Racism

Sep 2013: An American girl was crowned miss America. The entire world was covered with controversies - at-least USA and India were. The reason? She is a girl of Indian origin. Where some US citizens are criticizing this move, lot of Indians are responding back. News channels and news papers are full of this coverage. Indian media and Indians are blaming US citizens being racists. After all she is USA citizen and crowning her miss America is absolutely justified. People in my friend circle are also complaining and mocking about people of other country on their behavior. This gave me little unrest. How we, the Indians, are so mean and have double standards. We ourselves are most racist race in the world I believe. We ourselves are divided to the last level. A Sindhi cannot marry a Gujrati, a Marathi cannot marry a Bihari. Or to make it worse - there are divisions within state - based on cast, based on sub casts, based on God we follow etc. I remember a Telgu girl who wanted to marry a Telgu guy of her own cast. She was not allowed by her parents just because her parents were supporter of Telangana and the guy was from 'pure' AP. Is it not racism? Are we not divided by states, languages, religion, casts, place of origin etc.?

Are we not those who talk to each other using words like "south Indian, north Indian, Bengali, Madrasi, Punjabi" etc.? Do we not address any south Indian as "Madrasi", any North-East Indian as "Chinks" or anyone from UP and Bihar as "Bhaiya"? Where whites do racism against blacks/Asians/outsiders, we are racists among ourselves. Doesn't it sound more weird?

Though I am not supporter of Congress or Gandhi family or per say any political person/family/party but were those not us who created a hell when Congress party wanted Sonia Gandhi to be Indian PM? Are we ready to accept her as PM if she is eligible as per Indian law? Even Fiji had made PM a person who was Indian origin during the same time when Congress nominated her as PM candidate. We didn't utter a word then.

I have been to USA, Australia and New Zealand. I have seen people there wishing "Good Morning" to strangers (even Indians) when they see them on jogging track. Indians on the contrary wish all others except Indians. Are we scared of ourselves or is it kind of racism? We are treating ourselves as superior race and fellow Indians as "bloody Indians". I would like to quote a doha which saint Kabir had written:

Bura jo dekhan main chala, Bura na milya koi
Jab man khoja aapna, mujh se bura na koi

Which means - When I went in search of evil, I could not find it. When I introspected, I found that there no evil bigger then self.

There are people with different ideology in each part of the world. This does not give us right to finger point them. We should introspect ourselves. It is we who are racists. Let us first come out of the mental block and them complain about others.

I am not supporter of racism or per say election/selection of a person for any particular title based on a race/community/cast etc. I am also a human who is not perfect. I will also raise my eyebrows if I got to know that someone close to me was impacted by such behavior. But then I want to introspect and want to eliminate the racism in self which may hurt someone more than others hurt us.

Road Rash

// Not my creation. Published from someone's collection

I never liked riding a bike. It always made me too tired – the traffic, the noise, the dust and the pain of driving were major factors behind it. Hence, I was always reluctant to learn driving a car. Until the family pressure almost choked me, I did not buy one either.

To my surprise, I have actually liked driving a four-wheeler and have taken driving like boredom to a corporate job. Even though initial days were quite edgy – banged my car on its first morning, jammed traffic for almost half an hour, took the car to service center for repair almost regularly during first six months but, thanks to almighty, it all has come to a steady state. Not that I do not get any hiccups now but I am more confident driving.

I used to believe that traffic is equally bad anywhere you go to in India but my last trip to Ahmedabad broke this belief. I am yet to see a city worse than Ahmedabad when it comes to this regard. In fact, I found it so scary that I have dropped my average speed of driving by a couple of notches after my last visit. However, other cities I have seen are not far behind Ahmedabad.

While CEAT, in an attempt to sell its products, claims that road is full of idiots, I would like to stop at – road is full of drivers. Drivers are of different kinds. Here are a few of them to have caught my eyes. Oh yes, before I start giving my side of the story, I would like to state the standard disclaimer – please try finding some sense in this attempt at humor and sarcasm. Any sentiments hurt are deeply regretted.

Women Car Drivers – At the risk of being termed a male chauvinist, I would like to say that women like seeking questions more than the answers. They like that quizzical look on your face. The scariest question, “Darling, am I looking fat” is the biggest example of my theory. No man can answer this question correctly. The fear of eating bitter gourd in lunch, dinner and the lunch next day stops them from telling the truth. Hence, with an extreme quizzical look on their faces, men try manufacturing the answer, which might avoid them from the wrath of bitter gourd.

This phenomenon of continuously asking questions is reflected in women’s driving too. Someone said that in order to improve, one must keep questioning himself/herself. Women take this advice very seriously.

“I’ve given the indicator to turn right, should I turn right? However, there is lot of space on the left side, should I turn left? What about the road ahead that is full of empty space? Shouldn’t I be driving straight?” is what women often think while driving. If you are driving behind such a car, I would like to wish you best of luck. Luck is what saves me on such occasions.

Women jump as high as cloud nine if they come across a situation, which gives them options. Because it again gives them a question to ask – which one should I choose.

Have you ever seen a woman in front of an empty parking lot? Well, I have seen such. With five vacant parking lots in front of her, it took her full two minutes to decide where she should park her car. At the end of those two minutes, she decided to bunk those five slots and parked it somewhere else.

Women do not like anyone passing any comments about their driving skills. They just hate it. Once I told a female friend of mine who was driving, when she turned left without giving indicator and did not change the gear when it was absolutely necessary, “You are an uncultured driver”

“All you men are same. You cannot digest the fact that a woman can drive and drive so well”. In other words, she wanted to term me a male chauvinist. She may have wanted to add one more word to the term “male chauvinist” but I would avoid writing it here.

Actually, we are male chauvinist. No matter how much we deny, we all are – especially when it comes to driving.

Street Hawks – Next set of drivers are of a different gender with two wheels lesser than the first set. I am not sure if they should be called drivers or riders. For the sake of my poor intellect, let us call them drivers.

Street hawks believe that the city they live in is Gotham and they are all Batmen. They also believe that police is chasing Batman, them, and Batman is running away on his super fancy nitro-boost attached bike. They just drive, or ride, or give jitters to everyone else who happens to be on the road. For them traffic does not exist, forget about the traffic rules. They are often in state of Nirvana where the surrounding world does not exist.

As a kid is always on a lookout for chocolates, Street Hawks are always hunting for a gap. Wherever they find it, they take a turn – damn the indicators, damn the side mirror, damn the others. They often stare at others for not leaving sufficient gap for them. They do not believe in the concept that not every gap can be sufficient to drive and even if there is a sufficient gap available, it is not necessary that one must drive through it.

Quite often Street Hawks do wear helmets. Nevertheless, the purpose of helmets is not to protect their head, which does need a fixing, but to hold the mobile phone so that they could let the world know about their bravery. Quite often Street Hawks, like their own Robin, have a pillion rider sitting with them whose sole job is to make funny faces, give threatening scare and hurl abuses at others.

If you ever come across a Street Hawk on the road, please stop immediately and let them pass. Remember, he is the Batman trying to save Gotham. Problem is that you may not be able to move at all because Gotham is full of Batmen. Irony is that even with so many Batmen, Gotham keeps burning.

Talibani Titali (TT) – A gentle reminder – pun is intended everywhere. First, let me dedicate a song to this group -

panchhi banu udati phirun mast gagan men
aaj main aazaad hun duniya ke chaman men        

Next kind is what I fondly call Talibani Titali (TT). This kind is of a different gender than Street Hawks but they are quite like Cat Women. These are Cheekas (Chics) driving their Scooty’s/Activas/Other in the similar way as Street Hawks do and grinning at the world with the saying – Why should boys have all the fun?

For some strange reasons, this group like to dress up as is they are living in Taliban’s regime. This group has their entire body covered in different form of clothing. If women in Taliban regime are allowed to show, nothing but their eyes to the world outside, this group covers even them – by wearing shades, which almost covers their entire face. The face is anyhow covered with different layering of a floral scarf. With gloves covering hands until elbow, only body part one can see of Cheekas in this group is, assuming they are wearing sleeveless Kurtas, are the biceps.

I hope you get the logic behind Taliban in TT’s name.

They drive like butterflies – free of fear and pressure of being the cynosure. When they drive straight, they will always give a feeling that they are about to take a turn. When they take a right turn, they would immediately turn left and drive straight. When they take a left turn, they may take a left turn or drive straight or take a right turn or stop immediately, stare at you, push their vehicle with the help of their legs for a few meters, restart it and drive again. See, they are quite like butterflies. As a butterfly spreads its wings while flying, one can see this group often spreading their legs while driving – maybe they feel like butterflies too.
Alas, Gotham has so many Batmen and Cat Women yet it keeps burning.

The Cabbies – If traffic has pushed you to extreme left of the road and you find yourself so close to the shops at the left that you might fear hitting them, there will always be a car driving through between you and the shops at the left. If you try noting down the number of that car, ten out of nine times you would find the number written in yellow background. If it is not, you can be rest assured that the number is written incorrectly.

Cabbies have god-gifted ability to drive through the smallest of gap – sometimes even Street Hawks cannot do so. They have this unimaginable ability to drive through the worst of traffic jams. They are all India’s answer to Michael Schumacher. It is a different matter than the answer does not reach him. I am sure of ever Schumacher happens to drive on Indian roads; he would surrender all his awards immediately, shoot himself in shame and would like to be reincarnated as an Indian cabbie so that he could become a better driver in his next birth.
Cabbies have such talent.
Do you know the kind of Cabbie I like most? The one has written at the back of his car – “In case of rash driving, please complain at XXXX”. I have never tried calling at any such number but would like to know if anyone has. Reason behind me not calling at such number is the fear – what if that is driver’s number. What if driver promises to address the issue, asks me my position, comes back and drives over me. I would rather take my frustration out by honking.

Common-Man – This category covers most of us if not all of us. People from both genders, or maybe all three, belong to this group but I would keep referring to every member as “he” – call it choosing this option for the ease of writing or call me a male chauvinist.

A common-man can the most dangerous driver. Because when he is driving, his mind is somewhere else. He is thinking about different things - the tiff he had with his partner, how crappy his boss is, soaring prices, war in Syria, how ruling party is looting his beloved country; his opposition party is allowing that loot, how it is all chaos at the roads, how he has to manage driving on almost non-existent roads, how he can do nothing but honk to take his frustration out. He also thinks how not just his vehicle but the entire country should be driven by him – the common-man. Alas, he cannot do anything but pray and try to drive safe.

Common-man is like the Cashier Jack Nicholson talks about in movie Anger Management. Common-man is just building up that anger in his silence and I am sure, one day he will get up and shoot everyone, take the steering/handle in his own hands and drive this country.

I am sure that day is not far away or at least I hope that day is not far away.
Until that arrives, I would like to wish all of you a very happy and safe drive.

My visit to MMEC

To all my friends of MMEC, Mullana.

I wanted to share my experience while I visited the college few days back. I heard from others that college is changed a lot, so sharing my own experience with you.

When I reached Mullana then I could see some guys waiting on the bridge asking for lift despite auto-rickshaws and cycle-rickshaws being available. I looked at them and slowed down my car at the turn. However, to their disappointment, I smiled at them and drove ahead. I was enjoying the natural beauty while driving. The scene was so refreshing. Some farmers were ploughing while some were taking care of their lush green fields. After driving some 2.5 KM, I reached to the entrance of the college. There I could see a tea stall before entrance. It was a kind of hut with some sitting space. When I peeped into the tea stall, there were many boys and girls who were getting late for their lecture but still were in no rush to finish off their tea. However, I could not see Sachin Suri, Vikram Yadav(s), Juneja, Bhatia, Prateek or Sucheta there. I proceeded further.


I entered the college campus. There was a lawn in the front. Students were coming out of the building after their sessional exam and gathering in that lawn. They were making different faces while discussing their question paper - sometimes disappointment and sometimes as if something big has been achieved. Any new student coming out of the building was joining the gang. I waited there for 5 min and looked closely at them but I could not locate Shobhna, Anuradha or Baweja among those students.

I entered the building. Straight ahead were those computer labs where we all learnt computer and shaped our future. I went to the lab, I did not enter the lab but peeped into the lab by sticking my nose on a glass wall. My hands were curved forming 2 semi-circles and were placed on my face avoiding reflection of glass so that I could have a better inside view. Some students were quite glued to their monitors and a few were sitting in the lab as if they were there without their schedule. I tried my best to search Gambhir, Sapna, Jyoti or Rajiv Gupta but none of these faces were there.

I proceeded towards admin office. Pratap was sitting there talking to students. As usual he was soft in in voice but students were still getting irritated. They had very little hope of getting answer of their queries.

I started walking back and reached to the big corridor just between labs and classrooms. A bunch of students we discussing something with a lecturer. I went close to them. They did not pay any attention to me as if I was invisible. They were discussing about some trip. The lecturer was helping them arranging it. But neither the lecturer was among Katyar and Manpreet sir nor the students were among Prashar, Aditya or Jt.

I went near class rooms. I could see a bunch of jovial folks pulling each other's leg. There was a guy having calm face. He was not participating in leg pulling yet enjoying each moment. But neither the gang involved Chhokar, Sandy, Jagtej and Ranjan, nor the calm faced person was PD. No one was pulling plaits of girls either.

Then I opened the back door of a classroom slightly. A lecturer was taking lecture. Some students were attentive but not like Chautani, Kinra, Nandu (Mukesh), Geeta or Verma brothers (Vishal and Manoj). Some students were playing pranks but none of those faces resembled Harjai, Avinash, Mamta or Reena.

There were some posters stuck outside the walls of classrooms. These posters were about some events being conducted. I stood over there and read 1 of the poster. The event description was given in short. The names of organizers were mentioned at the bottom. I read the names. My brain was picking up the alphabets randomly trying to form some desirable names but none of the names sounded like Mohit, Swapan or Manisha.

Then I headed towards workshops. Students were involved in multiple jobs. They were dressed up in khakhi uniform. Sweat was dripping from their faces yet their eyes were stuck on their jobs and they were moving their hands slowly and carefully. In between they were asking each other to verify their work. Though none of them was skilled in his/her job but still they were giving expert advise to others very confidently. Pooja Saini didn't faint; Chandesh and Satwant were attentive towards their jobs, Megha and Nidhi Monga were not taking help from boys and instructor was happy with the jobs being performed.

I heard some noise of students from outside. The result of previous semester was out and it was displayed on the wall outside workshops. I decided to go there and read the notice board. There was a flock in front of the notice board. Some guys were returning happy, few were glum. Girls were not trying to enter the crowd. I noticed a well-built fat boy standing in front of the result-sheet. He was shouting the results to his friends and those girls standing aside while dodging the push from other students. My eyes twinkled. I could not resist myself and started making my way towards that boy by pushing other with my elbow. After good 10 min of struggle, finally I was there. I tapped at the shoulder of that boy with excitement. When the boy turned towards me, his face didn't resemble Daddu. I moved a step ahead and scanned the result sheet twice right from top to bottom while struggling the push from others. To my disappointment Nidhi, Preeti or Tanwar were not listed among toppers.

After such a long walk inside the college building, I went to canteen to sit for a while and to have some refreshments. The canteen was full of students. There was a separate section in the canteen for college staff. I bought badam milk and tried to find a chair.

While doing this, I was looking at each table and students sitting around it. I could not find any familiar face even after long search - not even Vivek Suri, Bakshi, Abhishek, Suneet or Manu. I saw some students sitting around 1 table but they were not eating anything. They were studying from a common book. When I looked carefully then it was GRE book but the students were not Dandona or Mudita.
I found a vacant chair and eased myself over it. I started chit-chat with students casually while drinking my badam milk. They told me that Mullana is now a deemed university. I asked them if they were aware of affiliation of the college to GJU which was rolled back to KUK after a historic strike. They were not aware of any such incident, any struggle, any sacrifices, any media coverage or exemplary student-teacher collaboration.

When I came out of canteen, there was a play ground. Some matches were in progress. I went near the volleyball court and started watching the match. But the bodies which were jumping and falling to hit the ball didn't belong to Narshi, Raju or Vivek; the scorer was not Dahiya. The girl winning the sprint was not Gunjan either.

I moved towards parking as I wanted to leave now. I started my car and moved outside the campus swiftly. As soon as I crossed the grand entrance/exit gate, I could see a small hut like book shop towards my right. I was still in my own world when a sudden loud voice reached to my ears. Someone was shouting POPU!! POPU!! I looked around but there was no Hans; there was no one except me. I believe that those voices were from my past; the voices associated with all of us; the voices were still chasing me.

Others were probably right. The college was changed. Buildings, classrooms, playground, hostel, canteen, office etc. were all same however, the college was changed. Despite being so many students around, the college was lifeless. I kept thinking. Within few moments, I was clear ... I was clear on my belonging to this college. I realized that it was not "my college" but "our college". There was no sense of looking at college from just 1 pair of eyes. It was my college only when my classmates were there. Without them, it was a dead building standing. I am sure that if all or even few of us gather at any place in the world, we would create the college environment there. While thinking this my eyes became little moist. I controlled myself and drove away.


Disclaimers:
1. The incidents mentioned above are purely imaginary. If it resembles to some incident then it is purely incidental
2. The pun mentioned in the incident is intended