Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Of Bullying and Ragging

Coming from a public school background, I thought it was bullying that mattered more than ragging. Ragging is just transient than bullying which is an unending ordeal for a kid right from middle school to senior school. Well, those who have gone through the bullying ordeal find ragging as a cakewalk and sometimes enjoy it too. However, both have their own pros and cons. Sometimes, these stories can be so heart-rending that they would haunt you forever. Am no great storyteller, but here are some incidents that will quench your thirst for some gory tales.

There was a classmate of mine Gurjinder G studying with me at Bishop Cotton School, Shimla. His dad was a doctor in the army hospital. In normal circumstances Gurjinder would have been a normal student had he joined the school right from the beginning. However, he joined in seventh standard, thus missing out on the rigorous grooming process which a residential public school student undergoes during his grooming right from the stage of Kindergarten school.

Gurjinder grew in various schools throughout the country as his dad’s army job entailed traveling through his career. Under the patronage of his parents and frequently changing schools, Gurjinder became an anathema in the new school. In public school jargon he was a ‘sissy’ or ‘momma’s boy’, completely opposite from the ‘rough & tough’ persona of his batchmates who grew up on regular dose of caning and other corporal forms of punishments. In public schools, ‘titting’ or complaining about someone’s mischief is a crime and if you are in a senior school (above class VII) and if you cry then you are blot among your classmates. Gurjinder’s fault was that once a classmate beat him up and he started crying. That was it. His painful ordeal that lasted till he passed out from school in class X had just begun.

Bullying it was called and even his juniors used to bully him. Right from giving home-cooked food to running errands to the shops nearby, Gurjinder used to do it all only to be beaten later. Gurjinder became more of a human boxing bag to students and suffered blows everywhere.

He was so horrified by the entire experience that a close family friend told us that Gurjinder couldn’t sleep at night and he used to get nightmares every night. In fact, his torturous life during daytime in school used to haunt him even in his dreams and he used to shout while sleeping begging boys not to hit him. Although initial two years were hard for him but later the tortures toned down as became a fifth former (Class X). However, scars of his bullying in school remained with him painfully. Since he left school, I lost touch with him. Since then I haven’t seen his name among the list of students to have joined our illustrious alumni association later. Perhaps, he would have rued the fact that he was associated with that school.

A lesson for parents here that if they want to send their kids to a residential public school, then send them right from the beginning, I mean kindergarten or class I, otherwise it’s difficult for kids to adjust to the environment.

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