seeing it the black t shirt said to the fatso, “Let’s leave”.
The three of them left and for a moment we all stood there as if it was not over yet.
We gathered in Kunal’s room. Kunal and Saurabh were room partners. They had been before too when they together prepared for entrance examinations.
“Drink some water”, Kunal said with sympathetic voice. “That guy Ashok Roy is a moron”, he continued.
“Which one?” I asked.
“That black tshirt”, Saurabh said taking over from Kunal. “They do it like this only. The first night was even horrible. That night they did it for 3 hours and some 10 of them came”, he continued.
I looked at him, a cool looking guy and sounded reasonable. He meant that if you wanna do engineering then face them, no option. Right he is, I thought.
Meanwhile Abhineet and Abhishek, both room partners also came and sat. I was meeting Abhishek for the first time, so Abhineet said, “Ya, meet him, He is Abhishek”.
“I know him, he taught us the NIFFT anthem”, I replied.
Abhishek smiled. I tried to, but couldn’t. The night had become too heavy on my nerves.
Sandy left for sleep and I met some more new faces, Animesh, Mukesh and Vivekananda.
I came back to my room. Sandy had dozed off to sleep. I saw the room, it looked different some hours before, I thought. I switched off the lights and went to my bed. The ragging was still vividly floating before my eyes. Something happened, not the slaps, not the shedding of clothes and not even the tears but something much bigger. I remembered the night I promised to keep myself motivated. I told myself, “It’s just a phase it will pass on. Keep the faith”.
