Chennai: At least two dozen pages are there on Facebook of bus and train routes of the usual suspects- Presidency, Pachiyappas, Nadanam arts colleges. Unlike the vitriol that has now become so commonplace in social media and which most of the times, stay in the virtual space, showboating in these Facebook pages spill onto the streets. A month ago, a Presidency student from the Arakkonam-Chennai train route uploaded a video with a gaana song playing in the background. The lyrics inevitably waxed eloquent on the ‘bravado’ of the Presidency students while poking fun at their rivals- Pachaiyappas and Nandam arts. Rival colleges come up with counter songs and the cycle goes on until one day few students end up at a hospital ward and others inside Jail, explains R Srinivasan, a former student of Presidency College.
Srinivasan or Train Seeni as he was referred was also a train route thala (route leader) and part of a Facebook group- Train route tigers. Several such pages exist for the bus routes He is part of a ‘culture’ that the city college students have notoriously passed on over the years. No other city in the country witnesses frequent clashes between its college students for a reason as flimsy as ‘their bus/train route is different than us. It might all sound harmless and can be categorized under the ‘part and parcel’ of college life if not for the violence the students inflict to their fellow students and to the public in the name of celebrations, say policemen who have been kept busy by the students’ brazen acts.
Srinivasan who travelled from Arakkonam to Chennai in the suburban train says that Nemmilichery, Korukkupet and Hindu College railway stations are where clashes between students happen frequently. “There are a few women colleges in the stretches. So, students showboat with an intention to impress the girls,” he said. What starts as a showcase of power towards other college students would soon seep within the college premises against students those who travel in a different bus/train route, says Srinivasan. “It starts with Kattai (logs) and ends in Kathi (knife),” he says adding the intention is never to kill or any such thing, Just to show who is gethu (bravado) Srinivasan acknowledges that their acts cause public nuisance and the court trials that follow the police cases are a blip on their future. He also asserts that most of these students are from low income groups and lower middle class families and have little to no means to fight their cases in courts. But, they have the ‘tradition’ to keep with. “As a route thala, sometimes, you have to negotiate with the cops on behalf of the students. You have to stand up for them. In some cases, we pool in money among everyone travelling in our route for bail money. Our route is our identity,” he says. Once graduated, being a route thala is not something these boys are proud of. Skepticism seeps in as post college life awaits them. “It is like a crown of thorns,” Srinivasan says. Another student wonders how his life would have turned out had he not earned a police case against him.
