Venky alumnus Raghu Ram: I was allergic to politics during my DU days

Long before Raghu Ram and Rajiv Laxman became popular on 'Roadies', they were already treated as celebrities. The twins were students of Sri Venkateswara College in 1994 and the first memory that they have of college is how people were fascinated with them. "We were used to getting our photos clicked or autographs taken because that has been the case since we were growing up.In college, we had to do nothing to impress anyone. Me and Rajiv, we would just turn up on stage with each other and girls would be like, 'Oh my god!' (laughs)."
Rajiv visited his college at South Campus recently and was happy to meet the students. Before meeting the students, he also met P Hemalatha Reddy, the principal of the college. "You know how it feels when you are about to enter the principal’s room. I don't remember who was the principal back then, but ma’am is really nice," he said. Raghu also met some of the students who came to click selfies with him, "Hey, don't study too much, relax and enjoy your college life," he adviced them. "You know, these guys must have scored more than 90%, that is how they got admission here," he added.

'We dropped out of college because Rajiv tried to hurt himself'
Raghu was studying English (Hons) at the college and Rajiv was a student of Economics at Venky. "We would have graduated in 1995 but we dropped out. I have had issues with the education system and at that time, my thoughts weren't so well formed. I was a kid back then but I knew that there was something majorly wrong because Rajiv had failed and he had tried to hurt himself and that really shook our family. The problem is that the cut-offs are more than 85% always, is there anything more stupid than that? Our education system is designed to identify only the top 5% of students and give them further education. The rest 95% are branded as failures. This is like a preparation for life and you are already branding the kids as failures, and that is why the kids are killing themselves. It is not only teachers who are putting the pressure, but parents too. They think that their status symbol is their child doing engineering. My heart used to sink when I was made to go through all of this. My strength is not mugging up things, and I was made to feel like a failure," he said.

'I was allergic to politics in college'
Raghu may have campaigned for the Aam Aadmi Party in various states but he was not at all interested in politics when he in college. "I was allergic to any kind of politics, I actually did not care. I was 18-19, I was dancing with my bros and that was the best thing. If you take exams and classes out of the system, then college would be a great place. If anyone in our group liked a girl, we would go up to the girl and ask her, 'Hey, do you want to try for choreo? (They were part of the choreography society). And they would get really excited. It doesn't matter if these girls performed or not but there was a lot of time spent with them," he said.
Raghu Ram with students at Venky (BCCL/ Ranjit Kumar)
'This is not a talent hunt, it is a connection hunt'
Raghu's new show, India's Best Judwaah, is about testing the connect between twins in real life. He said, "Most of the movies that have been made on twins were never made by twins. It is someone else's perspective on us. The show is not a talent hunt, it is a connection hunt. Rajiv and I have been extremely connected. I know about the bond that the twins have which is different from that of siblings or best friends. In no other relationship is there such an unquestioning acceptance of each other. Their dependence on each other is extreme - together, they are more than double, and alone, they are less than a regular because they are not used to being regular."
'We as human beings cannot accept the opinion of others'
Raghu is known for his tough judge act on Roadies, but he said that the show was all about standing up against any kind of bullying. "I was bullied as a kid and that explains the way I was on Roadies. That was not revenge - when I recognize the traits of a bully, I react to it and I don't sit back. Even when it was about elections, I supported the smallest party against the big boys. There was no chance of winning, but for me, it was standing up against a bully and that is what Roadies was. In this era of technology, we as human beings are not ready to accept others' opinions. You want to start a fight, put your opinion on the Internet and just sit back. That's it. 'Oh, how come I did not see you have an opinion on this or that?', 'Tu chup reh, tu ganja hai', these things happen most of the time. I do believe in the goodness of people, but I think that is rare now. People term you as anti-national when you protest against mob lynchings - I don't know what to say to that. That is why I have no faith left in human beings," he concluded.