Ragging - "The rage of age-ing people"

While most of freshies/freshers (first year students) are afraid of ragging, few know what is it? I ask a junior to give introduction about him/her, and he/she telling his/her friend later, "Aj to fans gaya/gayi yaar, Senior ne pakad liya.. Ragging li." You ask, "How many girls are there in your batch?" and his friend has to hear the abovesaid line again. Order a junior to get something from canteen, when he is already going there, and with the stricter rules against ragging coming up, you may get trapped. So, Beware!!

Before entering college, I sometimes thought, "How can one force me to do something which I don't want to do?" I never could understand a few things... How can a 2-feet, 15 kg. person traumatize you, just because he passed the same exam few years ago... Can someone force you to drink, smoke and many other things. With very less exceptions (which occur in universal laws too), Ragging is not a physical abuse. This is a mental game, which most of the juniors lose, even before playing. They succumb to the pressure build by themselves, and this fuels the fire in seniors more.. I have a lot of friends, who I think were good people (definition of good also varies brain to brain)....were into alcohol, drugs, smoking later (courtesy good seniors). If in my first year, I hate smoking, drinking.... How come so drastic change that just in my second year, I am forcing someone else to have it.... This is just a vicious circle, where I feel relieved in my second year after passing the legacy to next batch.

Freedom of thinking is a subset of Right to speech, which our constitution has granted to all Indian citizens (legal or illegal). And no two brains interpret same signal in the same way (unless it is a hot babe, and both brains are male :D). Same is the case of thoughts about ragging. What I think about ragging:

It includes all those acts which lower your self-esteem, pride. When someone force you to do something which you don't want to (And mind you, this doesn't include getting something from canteen, when you are going there and senior is paying). There is something a senior can expect being a senior: Slight respect from juniors, and this is not much. Although respect is a thing which can't be inherited, This is gained by one's work, behaviour, but certainly, even if you hate a senior, don't show it.... The law is true for everyone, not only for seniors. Infact, this leads to healthy and warm relation amongst people. Physical abuse is the worst form of Ragging. This is criminal offense punishable under law. This is good that it is almost absent now.

There are some positive points also about it, agreed upon by many people, like
1. It creates a healthy interactive enviroment.
2. It makes a person open up.
3. It gives a person chance to think independently.

And many more personal benefits are quoted.. Thinking this is, in a way, Self-Defense mechanism, which says that "Brain can't scold itself for doing something wrong for long, After sometime, it makes some fake good points about it." I tried but couldn't agree to any of these. Can you?