First Confrontation with the 94 Batch

Meeting old friends still gives me a greater pleasure than having an old french wine.I went to Mumbai on the Makar Sankranti weekend to spend time with some long lost friends.After picking up Sumit K Jha (the nepali batsman) and one of my Adityapur friends, We went to SPJAIN college of Management to meet Lalit Pareek, the same scholarly guy who used to sit for long hours in the library with one of the toppers of our batch (in LOOKS department), Satsang Randhelia, Basketbaal freak and another topper of our Batch, and Vimala, who can take lectures on the survival techniques in male dominated society. We managed to meet the former two.Lodhi celebration was on when we reached the SPJ campus. The students were celebrating Lodhi with great fervor. Future Managers dancing around the bonfire clad in ethnic clothes reminded me of the bonfire in our college days. It was so different for the simple fact that there was abundance of girls dancing along with the equal number of guys and yeah; in One group.After doing some talking and leg pulling we succumbed to the the inevitable, “Talking about College days”.Saggy had an interesting thing to share. The event goes back to the inception of our college life. Some GACCH people from our Batch, namely Saggy, Sappal, Bhusan, Rishi etc had good fun during the early ragging period era. The audacious group would go to SUDHA dairy to get a glimpse of any female or similar looking creature and have the few pleasantries Sudha Dairy offered.During their initial endeavors Saggy and Rishi were caught @ Sudha by the 94 Batch. The others i.e. the blessed souls did not turn up for reasons unknown.The seniors took Saggy and Rishi in the jungle beside the down hostel. They accompanied the seniors oblivious of what was gonna befall. It was scary going thru that jungle though it was far from dense. The scantily lit college premises hardly promised any help for the poor souls. In some time they reached the end of the jungle which faces the kharkai river. It would be callous to put details of all that happened thereafter. They were made to slap each other as hard as they can, strip butt naked, go to their hostel naked etc etc. It was even more dangerous to plead and ask the seniors to return their clothes coz their mind could come up with things more innovative, troublesome, hurtful and offensive. Saggy and Rishi decided to leave before the seniors changed their mind and started walking with hesitant steps towards the UP hostel.Inundated with embarrassment they were unable to think of anything, they knew that on their way and upon reaching the hostel they are gonna be laughed upon by the crazy, and then alien crowd. Some holy spirit passed over the seniors heads and they called the Ma#$^&* 97 batch back. The clothes were returned and Rishi and Saggy somehow managed to wear them all and run back to the hostel.In the meantime the blessed souls were anxious and worried for the lost members. Quite like his nature, Saggy cooked up a different story and told the entire hostel. He told the rest of 97 how they bumped into the 94 Batch seniors who after taking their introduction took them to town and treated them with delectable food at some hotel. He did not forget to mention how good they made both of them feel and dropped them back to the UP hostel safe and sound.All the gory details of ragging in an REC seemed false. People who by then had never thought of going to Sudha dairy started venturing. History repeated itself; Sappal and Bhusan were trapped in the hands of 94 Batch again. They had no better experience but could not cook any story and were left @ the mercy of the notorious 97 batch who demonstrated none. They were the laughing stock for days to come. The actual story of Saggy and Rishi’s first confrontation with the 94 batch was divulged during a Daroo session in the final year in one of the rooms of Down Hostel.