Caste Discrimination

My obedient and ever punctual cell rang the alarm bell at 5:00AM while I wished it wasn't morning yet. I was so reluctant to wake up after being active in dreams throughout the sleep. There were so many of them meaningless and trivial. I saw I was preparing for a hair cut now that is a bad omen. But I can guess how it got into my dream did. Actually I had read an interesting blog on hair cut yesterday, I could visualize what could have happened to the author during the hair cut and so it sneaked into my sub conscious and I had it in my dream. Then I saw monkeys. I had visited to some ancient palace and in the orchard so many mischievous monkeys were playing, some children came and they picked up monkeys by ear and put them in a carton. They showed it to the visitors and asked them if they wanted to buy. I was so amazed with the ease with which they picked the monkeys. Now if I were to tell this to my granny she would say, I should go to Hanuman temple, offer his something to appease. She would interpret it as a lucky omen. Who knows may be mummy will ask to do the same things. I snoozed off the cell for a while but when I opened my eyes it was already 5:15, I was still in no mood to go out but I was soon in the road.
When I was returning the public tap had few people waiting for their turn. Fortunately since the rain has started people do not have many problems to get water and this can be ascertained with the presence of handful people in public tap. A woman had filled her bucket and small jug supposedly for Morning Prayer. She put the bucket aside and then filled her jug. Somebody touched her and with few curses she refilled the jug after cleaning it again. No doubt she didn’t want a tailor woman to touch her water. Caste system though is an offensive act under the constitution, it is in practice and it will take a long time to be socially abolished. Caste gives people a superiority which they inherit by birth. Though they might not have been worthy enough to be superior their caste gives them reason to be proud of their being.
Though not an avid believer in caste system, the discrimination exist in our home too. My parents are always against eating things offered by low caste people, they believe even if they come their access should be restrained to few rooms. However we do not have anyone close to our family who is from lower caste. In all these years hardly five to ten people from the so called low caste have come to our home. They are tailors, janitors etc. never a guest just worker. My parents are kind people and their belief does not depict hatred, it’s just that they have lived with it and they cannot do away with it. Earlier when I was in school and college we used to have lengthy discussion on caste issues and I and Santosh always protested caste issues. I used to go to an extent where I would tell my parents if they believe in caste even after being educated, their education has raised no status and they are still illiterate. Their annoyed responses would be ok we are old people with rotten beliefs and we do not want to be like you people, our ancestors didn’t introduce these customs without reasons. I would reply they were oppressor and feared the people who worked for them, below them will rise above them and they introduced caste system. The arguments were futile as none of us could convince each other. However mummy never discriminate when it comes to offering charities, food or just a helping hand to people and I like it.

When I was in my primary school, in class 1 or 2, I had this friend called Rajan Khadgi. Khadgi means from butcher caste and even his father was a butcher. I knew caste system existed even at that young stage because I had seen the discrimination in mummy’s parents’ home. I also knew if granny knew I had a friend from a butcher caste she would ask me not to get closer with him and just restrict to formal smile. She would have never wanted me to share my lunch with him. Probably fearing all these things I never told her that my friend was Khadgi. Once I brought few friends to my home among whom Rajan was one. There was no one in my home so I took them to my granny’s home as it is just five minutes walk to reach her home. Even she was not there but the kitchen was open. I had my friends comfortably seated in whatever was available in the kitchen and made noodles (probably first time I had cooked anything) and fed them. We talked and played. Finally they left and there was my granny asking me who my friends were. She asked their name. I took name of all my friends except for that of Rajan because I knew what her reactions would be.
Life progressed in its own pace with rare skirmishes with the Caste thing. Then it came back to me in a surprising way in Trishuli. In the small mobile hotel (cannot even call it a hotel) where I used to have lunch I used to see many customers washing the plate and the glass themselves after a tea or lunch. I always took it as a surprise then when I became familiar enough I asked the owner why do these people wash glasses and plates. She said they were cobblers, tailors, janitors etc. I was shell shocked. I asked her in this age do you people believe in caste and she replied after all we got it from our ancestors, this is our culture. She added she never asked them to wash the utensils, they do it themselves. I knew this caste thing was accepted by the so called low cast people as well and they feel they are inferior. While we were talking the mother of the lady joined us, they are low caste people and we are Kshetris(the warrior caste) and how can we wash their plates. There was a full stop to the argument.

Once I was wandering alone in the outskirts of Trishuli, the rural part. The strenuous walk in the glazing sun had made me thirsty and there were no human habitats nearby. Only few buses passed the lonely road and the monotonous sound of the Trishuli was the only companion. Luckily after measuring a little height, cutting the fields I landed into a small village. I stopped at the first house I could find and asked for water. The old man who was sitting outside asked where I had come from and then to which caste did I belong. With no clue my brisk reply was ‘Brahmin’ and he smiled in helplessness. He suggested I should find some other house. I asked don’t you have water? He said he had but they were cobblers and they will get into serious trouble if I was given water. He said being a Brahmin I should not drink water at cobbler’s house. Inside two young boys and a girl were busy making ‘madal’ (a traditional musical instrument). I told him we should never believe in caste. This is wrong, we are equal to god and he never discriminates. He said if I had not talked about god he would have thought I was a Maoist. He was still reluctant but one of the boy left his work and came out with a jug of water. I drank the water as if I had been thirsty for years. As I drank the water the old man was watching me as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have seen. I thanked the boy and returned. I was really disturbed and it annoyed me for two more days.
Unless stern actions are taken against the discriminators the society will not easily shed its conservative ideologies that teach man to discriminate his likes. This is a real blot in our society, in our culture of which we are so proud of.