The Butterfly Effect

Ragging – Interaction Period !!!

Well, a very controversial topic to put out your views on. In IIT Kharagpur, the juniors are introduced to the senior halls in the Second year. And there is a three to four week interaction period to break the ice between the sophomores and the seniors. I have been hearing very strange things about KGP recently, about RP Hall and Patel Hall getting Gymkhana and TnP bans, about the second year batch in Patel being shifted to MS, about the OP being stopped in LLR Hall and Azad Hall, about the Hall Councils being dissolved in RP and Patel, about people being given DC’s. All this and more have been really disturbing news.

IIT KGP is basically a village right in the middle of nowhere. There is absolutely nothing outside the campus, it’s a complete island. Inspite of this, I have undoubtedly had the best time of my life at KGP. I have made great friends at KGP, people I would never forget all my life, friendships which are worth a fortune. It is the friends you make in KGP, who make KGP either the best place to be, or just another village in the middle of nowhere. I am sure most KGPians will agree with me on this point.

Well like all KGPians, I was also allotted a senior hall in my second year, I was allotted RK. If I were to mark out the single biggest influence in my life, it would be this hall, it would be the seniors I met there, it would be my wing mates, and it would be my hall mates with whom, I have partied, with whom I spend those long nights arguing and quarrelling. It is these people, who have easily been the biggest influence on my life, who have influenced the way I think, the way I work. It is been these people who have supported me in my hours of crisis, and had been the first to smile when the demons tormenting me turned into sweet successes. It is these people who are responsible for what I am, for a job in ITC, for a Grad studies call in MIT. And I must tell you, I met most of these people through the Interaction period.

In all my first year, left to myself I hardly knew 30 – 40 people. I would have remained that guy had I NOT been pushed a little to meet new people, pushed to know my own batch mates through the interaction period. I have met all my best friends in RK (the list would be too long to mention here), all my wing mates (save Naween), through the OP. Some of my favorite seniors are people I met in my ragging. And when I mean ragging, I am not talking about anything physical or anything very abusive. All big things in life need you to press yourself a bit, NEED YOU TO STEP OUT AND MAKE AN ATTEMPT. Left to myself I would never have known a tenth of the people I met in KGP, I would never have met those seniors, batch mates or juniors, the same seniors who advised me in my hour of crisis, who gave me all the funda I needed, whenever I needed it, the same seniors who made me aspire for more, the same batch mates, who were my pillars of support, who stood by me in my hours of need, and all my juniors who were the first to scream when I triumphed, whose confidence in my abilities has been a great force in whatever little I have done.

KGP would have surely been a depressing place but for these people. I am lucky the OP was not banned in my time. Or I am really not sure if I would ever have come out of my shell. The current trend in KGP, to curb any interaction among seniors and junior is just going to kill the already declining social life at IITKGP. Given the amount of time people spend in front of the computer, I am afraid all that this IIT in the middle of nowhere will produce will be geeks who will never have seen a play at Netaji, or who would never have worked in Illumination. I feel extremely sorry for all those second years of Patel who are being shifted to MS. It is very difficult to express in words what they would miss. I am sure all of them will want to get rid of KGP every minute in MS, will wait every day for their three – four years at KGP to get completed. The same KGP we all loved, the same KGP we all miss…….

It was frankly in RK, that I was forced to look out, to try and be a part of many more things than I could think off, to experiment with myself, to realize that you can do multiple things at the same time, and do well in all of them. It was in RK, that I learnt more about myself than at any other time. Had I not been pressed to get involved in the hall, would I have really done anything non-academic in KGP, I am sure I would never have.

I hope the second years in KGP take this opportunity of the interaction period to meet their seniors, to interact with them, it is going to be these seniors that you will miss when they pass out, it is these people who would have left their lasting impression on your life’s, who would have shown you, where your strengths lie, and finally it is these seniors who would have made you better human beings at the end of it all. Please get out of your shells and go meet people, meet your batch mates, meet your seniors. Trust me, if you miss out on this opportunity, KGP is going to be one of the most boring places ever, and more importantly you will never get another opportunity to get to know yourself better, and hone your personality for the better. Please get out of your rooms and meet people.

posted by aneesh @ 10:34 AM