Spriha in Solapur!- episode 3

Sorry guys I kept you waiting for a long time. Was a bit down on the creativity front recently. Lets see what quality I deliver this time anyways.
The Ragging:
My views about this ancient form of welcoming a new batch have changed considerably since the days when I used to suffer it. But the story is interesting nevertheless.
There were certain rules in the girls' hostel that all juniors had to follow:-
1. Wear salwar kurta for 24 hrs. Not even pajamas at night. (Those who know me would find it hard to believe that I ever wore salwar kurta. But believe it or faint, I wore them 24x7! Of course, I had pockets in all my kurtas.)
2. Address seniors as mam.
3. Wish every senior when you run into them according to the time of the day by bowing exactly 90 degrees.
4. No TV. (There was one in the mess. No cable. Only DD1. What a useless rule!)
5. No wandering outside your room.
6. All long hair to be oiled and tied in a tight plates. (I have short hair.)
7. All short hair to be oiled and clipped or pinned. (I never did that.)
8. Wear a bindi. (Now that was it! I straight away refused saying that unmarried women don't wear bindis in my religion. That was the only time in my life that my religion proved to be of some use.)
9. No aprons to be worn in college outside the labs.
10. Obey every thing else seniors had to say.
Well, the first day when we were ragged, I hardly knew what human beings are actually capable of. So I tried to be my normal self (which by the way, is not so normal). I didn't feel nervous at all.
We all were called in one of our own batchmate's room. First thing they always asked us to do was to stand in the anatomical position! For the non-medics, we had to stand straight with palms facing forwards, feet making a V, chin up, but eyes down. (Thats not anatomical.)
I tell you, that position is definitely not physiological. We would get so tired by the end of each session.
Oh yes, we had many sessions of ragging. Whenever they found time, they called us to entertain them. And they weren't so busy at the beginning of their own terms.
After scolding those whose anatomy didn't permit them to be in the exact anatomical position and teasing sarcastically the rest of us, they'd ask us to introduce ourselves. Now the introduction had to be given in only one language entirely, either Marathi or Hindi. Not even English numbers were allowed. I knew as much Marathi as I knew Hebrew, so my intro went like- "Mera naam kumari spriha pandey hai. Main Mumbai mein rehti hoon. Mere pitaji....blah blah.... meri mataji....blah blah.... Mujhe sarv sadharan pravesh pareeksha (CET) mein paanch sou iktalisvaan sthaan prapt hua. Barahvi ki pareeksha mein mujhe --dasamlov-- ank prapt hue...." Phew!!! It went longer than this. If we made any mistake anywhere or used any english then we were made to repeat the whole thing again. If people said any inappropriate word in between like sheh! or shuh! then they were made to end all their sentences with that word or phrase! I remember once they asked me where do I hail from. I said, "I'm basically from Kanpur, UP, but I've been..." I was interrupted ,"So where are you from acidically?" "And neutrally?" Aargh! I told myself. They would catch us on any silly points like that. They asked me my hobbies and talents. I never had one of those stuff. I'm hardly evolved. First time, I went too inviting and said I like to think. Thinking is my hobby! Made a total fool out of myself. They gave me stuff to think about and talk on in the next session. My batchmates must have been thankful to me that I ate most of the time of that particular session.
Next time I told them that I like 'songs'. (Why didn't I say music?) They asked what kind of 'songs'? I said, 'soft songs'! So what are hard songs? What are firm songs? What the hell! I ended up singing Rafi's 'mere mehboob tujhe' that time. They asked me to sing 'ud ja kaale kawan' from Gadar. I hardly sang the first line when they interrupted, 'haan haan, ud gaya chal, kawwa ud gaya'...
It took me hours of humiliation to understand that reading is the most benign hobby. They knew my talent was to entertain them with my dumbness so they never got inquisitive about that.
After the first week, they started making us all do stuff during the sessions! No, it never crossed the boundaries of decency but never entered the area of sensibility either. Mostly we were called during the evening or the night. But it hardly went on after 10.30 ever.
So the stuff they made us do was this. We could choose between dancing and 'thumka'. (This is what I call it.) In thumka, one had push the pelvis on the right when seniors said 'atthanni', to the left on 'chavanni' and jump on 'rupaiyya'. And they went on randomly...atthanni, atthanni, chavanni, attthani, chavanni, rupaiyya, chavanni (Ouch! Hip dislocation!)... I couldn't imagine myself do that!
I was still a virgin at dancing then. (All those people who laughed at me when they saw me 'dance' during socials, I'm trying!)
So when my turn came I decided that I definitely won't do that atthanni, chavanni thing. I liked to look into my eyes every day in the mirror. And I cannot dance like these other girls, even if I try. They let us choose the songs we wanted to dance on. So I said I'll dance on 'ande ka funda' ! While they sang, I did this- Held an imaginary egg in one hand and moved the opposite leg from side to side. They asked me to change the step. I shifted the egg in the other hand and moved the other leg from side to side! But somehow they were happy about the choice of my song. Along with my supportive batchmates, they started clapping on the tune. And I have a very faint recollection of that moment when I went a little delirious out of nervousness, but I think I danced like Rani Mukherji, in Black! (*blush*)
It was hilarious! Actually, I felt like bursting into laughter when many of my batchmates danced, but we were forbidden to give any expression unless asked to. (I was once asked to demonstrate 'sharmaane ke paanch prakaar'.) Few of them had an evolved cerebellum to not make it look like chorea or GTC. Tanmayi is a professional odissi dancer.
My seniors once made me and another girl play imaginary badminton in the room on the beats of 'dhal gaya din ho gayi shaam'. They often asked me to comment on them. What do I think about each one of them. I don't know why...
When we saw Dil Chahta Hai, they asked six of us who'd gone for the movie to do that famous step of 'woh ladki hai kahan' in unison! We asked Tanmayi to teach us before going to the devil's durbar. Apparently all of them got it except me. So, the six of us are standing one behind the other (myself behind Shweta), they sing the song and when the part comes I start moving my hands up and down violently! Suddenly all other dancers turn around and I'm face to face with Shweta who was almost going to explode in a laughter when I also turn around flapping my upper limbs as if I wanted to get rid of them! And I heard the seniors sitting on the beds say, 'spriha ko dekh, look at spriha, spri...ha ha ha ha...' They were doubling with laughter.
While going back to our rooms I asked Tanmayi if there were leg-steps too...
The ragging continued for about a month or so. Then our immediate seniors arrived. By then, we were pretty used to it. We let them have some fun too.
How muchever humiliated or exploited I felt then, when I think about it now I feel that that was an experience of a lifetime! I would have never ever danced on 'ande ka funda' in my life man!