Caste Away

The morning started with Vishnupuran announcing to start a Bahujan manch to unite all Goan Bahujans under one organisation. I was wondering whether we really need one in these times. Then logged into Facebook where Nagraj is doing a promotional countdown of his much talked feature debut “Fandry”. He had shared Jason’s review of Fandry from DNA.

While browsing through the twitter timeline, I found this tweet.

So this girl from Reserved Category has an Iphone and a Macbook.Her fees is 1500 per year. 2minutes of silence for General Category students

— DedhJinxiya. (@shadowfax__) May 23, 2013

Last time I checked, Apple didn’t sell their gadgets to people based on their race or caste. I set out to write a blog post about my thoughts on reservations and ridiculing such attitudes. Didn’t come out quite well so I just erased the entire text and shut down my laptop.

Then while I was browsing my FB timeline, I saw someone post about the new Marathi film titled “Timepass”. And the post was as haunting as its potential humor.

लेखनची धाटणी , अभिनय ,चित्रण अश्या सर्व यांत्रिकी गोष्टींचा सुंदर मिलाफ आहे पण खटकणारी एक गोष्ट म्हणजे तो परब आणि ति लेले …. ति लेलेच का? दुसर कोण दिसल सुचल नाही ??????? दरवेळी ह्याना भटाच्याच मुली का सापडतात ? ह्या चित्रपटात तर हद्द केलीय…खरच ब्राह्मण कुटुंबातील मुली अश्या पटकन पाघळणरया असतात ??? कोणीही याव आणि टपलि मारून जावे ?? आधीच आपला समाज intercast लग्नाच्या समस्येने त्रस्त आहे . त्यात ब्राह्मण मुलीना बदनाम करणारे असे असंस्कृत सिनेमे आपण टाळावेत .

While I’m reading this post, ISRO is gearing up for the launch of GSLV D5 on the first Sunday of 2014.

This is the tragedy of times we live in. The girl who felt offended by her reserved category classmate who owned an iPhone and a Macbook probably didn’t realize that the caste based reservation still exists because of her own mentality that feels threatened by certain communities crossing the threshold of economic empowerment. In the hate campaign for film “TP”, Mr. Kulkarni thinks that a Parab can should never be allowed to fall in love with a Lele in a film made by a Jadhav. That Brahmins are the stakeholders of morality and ethical conduct and their daughters shouldn’t be flirting with street side Dagdu. That inter-caste marriage is a problem.

As I grew up, I’ve had very confused opinions about reservations. Anand Patwardha, in a post-screening discussion of Jai Bhim Comrade made an interesting remark supporting caste based reservations saying that “It’s a necessary evil. Till the day where all Indians would put their hands on their heart and say that they don’t believe in caste system, that’d be the time India can do away with reservations and we can truly call ourselves as a progressive nation.” That somehow made sense.  And looking at peers from my generation having such thoughts, it just enforces my support to caste based reservations in Educational institutes because Ambedkar’s struggle hasn’t reached to its logical end yet.

ISRO has launched GLSV D5 successfully now. The post made by Kulkarni is gaining more visibility on Facebook and being shared rapidly by fellow sympathizers. India is trying to survive its own contradictions.