Not Another ‘Ragging’ Story

In my college ragging used to start only in second year (just harmless ragging)).And when second years(juniors) came to my department, I become highly popular among all juniors. Mainly because the way I rag. I used to send them to girls of my batch and asked them to get there all details or ask them to do something interesting (off course something that require interaction with senior girls).That were the reason. While ragging one of the junior like this, he told me about this arrogant girl from his class and requested me to teach her a lesson. Though I already ‘covered’ all the ‘popular junior mallu girls’ from my department, I never heard about this girl. And also I was thrilled to get a tough arrogant girl to rag .When I came back to class I told my best friend MG about the same

Me: dude I’m gonna a rag a girl from second year. Heard she is very arrogant.
MG: Ohh really…..This time I also wanna come with U
Me: deyy monee kuttapayi!!!!!!! I’m gonna rag her not to propose her or flirt with her, got it and also apart from getting 8+ CGPA (MG was the class topper at that time) and getting into the good books of everyone what else you know. Please don’t tell jokes like this again.
MG: deyy, u has seen only my one face …..I have some innovative ideas to rag juniors.
Me: okay then come with me, but listen carefully .You should not laugh like this when we go there, should be tough, shouldn’t laugh\smile. Totally we should give her a kalipuu look.
He nodded his head to everything I have told him.

Finally the much awaited moment came and we headed towards second year class and we asked one of our junior (same guy who told me about her) to call her .When she came out, We acted like as if we are the most toughest guys in our university and started ragging her (In our batch we both were known to be soft spoken guys and also the one who never used to get angry. Though even while ragging other juniors I had a tough time controlling my smile and always used to pretend to be very serious and angry) .

Me: enthadiii ninte peru (what is your name)
She: Miss SM (She were talking to us as if she is the most calm and sweet girl in her batch. we couldn’t believe she were that arrogant, ruthless girl that we were told)
After few minutes of talk I asked her “heard you are very arrogant and you will never listen to others”
She: ayyo achacha(bhaiya), who told you guys like that. I’m the calmest girl in my batch. I can explain why they told you about me like that. Though I’m a mallu,I born and brought up outside kerala and also I’m not that fluent in Malayalam. So in fact that is why they are not talking to me. That is the fact, please believe me.

We both were fallen for that (achahachan(bhaiya))…MG whispered to me
“Dude did you hear what she called us….such a sweet girl…..she reminds me my younger sister…U are so hard hearted anish ,how can you rag such a sweet girl”)
Even I felt the same, so I called the junior guy who told about her to us. I pretended to be very angry and asked him “dey what kinda guy you are…how can you talk such a sweet girl……. Between why you guys are not talking to her”
He stared at us clueless, poor guy got confused what to tell us .Finally he told us “she is not a mallu”
So??????????? We three asked at the same time.
MG warned all his gang members to behave with her properly. He already adopted her as his sister and they started talking as if they know each other for ages. While we were talking, one of the guys (Tony) from my class (notorious for ruthless ragging) came toward us and had a few words with her but as if we both were talking to her like her close relative\friend, he left her
We invited her to canteen for a coffee and MG was behaving like as if his “bride seeing ceremony” were going on.
Everything went really well. We both were happy to get such a nice friend.
After some time tony came and asked us how come we know her and we told him everything happened .he told us like “ohh guys …u guys missed the opportunity, when you were talking I thought she were you guys relative or something. You know something she is the most arrogant girl of her batch. We all are noted her from first year itself and were looking for a chance to teach her a lesson properly..”. We couldn’t believe what he told us about her.

But later only, we came to know about the secret behind everything. The girls of my batch trained the junior girls, how to handle each of us and they also gave a clear picture about all the guys of my class. Seems they categorized us as soft, medium, hard and tough and also trained them how to tackle each group.
Anyways whenever news about ragging and all popup in the TV or newspaper, this incident used to come in my mind first

My First ‘love Letter’

“Hey Anish… do u remember me“, a tall pretty lady move towards me with a sweet smile and asked me, while I was standing outside the church, after Sunday mass. I didn’t get her at the moment. So I just stared at her with a surprised look and asked “sorry, I got a poor memory, k’niyan?”(My college name). She giggled at me and told “c’mon dude, how can you forget me? This is neenu yar, your 12th batch mate”. I couldn’t believe my ears and told her,” Gosh it’s you girl, you changed a lot, looks more pretty”. “Hmmm pazhaya number onnum kalnagittila alle” she winked at me and told. We had a chat for few minutes (we met almost after 6 years) and then she called her husband for introducing him to me.

For a moment I went back to my +2 school days. Those days were the golden period of my life for lot of reasons (strikes, bunking class and going for movies, moving around junior girls in the name of ragging(harmless) and used do almost all kinda tharikida(‘illegal) activities’(except studies)). That time I had a big crush on a girl of my batch. As she was one of the smart and studious girls of my batch, I was looking for a right opportunity to approach her. So I was trying to make a good impression in front of her, by posing and acting as a very nice fellow in front of her and her friends, by studying well, ignoring other girls (when ever she and her friends around me),attending college prayer meeting regularly etc. After some time, i started feel boring coz I was missing all the fun

As the days were passing like that, one day one of her classmate, vipin approached my friend, Vishnu to help him to give a love letter for his crush (who happened to be Vishnu’s neighbor).Though Vishnu didn’t agree to help him initially, I convinced him to go ahead and also promised him to help him (actually I was bored with this nice guy image and also I thought these kinda experiences will help me, when my turn comes). So during last hour of our class, we started the plan and after a few minutes of discussion, we came up with the final plan “Like to approach her at the deserted lane parallel to the main road and present the matter to her, so that no one will see us……”.after telling this to vipin he told us “Killer idea dude, you guys are born criminals”, then in a weird tone he told us “aliya ente bhavi ningulade kaiyila”(my future’s in your hands).We assured him that we will take care of everything. After the closing bell rang, we started following her (as our college/school was in a small and beautiful hill, we have to walk almost 1 kilometer to reach the town). We almost approached her twice, but as the place where crowded we backed off (by the time we got butterflies in our stomach) and after some time she also understood that we were following her and she started looking at us occasionally while walking. After almost10 minutes and as we were close to the lane, our knees literally started shaking (as we are not familiar with these stuffs) and vipin backed off by saying “dude this is my area and many peoples know me here, if anyone catch me, then I’m finished, so you go ahead if you have guts”. I decided to give it to her at the lane as per plan. Vipin gave me the sign that she is coming and he moved to the other side of the road. Finally the much awaited moment came, she came near to the lane and I approached her and asked “You are neenu right” she: “ya” .“well, Vishnu asked me to give you this letter” I managed to tell her (I still don’t know from where I got guts to asked her that (though we did lot of planning, actually that was her area and also my dad’s office was hardly 1km away from that spot. if anyone caught me, I can’t even imagine about that now). She become frightened and her face turned pale, she told me like “dude, are you nuts? I don’t want it, I’m scared” and speeded up from the spot. By the time I lost all the guts and my heart started beating like jazz drums, I told her okay and started looking for my friend (but he already escaped from there).When I turned back I found a few guys moving towards me, from a short distance. Immediately I flew from that spot and caught the next bus to my home.

Later Vishnu told me that, those guys were her brother and his friends and also happened to be Vishnu’s friends and neighbors. They caught Vishnu, but he managed to handle the situation and convinced them that it was just a normal talk, they reluctantly believed him. That was the first and last time I talked to her (and also happened to be my first and last ‘love letter’, that I gave ‘by hand’ to anyone).Though I used to see her at campus and town, we used to just smile at each other sheepishly and move away. Vipin —— Next day she called up vipin to her class and told him “dude we are good friends right, if you want to tell something to me, don’t you have guts to tell me directly, why do you need a third person for that? , in between I’m not interested in this love, affair and all. We are kids, we came here to study right, so please don’t bother me again with these love letter, request and all. Hope you don’t mind that, let’s be good friends and also it is very hard to get good friends. Think about marriage and all when the time comes, okay”. Poor vipin nodded his head with out any expression.

“Vineeth, this is anish, my 12th standard batch mate and anish meet my husband Vineeth” she told. “Ohh man, so you were the guy” he winked at me and asked. I looked at both of them and pretended to be clueless. Both of them started laughing and she told me that “anish, he knows everything ,hope you haven’t forget that love letter incident and also i showed him you, while you were standing here “.I sheepishly looked at both of them and told her “you still remember all that ahha !!!!“.Vineeth told me “common buddy it is okay, even I have done the worst things during my college and school days. We have to be a little mischievous during those times; else what is the fun in life, right?“. Later we chatted for a while, then went out and had lunch together. We had a nice time and we promised to be in touch with each other.

I guess the best time in our life is, during school and college days. When you look back, those little mischievous things you did in campus and hostels, harmless pranks played at others etc, are good enough to create some nostalgic memories. Especially when we see our old friends and talk about that

Trivia: Yesterday happened to see ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall ‘ .A sweet movie. If you like, light hearted comic love stories, then don’t miss this one.