MUMBAI:

A source of great fun is now seen as a potential danger to the physical well-being of the students. After all, students’ version of this traditional affair—spraying deodorant and lighting the back on fire, bathing the birthday boy with garbage bin full of ants, trying to lift a student to bash him up, hitting the student with slippers or belt for an average of one hour—does sound undeniably scary.

The tradition of giving birthday bumps to friends has been banned on the IIT-B's Powai campus.Following some unreported cases of injuries caused due to the bumps—‘GPL’ in IIT-B lingo—the institute had called for a ban on the ‘custom’ and asked all students to refrain from such activities. In a notice sent to students, officials also stated that birthday bumps will be treated on par with ragging and the same norms will be applicable. The ban has therefore been imposed to avoid any injury to students.In the institute’s circular, the officials have also threatened students of stringent action, without specifying the nature of punishment. General secretaries of the hostels have been made responsible for implementation of the ban.Even before the issuance of such a notice, the authorities did not have any reported cases in hand, as the birthday boys or rather ‘victims’ refused to complain against their own friends.So far, only informal complaints have been received, and after the notice, no fresh, even informal, cases have been reported."A note against this practice was also issued by the students' affairs' office before. I just reiterated it as because of some reports that they go out of hand once in a while," said U A Yajnik, the dean. Several students said it is the first time that such a stringent ban has been imposed. It also made hostel councils responsible for such activities.While some students on the campus are all ‘for’ the ban, some are not. Some, in fact, said they continued with the practice on campus and flouted the norms. The students’ magazine, Insight, recently carried an article that presented both the sides of the practice of ‘GPL’ on campus. "People would be ready to bear the brunt of a huge mob just because it shows that they have a large following and a good social circle’, argued a pro-GPL student in the article.