Student gang wars

If you thought the intense school rivalry shown in “Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar” was a bit too far-fetched, it’s time you had a reality check. Inter-school rivalries are everyday incidents in the itinerary of Delhi schools.
Nikhil Malik, the guitarist of Delhi-based alternative rock band Cyanide, who is a graduate of Modern School, Barakhamba Road says that inter-school rivalries are the thing that school life’s made of.“Modern School used to be rivals of Delhi Public School, RK Puram - the MSBK vs DPS RKP fights were epic. And yes, we had a rivalry with St Columbus too. There used to be huge and gory fights between us. Kabhi ghar mein koi pahunch jaata tha, kabhi school mein ladai, with hockey sticks etc. It used to be warfare. Students used to scale fences and get into rival schools and fight.” But why do school boys have to fight? “Ego. It’s a thing to boast about, you know, that your school’s the best, that you have the best ‘back’. It’s a power struggle, really... everyone is a big daddy’s son. Modern kids call themselves the Blue Blooded Modernites. And the fights used to be ego clashes. If you go onto any popular social networking site, you’ll see that many schools have made such pages,” Nikhil adds.
In Delhi, where daddys and mommys play with money and power, so do the kids. Says Raghav Maini who was a student of Bal Bharti School, Pusa Road, “Bal Bharti and Springdales Pusa used to be rivals, especially on the basketball court. There used to be zonals or inter-school matches that used to happen, and someone used to push someone, and later take the fight ‘outside’. Striving to be the best in sports is quite common. During these games, tempers used to run high and fights would occur. But it was never anything major. These were fights to boost the ego that’s all. The one who used to lose would be tagged ‘loser’. That’s all there was to it. It was stupid really.”
“Zonal matches used to be a big reason for these inter-school gang fights between Ramjas School, Manav Sthali and Bal Bharti School. The fights used to start on court, you know how boys are, someone used to shove someone else, or shout mean and nasty things and generally behave in an aggressive manner. And these fights used to be taken outside school. There’s this pool and snooker centre in Rajinder Nagar - which used to be a favourite hangout amongst students of schools in the area - a lot of fights used to break out there,” says Rishabh Talreja, who graduated from Bal Bharti School.
Ishan Jindal, who studied in both Ryan International and Rukmani Devi Public School, is of the opinion that girls were also one of the major reasons for these so-called wars. “Girls, egos, which school’s better - these were the biggest reasons behind these fights. Rukmani Devi and Maharaja Agrasen used to be rivals and there were full-fledged brawls between the students there. The schools that are located in and around Pitampura also have a lot of grisly gang wars.”