I confess, You confess: College confessions

College is a tough time for most of the students. Spending four years in an entirely different atmosphere, making few friends and a lot of enemies. The life of a college student is basically a body of lies. We have almost any excuse and lie to get out of any situation.
For e.g.:
Q: Assignment not completed?
A: Got busy in exam preparation
Q: Not going to college today?
A: Not feeling well.
Q: Confronting someone you've been bad mouthing behind their back?
A: It wasn't me buddy! I never said that about you, it was him! did it!

Get my point?
So a time comes in life, near graduation perhaps, that you realize that no matter how bad this hell hole was and how you loathed every living soul here, you feel bad that you'll never see all these faces again in your life. Somewhere in your subconscious you feel a little guilty for lying to them, or keeping them in the dark for some reason, or for how much you despised them. So you want to let it all out, confess your sins and clean your conscience, so that it may help you feel better and hoping that Karma would be a little gentle on you.

This is the basic funda of confessions, alright?

Now everyone uses Facebook, right? So everyone must've noticed the growing trend of college-wise confession pages, allowing the students to confess anonymously. Facebook pages have been popping up, although none of them affiliated with any university, giving students a chance to anonymously type in any confession or grievance with their school. All the comments are posted through forms of Google docs to keep them anonymous. Most of the confessions are in a lighter vein, ranging from pranks and jokes, passionate expression of love to funny comments about teachers, or choosing the best professor. Some posts, though, are serious (declaration of sexuality, stereotyping by peers, exams frustration, stalking etc.) while others are general comments sharing good or bitter experiences of school, college or hostel life. "It's a good time-pass to read the posts on confessions pages, especially during holidays," said a class 8 student of Don Bosco Academy currently enjoying his session breaks.

Pretty noble deed, right? Wrong! Not everyone comes clean and there are few who take to cuss words or hurl abuses naming others, albeit being anonymous themselves. For Indian Institute of Technology-Madras students, what began as a fun medium to vent amidst a stressful exam season, has acquired a life of its own, attracting quite a bit of scrutiny even outside the institution. IIT Madras Confessions, a Facebook page is the in thing just now, with over 500 ‘confessions’ made by students on various experiences they have had on campus. From pranks played on professors and experiences of staying away from home to a range of comments, some of them unpleasant, on women students, the page is a melting pot of posts.

Anonymity can be a dangerous thing. Since no one, not even the page administrator knows who the confessor is, the person can literally post anything. Though so far, the administrators of such pages are doing a good job in filtering & moderating the posts, but that doesn't fare too well to.

Take my college for example, UCER confessions & complaints, which the admin has decided to shut down after the type of feedback the page is getting, and I applaud the admin for that. Good work buddy, I'm proud of you.

If you happen to see the posts on this UCER confessions page, you'll see only one topic, LOVE, and not the good kind. The creepy, stalker kind of love.

Here are a few examples:

"mamm i luved u the day i saw u when u were in da canteen which is now the seminar room ..mam i always admired u in ma dreams i always wanted to talk 2 u but couldn't gain that courage but ur eyes are jst killing mam i wish i could have proposed u .... mam i luv u ..." This one was for a senior by a junior.

"jab pahli baar dekha to kuch vaisi si lagi bt sahi si lagi, lagne me kami thi to tere chote hair, tu bandi achi hai, simple sweet cute bt kabi-2 style jada marti hai, aur jab se hair bade kya ho gaye aur hi mast lagti hai.. pata ni kya jaldi thi load (comitted) lene ki.. bt ab bi tere me ek kami hai, use tuje improve karni hai...." A guy's confession for his female batchmate.

And the creme-de-la-creepy,  "love you all girls ME branch(3rd year).( special cute girl )" A junior's message to his female seniors.

Now you get the idea. I don't know about you guys, but these kind of confessions, are sick, and they make me sick! I mean come on! If you love that person to such an extent, why do you post it here, that too anonymously? Just go and tell it to the aforementioned person so that they realize how lucky they are!

These aren't called confessions, these are just hopeless aspirations of a forever alone.

You wanna see what a confession looks like? Alright, here's my confession: In the 6th semester of my college, we had this subject, Software engineering. And for that subject's practical exam, we had to prepare a small project report on a topic of our choice. Now I and my roomies were inhumanly lazy. We'd skip our morning classes even if we were 5 minutes late. So when the day of the practical exam came, we were unprepared. The project report still needed certain modifications and we had to take its printout. And to add a cherry to the cake, we woke up at 11 AM whereas the practical had already started at 10 AM. Hurriedly we made the changes and ran off to get its print out. On the way back, I bought a Band-Aid & a bandage. I applied the Band-Aid on my forehead, took a cotton swab and slightly dipped it in ink and wrapped it in the bandage on my left forearm. By the time we reached the lab it was almost 2 PM. The teacher was infuriated, we could tell by the look on her face. Then I told the panel that I had a minor accident in the morning and my roomies took me to the hospital, that's why we were running late. She bought that story, and to top it all off, she gave me 98% marks on the report. Now I feel guilty and I'm really sorry for lying to my teacher. I hope she reads this and forgives me.

Now it may not be an excellent confession, but it basically defines what a confession should be like. I was really pleased to see the confessions on the page of IIITD, where my cousin is a student. It was a perfect mix of serious, lovey-dovey and fun confessions. On the other hand, the confession page of my cousin sister's school, which happens to be an all-girls school, was plain daily soap material. Every post containing all possible combinations of the words 'bitch', 'slut', 'lesbian' and 'sweet'.

Now its all a phase, its all the same with the current scenario of our generation, we move on from one thing to another very quickly, like how we all moved on from Gangnam style to Harlem shake. Soon these confession pages will also come to an end, but until that time, they should fulfill their true purpose, i.e. taking the load off your conscience and providing good entertainment to everyone.

I want those kind of confessions that leave me awed, moving me emotionally as well as entertaining me. An unknown girl telling me that she wants to father my child, I don’t want that. Yes sir, it has happened to me, and I’m not proud.

Here’s to better confessions, less creepiness and total entertainment, signing off until next fortnight.