During the fag end of my just concluded trip to India, I encountered a gentleman, a senior from my Alma Mater, who passed out of REC (now NIT) Rourkela in 1983 at a marriage ceremony. Excited by meeting a senior from my college where I spent some of my best time in my formative years, I initiated a chat with him as we ate together sitting side by side. He narrated this following interesting episode from his college days.
Ragging was rampant in those days when students in the first year Boys Hostel were beaten mercilessly, forced to pee on burning coil of a heater used for cooking and asked to crawl on metallic road filled with pebbles. One fine evening the students from the hostel - 5 where the 3rd year Engineering students used to reside went to the first year students hostel, severely ragging them, resulting in some of the freshers getting serious injuries. The timeframe was year 1979-80.
The authorities acted swiftly as four teaching staffs visited Hostel - 5 during late evening hours to apprehend the culprits and punish them. Sun had already set on the red, dusty sky of Rourkela, painting the hostels dark as students were studying in dimmed light. No sooner the investigating teachers arrived at the doorsteps of Hostel - 5, than the 3rd year boarders switched off the lights and did "Maa-Behen" (accusing the teachers of having illicit relationship with their mothers and sisters) directed at the teachers. Not satisfied and not done yet, they went a step further.
One of the staffs present at the hostel that evening had a daughter who was a student in REC at that time (there were very few girls studying Engineering those days, constituting barely half a dozen in the entire Engineer stream). A few students took it to another level by using profanity laced expletives directed at the daughter of the professor at the doorsteps of the hostel. The fair complexioned teacher was red faced, fuming with anger and embarrassment as the boys went on and on with their barrage of lurid and lascivious descriptions from top to bottom of their female college-mate in front of her dad, treating her no more than just a sex object. It was simply over the top for a father to go through this ordeal in public facing hundreds, ironically by the students of a premier Engineering College of India.
The poor dad along with the rest of three staffs who accompanied him couldn't take it any longer and returned back to the campus. The teachers in unison straight went to the Principal's quarter and pressed charges against 5 guys who they could identify from their voices. The verdict among the teaching community was unanimous - the perpetrators of this sick and heinous act need to severely punished. They can't simply seat idle when the daughter of one of their colleagues was treated in public in such blatantly salacious manner.
The authorities acted swiftly. 5 students were staring at immediate rustication from college for 1 year. The verdict to that effect was reached by the authorities. But the matter didn't end there. The game just began. The fathers of 4 out of 5 of those students were rich and influential. One of them who was quite highly placed in government immediately arrived at the hostel and sat on the Superintendent's chair waiting for the later to arrive. As the Superintendent arrived the boastful fathers of one of the accused culprits refused to stand up from the chair he was occupying and started to blast left and right the Superintendent who was still standing - "How dare you accuse my son of such misdemeanor ! What proof you have that my son committed this act. It was dark. No one has seen my son doing it and there is no evidence or witness to prove. I will make you suffer if my son's little finger is touched". The poor Superintendent was standing quietly with a drooping face, taking the brunt of the verbal volley from an outsider who was rebuking the Superintendent, staring at him, sitting on his own chair. That was utter humiliation for a staff member.
The matter didn't end there. Another boy, one of the four rusticated, used his influence to summon the Principal to the residence of a very high ranking official in Bhubaneswar. As the Principal was standing with folded, clasped hands on the lawn, the Government Official told the Principal's flat on his face - "You cannot touch these 4 out of the 5 students facing rustication. What you do to the other one I don't care". (Out of the 5 of the accused culprits, only one was a commoner, a Medicine store owner's son. The other 4 were children of "Who's Who"of Odisha at that time. The verbal dressing of the Principal by the high ranking official in Bhubaneswar was corroborated by his driver who was present at the time and belonged to the same village as the person who narrated this episode to me).
Long story short, the Principal retured back to Rourkela after being sized up in the capital city of Odisha. The very next day he promptly dismissed the decision taken by the previous Disciplinary Committee who rusticated all 5 accused. He formed a new Committee consisting of his acolytes. The new, rubber stamp Committee acquitted the 4 children of big shots. The other one left, the poor son of the medicine store owner was made the fall guy and was rusticated for one year.
45 years down the road, the fall guy who lost one year due to rustication, eventually earned his degree, got a job in NTPC and retired. Lot of water has flown under the bridge of river Brahmani. The Principal at helm during this incident passed away not too long ago, hailed as a hero by many. One of the kids who was acquitted, son of an influential person from Cuttack, now lives in East Coast of America. He was recently accused of swindling money by one of his classmates. Incidentally few years ago, I was in communication with the same person. When I discovered that he was a REC pass out I asked him the standard question one Rengcolian (as a REC student used to called) asks another when they meet - "Which year have you passed from REC" ? He kind of avoided by changing the topics. Now I could connect the dots. After all, it's a small world. He probably wanted not to talk about REC days at it was a dark chapter in his life. You can't escape from truth. Sooner or later it comes out to bite you.
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