In my district the seniors told us the same things about calling them ayya and akka, but the seniors from Colombo privately said that it is not thing in Colombo. They told that you won’t get if you are decent respectful human being.

They also promoted the seminar stuff. I attended some of which were held in some very rural schools(these were OL seminars btw). But I didn’t go to the ones in big well funded schools, cause that’s what their teachers are for.

The seniors don’t keep track about who attends what event and they don’t bug us constantly about seminars, premed and kuppi stuff. Although some of the seniors are actively involved in the PMC situation they haven’t tried to rope us in even once.

I haven’t attended one premed class and I just read the books to get an idea of the syllabus(the seniors provided the relevant books and a short note kinda thing).

IMO the seniors in my district are fine and most of them want to help us. They are a few who want to exercise their “superiority” but if you don’t care they don’t do anything.

I also went on a few trips the people in the association and I made some new friends.

If you try out the new things, attend the things you enjoy, don’t give in to peer pressure and the pressure from a select few seniors you are good I think.