The Unexpected Secret Test

A young brilliant Indian student prepares all his life to get into an institute of his dreams. It is his paradise. He compromises all his leisure time and toils all day and night and finally he gets a good rank and a ticket to the institute. He manages to get a bank loan and arrives at the campus of his dreams.

The rest of his life story is very brief.

He gets ragged and commits suicide.

Is this what our education system is made of? Is this another acid test that every fresher has to undergo? Don’t the senior guys in their universities have other sorts of entertainment?

Imagine brilliant talents from all across the country who have been respected in their previous schools/colleges getting abused and thrashed and humiliated in front of all. Suddenly their most-sought-after-school becomes the most-loathed-building in the world for them. And he/she had anticipated helpful seniors who would have helped them settle in the initial days. Much to the contrary, they stare in disbelief at the same people, now mocking at them.
Although for many of the freshers, ragging can simply pass off as a humorous incident, to be remembered and be laughed about at a later point of time, but for some selected people, it becomes a harsh nightmare. If these people get lucky enough to survive, the nightmare continues to haunt them as long as they remain in the institute. Their state of mind gets affected, jeopardizing their career. Their perception of life becomes that of a dark one. Sometimes this victim out of revenge, rags the next junior batch in the same ruthless manner. Thus, this infamous trend carries on.

It is for the betterment of these victims (however smaller in number they be), that ragging be altogether banned and the ban strictly followed in each and every corner of college, through out India. We should not let our talents get wasted at the cost of few moments of laughter and sadist humor of the seniors. As of now, every popular college has banned ragging and “ragging” is now a non-bailable offence. But apparently, there have been recent cases of ragging which exposes the flaws in the implementation of the ban. Many more incidents of ragging do not come into light, as the victims, who are all away from home, feel threatened and insecure in the new college and city and do not report about the incidents. In spite of the bans, ragging continues to be operated secretly like a secret cult, practiced religiously by its followers.

One of the important factors that have popularized the art of ragging is Bollywood. And I feel it is the same medium that can wipe out this dirty and dark trend. Ragging needs to be removed from people’s mind first.

Till then, every fresher will have to undergo this unexpected and secret test of ragging