Ragging Moments

A group of seniors got hold of me and asked to tell them “The Hare and Tortoise story”, I thought that should be easy and then would escape from them. Ask me, after a good five hours, why I couldn't even start the race of the hare and tortoise. The questions that I had to answer!

1) Who was the rabbit     2) what was his name   3) What was the gender    4) where did it live   5) did rabbit use cosmetics 6) Is tortoise female if so was it carrying 7) where was the jungle is it Wi-Fi enabled 8) who conducted the race which committee? 9) Names and colors of the trees in the jungle 10) who were the audience?

Boy, I was huffing and puffing for air as if I myself had taken part in some marathon



After that when I said them I am hungry, to quench my thirst they asked me to make love to a tree , that is how I expressed myself for the first time to a living organism called Peepal tree. Emerging relatively unscathed from hugging, cuddling and smooching the tree, my next task was to play cricket in the cafeteria's approach road

Sounds simple?

Try playing it by yourself, where you are the bowler who goes to the top of the run up, run down and bowl, run to the other end of the wicket and bat, run to the boundary region as the fielder to collect the ball and throw it in, run back to behind the imaginary wickets to play the wicketkeeper, run to the other end to become the umpire giving the batsman out, go back to the other end and start walking back to the pavilion

Then I was told to recite a poem on not ‘The undertaker’ but ‘The underwear’,

Wrinkle wrinkle, little cloth
Now I wonder where you are
Deep below inside you hide
Like a butter you will slide
Wrinkle wrinkle, little cloth
Now I wonder where you are

Then a series of such things followed that were both hilarious and ridiculous. Night after night, as soon as we returned from college, some of us would become prey to a senior vampire

I when once relented was kept standing under bathroom-shower throughout the night, wearing clothes and shoes, as time progressed we specialized in Swimming on the floor, skipping without rope, snake dance, pole dance, cabaret any more…..

There was certain naming convention to students in my college :

When u are a male fresher in your first year--- faccha ,
in second year u will be promoted as baccha ,
and then later designation changes to bada bachha ,
finally in the 4th year become the man who matters the baap.

Similary for girls it would be facchi, bacchi, baadi bacchi and Maa.

By the time we graduated we all became maaa---- baaaps in the class.

But the irony was that there was mad race for female offspring’s on campus

Every faccha wanted a facchi
Every baccha desired a bacchi
Each bada baccha needed a bada bacchi
And after every maa there were at least 4 different baaaps.

Another category existed for girls they were rated in order of feelings

if you thought OK –the she was referred as DAAL

if you say WOW then – she is a MAAAL ,

When your saliva is drooping from the mouth – then it is KAMAAL

And if 2 eyes are not enough to handle the hotness -- DHAMAAL
If you get a dhamaal then u become MAALA MAAL.

One day when I became baap, I saw a dhamaal l in a body hugging skin tight yellow dress, I called her( using whistle) to salute me , she smiled at me

I thought I was going to get a MAA for my bacchas ,and I already short listed the honeymoon destinations

When I was in the class , suddenly the yellow dressed girl came into the class and announced ,

“good morning students, I am I am samsakara , and I shall be handling this class”
That is when my all honeymoon were converted into acidmoon.

 
Ragging brought into us more creativity, removed our shyness and helped us to know more about ourselves.

It was all done in the spirit of fun, and the underlying principle was familiarization. Like “One peg whisky makes you fit”, limited amount of ragging can make you a strong Man.

Today after so many years I still laugh my lungs out whenever there is any remote reference made to a hare and tortoise,peepal tree, yellow dress, pole dance.

I believe “Everybody laughs in the same language” and If I were not be allowed to laugh in heaven, I don't want to go there either”


I almost got married then, but after 6 years I have one last thing to say

One peg of whisky full ya quarter , PLEASE
Don’t say this speech to my wife or daughter.

 My Ragging Moments video

My Story - In Pursuit of Happiness

In Pursuit of Happiness

We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have. For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.

Happiness is like perfume: You can't give it away without getting a little on yourself.

The first part of my life is called   “Mamma’s boy”

It was the year of 1984 when a feeling of hope arrived in person to a passionate, poor and ill literate family in old city of Hyderabad and they choose to name him as Nitin.

My father was a cyclic mechanic and later went on to become owner of the same cycle taxi where he worked, while my mother was a homemaker who was always busy in nurturing the family which included my younger brother and sister.

I recall my mom used to sharpen the pencils with razor and keep them ready in the Natraj pencil box just because there would be a slender chance of hurting my hand if I did that myself. My mother would also track my progress and feel happy if there were more number of blunted pencils leftover in the box.

I cognize it now, how graceful was that

My father for most part of my educating life would wake me up in early mornings and he would remain awoke to observe that I don’t doze off in the middle.

My father always thought that my upbringing should be different from the way he was brought up.

He innocently had to ask me every time where to sign in the progress report, but fortunately every time I gave him a reason to be proud, because I never stood anything other than being first and second in my entire school life

This part of my life is called   “Below par”

It was in 11^th and 12^th when I discovered another being inside me, I was a born athlete and a gifted cricketer .People were envious at my defense and my reverse sweeps to  fast bowlers raised more eye brows in field than they generally  do in a beauty parlor.

In spite of all the talent I had as a cricketer I ended up becoming a street smart street cricketer, then I realized that I was lagging behind in rat race. As such, I pulled my socks up and did exceptionally well in the fourth year of my engineering to become the first to get selected on campus for a job in Mumbai in 3i InfoTech.

Although never did I aspire to become a software engineer since 6 years I earn my bread out of it, my dream of being an MBA is still a dream!

This Next part of my life is referred as “Sick at Heart”

 One day on an afternoon in Mumbai I got a call from my family stating that my mother is suffering from severe headache and has been admitted to hospital. I, unable to withstand the situation, took an immediate available flight to Hyderabad.

It is when I  directly came to care hospital I learnt that it was brain hemorrhage, and I did not know then that I was seeing my godly mother for one last time, The silence was unbearable and the vacuum it created in my life was intolerable.

With depression my heart shrunk with hurt and suffering only stretched with time, I remember searching in Google for “easiest ways to die in your sleep”!

Then one day I met a white bearded old stranger in Mumbai, he said that “it was me who was supposed to pass away and my mom traded her life for mine”, strangely I could never meet him again!

I read a quote during that time which said

“There is far more peace in acceptance than in resistance” which I think was the life transforming quote for me.

This part of my life is called “love at first sight”

Twice in my life I felt as what we call the love at first sight syndrome: first of them is when for the first time I saw a girl called durga in a family gathering and thought wow! She later went on to become my loving and caring wife.

My second occurrence was when I requested a doctor at Fernandez hospital to watch the labor operation of my wife, when the doctor confirmed that it is a girl I tasted the tears of joy and decided to name her Jhansi after my mom.

To keep this day in memory and to relive those moments I have tattooed the letter J on my right hand.

Today when I hold my mother like daughter’s hand and teach her how to walk more importantly I realize that I am       In pursuit of happiness…….