When Venetians graduate

I don’t understand it myself but this is how it goes.

When Venetians graduate – they make a fool of themselves. A fabulous dirty fool.

Campo Santa Margarita is the students’ hangout. Most of Venice closes at 8 but this is where one can find most places open till much later. When one goes to Campo in the day time in the months or March-April – expect a strange sight. You might see a boy dressed in a ballerina and a cowboy hat singing a song, or a girl in her inners with an octopus on her head (real octopus, seriously).

Who did this to them? Mostly, they do it to themselves. With a little help from their dear friends, of course.

When Venetians graduate, they throw a party at the Campo and everyone is welcome. And then friends do silly things. Sometimes throw food and miscellaneous items on them. Encourage them to wear silly outfits – it’s all planned – don’t be surprised if one of students removes a baton, harmonica or an embarrassing piece of underwear from his bag. This kind of embarrassment and humiliation is expected and justified 🙂

Then, as per ritual, the student begins his story. From day one, when he went to University what did he do, whom did he meet etc. etc. Now, to remember every detail is impossible and everytime he makes a mistake, the crowd of dear friends shout ‘Bevi, bevi!” which means “Drink, drink!” And the student drinks a glass of alcohol.

Then he starts again, makes a mistake again and he drinks again and then he starts again, makes a mistake again and he drinks again. Now he is too drunk to be coherent anyway and makes too many mistakes and the ritual goes on.

All of this happens in the Campo. These events generally have a lot of audience. But they are so common, its only tourists who are generally watching.

You watch a while and you think – what if university life were like this in Bombay. What if?