Where boys do cry…

It has been a raging debate over the years – to rag or not to rag.

 

The evil of ragging juniors is something that seems to have seeped deep into the Indian educational system. And with each passing year, the levels of sadism exhibited seem to grow worse and worse.

 

Apparently, engineering colleges and army colleges are the worst of the lot. (I say this, not based on my perceptions, but after speaking to numerous folks out there.)

I guess the biggest question is – what exactly constitutes ragging? Some of the ‘events’ that constitute ragging at some colleges are:

 

a) Asking people to parade around as ‘Supermen’ – with their innerwear worn over the outerwear.

b) Making people perform obscene dances or gestures.

c) Talk about the anatomies of classmates of the opposite gender.

d) Making people burn themselves with cigarette butts.

 

I’m yet to understand how one can be sadistic enough to cause physical pain and/or mental anguish to other people for no reason at all. No one acknowledges that ragging happens in some of the best places to study at in India, but we all know that it’s there. Despite Supreme Court orders decreeing the strictest of action against offenders, people are just too scared to come out and speak, for fear of social ostracism and ‘bad consequences’.

 

Unfortunately, they don’t even tell family or friends and sometimes, suffer in silence till there’s nothing that can be done.

 

A friend of mine who joined a reputed institute recently narrated some such experiences to me, and I recalled a documentary called ‘Where Boys Do Cry” made by a friend who happens to be an amateur movie maker. At an army institute, a friend of his had killed himself after suffering humiliation through dastardly acts of ragging. I had voiced over for some sections of the documentary, and I was appalled when I read the script.

 

 

The sad part is that many of us pretend to be ‘custodians of society’ and wouldn’t rag anyone, but we wouldn’t stop our classmates/batchmates from doing it either. But, turning your face away doesn’t stop such incidents. By cranking up the volume on your iPod, you can’t drown out the pleas for help around you.

 

Yes, there are forms of ‘harmless’ ragging or ‘just routine fun’ ragging. But, harmless for whom? Fun for whom?

 

I wonder who makes this distinction, and how…