[GK] KU wears festive look as freshers arrive

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MIR FAHEEM ASLAM
Srinagar, Apr 13: With the classwork for new entrants in different postgraduate courses about to begin in the Kashmir University, the campus wears a festive look these days. While freshers are seen busy in completing the admission formalities in their concerned departments, their seniors are busy in trying to corner them for introduction. “They (seniors) told me to introduce myself along with the family background,” said Zaffar, a fresher at the Political Science department. “The next day, I was cornered by all seniors and asked to sing a Kashmiri song.”

Zaffar is seconded by scores of other freshers as well. “I was asked to introduce myself in Kashmiri. And when I fumbled, the seniors asked to imitate a fisherwomen,” said Sana (name changed), a fresher from the Sociology department.

The seniors from some departments have also planned to organize special sessions for their freshers where they intend to seek a “comprehensive introduction” from the newcomers. “Once the classwork will begin, we are planning to call all our juniors to one spot and seek their introduction,” said Wahid, a final year student at the Media Education and Research Centre (MERC). “Meeting together is the only way we come to know each other.”

Pertinently, the university’s Naseem Bagh-which wears a festive look with the onset of spring-is playing a host to such events. The seniors and juniors are seen together in big groups, introducing each other amid sipping tea and soft drinks. “We don’t do any ragging here. It’s just an introduction,” a group of seniors from Law Department said. “We simply ask them (juniors) to introduce themselves completely; we don’t ask them to perform any vulgar acts.”
However, newcomers from some departments allege the seniors are “harsh” to them and “resort to ragging.”

“We were asked to measure the ground with a 25 paisa coin,” some freshers told Greater Kashmir. “We have no problem in introducing ourselves but it’s unfair when our seniors ask us to act like fisherwomen,” they added.

Though the varsity’s proctorial wing has not received any complaints of ragging so far, the officials have already geared up to anti-ragging campaign, if any. “We have already pasted some posters inside the university which carry the phone numbers of officials of the proctorial wing. If any student is harassed, we’ll initiate action against him,” an official at the Chief Proctor’s office said.