New member

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Dear Pathapati

 

<<i am a new member please guide me. >>

 

Welcome to this list and of course we all are going to make sure of giving a

good guidance with our questions and answers.

 

However, your posting has brought some memories to my mind worth of mentioning.

 

Many years ago (i do not know if those habits are still going on), in my country

of birth, they had some peculiar habits.

 

Any newcomer or member to the high school, Pre-university school or University,

had to go throw the ritual of shaving his head. (Ladies were spared, perhaps

because of being afraid of them or because of respect).

 

Members of the 2nd and upper years, were chasing the newcomers to cut off chunks

of their hair. The newcomers had to shave their hair after that treatment and

in my school of architecture at the university, they were called "dogs" and any

newcomer with a shaved head had to be "submissive" to the "big boys". It was a

psychological trip of "I am superior to you".

 

In some schools the treatment was more extreme. They used to throw some of the

newcomers to the swimming pool and did not allowed them to reach the shore for

a while. Some accidents were reported in the local press when some members

used to die.

 

Another habit was to put tar and feathers on the newcomers. In architecture,

once a year at the beginning of the term, most of the school members used to

walk some 4 miles into the city, accompanied with music and dressing fancy

dresses.

 

In my own experience, i was spared somehow in the high school. In

Pre-university, i did allowed them to cut my hair, to have the feeling of

belonging to "the boys club", and in the University, perhaps because i was

coming from a Port Town (known for their rough and rebellious culture), nobody

touched me.

 

I can understand that all those people were conditioned by the system, and that

they were just following a psychological immature behaviour. I believe that

everybody should be free to accept any chosen path and that beliefs should not

be imposed on others.

So, i promise you that because you are a new member, nobody in this list will

shave your head or put tar and feathers on your body. Although from time to

time you may read some rough postings, please allow for the expression of the

low modes of nature or psychological conditionments.

Best wishes

Natabara Das