Returning from dinner, I was greeted by one of my dorm fellows (they're all Indian, at least so far), who informed me that there was a birthday celebration going to take place. This is a major event here at IIMA, which provides especially the first year students, who study extremely hard, to blow off some steam. Now, as you might remember, alcohol is banned in the entire state of Gujarat, meaning some other kind of let-go instrument is desperately needed. This is violence.
Two floors up the birthday boy was suspended from the hands of his friends, who were holding on to his arms and legs, so that he was lying horizontally in the air. All the others then beat him up with the help of their flip-flops. Judging by the sound these made when hitting his bottom, I can tell it was in no way painless. Somewhere in the middle he was also carried out into the bathroom, though because of the rather poor visibility at the moment I can offer no eyewitness account to what actually happened in there. I only saw that he was carried from the shower to the urinals to the toilet booths, all under what sounded as heavy protest.
Four girls had been invited (boys and girls live in separate dorms), whose job it was to cut a very tiny cake. They then shared each piece with the b-day kid and for every piece they would rub and throw cream in his face. In accordance with the tradition, he then gave a sentimental speech in front of everybody. After all this came a bigger cake we could all share (eating, not throwing).
I asked around, but no one was able to tell me where this tradition comes from. It's been there forever, even though "they are more violent in some other dorms". All the same, I was very careful to tell everybody I met that my birthday is in January, when I've already left.
The pictures show parts of the IIMA campus.
No comments:
Post a Comment