I’m a very tired girl these days…but today’s the last official day as a freshie, a sure sign that the tiredness is soon going to end. Never again would the sophomores, juniors and seniors, and graduates call out ‘HEY FWESHIEEE!!’ in that contemptuous but amused manner. In September, we would be the ones who laugh at the poor confused freshmen as they try to make head or tail of just the academic block, which is in a hexagon shape, and where all doors and walls and pillars and auditoriums look exactly the same.
I remember I had a map that they handed out in the orientation, but even that didn’t help me, because I first had to figure out where the main entrance was in order to make some sense of it…but the main entrance looked just like the other three entrances…soo..??? Kya karti?
Oh, I got lost so many times in these first two weeks—even though the LUMS campus is not a patch on the
Punjab
University campus, and certainly nothing compared to universities abroad…but still, I was used to a renovated old house and its gardens as a school for twelve years.
Well, it’s not as if I’m getting out of here, but the freshie year was a real test of one’s metal, and I can just say I’m glad I’m out of it. I’m sure I’m ready for the army now…because now I know that while there is a minimal amount of ragging at the beginning of the year, there are numerous funny things that our beloved old seniors get up to. One is the Daku Day, when they all dress up in black, draw huge black moles on their faces (girls and boys alike), and take dandas, or toy guns and go about harassing students, instructors and librarians, robbing them of money, cell phone, ID cards (college and national). Of course, everything but the money is returned to the owners (for a small fee). Losers…
After that, it’s a lot of fun at the end of the spring quarter. There’s the Bhekari Day…the oh-so-mature seniors go around wearing ragged clothes and carrying placards which say ‘Meray chotay chotay man baap hain’…there was also this guy who went about screaming with the sign ‘Main bol nahin sakta’. What weirdoes…they had us all in stitches for a whole week with days like these…except for Daku Day, of course. Let’s see…Paindoo Day, “yo” Day…it was a real pity that ‘cross-dress Day’ got cancelled…no wait, on the other hand, I think that was a relief.
