One of my favorite ragging sessions was when I was caught with another DAVia, S~. We were discussing Calculus and he was about to start explaining a particularly complicated problem when I noticed a bunch of "seniors" staring at us.
"Freshie?"
"Yes, sir"
"Nee DAV (pronounced Daaav) thaane?"
"Yes, sir"
"Come along. S~, neeyum vaa pa."
We followed them meekly, all thoughts of caluclus left far behind.
"Unakku eppadi ivana teriyum?" They apparently already knew S~.
"He was the school captai..."
Nooo, S~ whispered to me but it was too late. As soon as I said "captain", a flurry of comments surrounded us.
"School cabtaina? S~, sollave illa? Nee vaa ma."
I realized a bit too late why it was not prudent then to let them know that he was the school captain. The poor kid just got ragged more for that.
Anyway, it turned out to be a pretty pleasant session, I got my shikanji and S~ proposed to me (well, it was either me or a buffalo) with a blade of grass (my seniors asked me to imagine it was a rose, I tried, believe me :) and then S~ had to recite a poem for me.
Just to be on the safe side, S~ and I never discussed calculus after that.
Then, there was the time when Radha caught me, she was a final year student and we discussed books for a couple of hours! I totally enjoyed the discussion. She did make me fill up her water-bottle which was cool with me (like I had a choice) as long as she didn't make me cry (I'll come to that soon). She had these thick glasses on, hair tied up in a bun and she was dressed in casuals, a capri and a tshirt. The next day, this pretty girl in a salwar kameez called me, "Freshie, come here!" I took my dinner plate and walked towards her table. A few of her friends snickered.
"Yes, ma'am?"
"Adi paavi, you don't recognize me?"
"No, ma'am"
"You spent three hours talking to me yesterday and now you say you don't know me?"
The salwaar kameez, the pretty flowing hair, lack of glasses and nice bindi totally threw me off! Anyway, I thought she was cool!
"What are your hobbies?"
"I like to read..." (I know...lame but hey, I am no singer or dancer!)
"How is it that all freshies like to read?"
*dumb*
"Tell me some books you like, authors you usually read..."
*decent-sized-list*
"Did you rehearse that to tell your seniors?"
"No, sir."
"Ok, tell me the story of Shall we tell the President."
I started telling him...five minutes later, he stopped me, convinced that I wasn't lying.
We talked for some more time and then he asked me if I would meet him again.
"No, sir."
"Why? Didn't you have fun talking to me today?"
"Yes sir but I would rather be at my bhavan studying." (I can't believe I said that but I vaguely remember that I was very intent on making a transfer to the Computer Science group then and it required a 9.0 GPA!)
He was quiet for sometime and then he said, "Ok, then go."
I wondered if I had hurt him by saying that but I really blurted out what I had been thinking all that time...
Then, there was the time when a second-yearite caught me and asked me to name all the states in India with capitals. After a traumatic half-an-hour, I burst out crying and then she spread out a map in front of me and we went over it together. Whew! I never was that good in Geography at school...
The other time I burst out crying was when a couple of DAV seniors (again!) started teasing me. As soon as I started crying, they were kind of taken aback, they took me to C'not and treated me to a milkshake and tried to cheer me up (one guy even sang a song). I laughed a lot that day, after the initial crying session :)
There was this guy who became well-known around campus for "catching freshies" multiple times. People wondered if he attended any classes at all. My count was 3, there was this girl who got caught 9 times, by this guy! Each time, he would talk, buy her shikanji and drop her back at the bhavan. Such a chivalrous dude!
Other sessions included collecting different colored tooth paste blobs on a brush, fashion parade with broom sticks, explaining why more guys got into IIT, was it because girls were duh..."DUMB"?!
Hmm...those were the times. (Really, am only 27 ;)