Couldn't think of other title than this...
Well, this post is to share a personal experience that i encountered day before and also to initiate a discussion on whether regions, nations and all these demarcations lead to feelings of suspicion and doubt among people for each other..
Yesterday as i went from PRIA, the organisation where i am placed for my field work, a lot of feelings were holding me and going up and down my mind, since this was the last field work day for this semester. So, i was just recalling what further i need to do and what my learnings as a trainee have been till now. With same feelings, i waited for my bus at the bus stand and suddenly my eyes caught a female foreigner, who was carrying these two big luggages and had worn a saree in not-so Indian style. It was not the foreigner who directly caught my attention, but a large number of school going children who were following her. They looked amazed and happy to see the woman. I thought they were with her and my attention again got diverted by thoughts about PRIA and what did i learn. A few minutes later, i observed that auto walla's were charging her hefty amount. Another minutes later, i saw that 2 drunk men approached her and using dirty language, which i don't want to quote here, eve-teased her.
And this was it!! I had been observing for long but hearing what they said to her considering that she will not understand, i felt disgusted that people in my country do not even know how to be welcoming and friendly to a person who has visited our country. And we talk about hospitability of India? Till yesterday, i felt proud of being an Indian but for a moment as this happened, i felt to just separate myself from being a citizen of this nation. The disgusted feeling was so hurting in nature that i gathered courage to stand and come to rescue of foreigner, who was in tears till now. I rebuked those guys, though it is not a part of me but i think they deserved worse than that. I also tried to tell them that this is not the way to treat a foreigner as before being a foreigner, she is a human being. Finally those guys couldn't stand there because till then i had gathered public, who had blindfolded their eyes before but seeing that a girl protected her, they probably felt shameful of themselves and collected to see the proceedings.
I also tried to pacify the lady, but it was late and she had become furious for Indians and was all abusive. I got her an auto, who was ready to go by meter now.
So that is it, she went and said "thanks Mataji" to me. Probably, she didn't know that Mataji is referred to an old lady and not to a young, energetic girl like me.
Though this was shocking to me, but couldn't have been more upsetting than it was for that lady, and i could see it from her eyes and fearful face, which though she was trying to hide.
It doesn't only happen with foreigners but people from our country are ill- treated by people of our own country. How do we behave with North-easterns, just beacuse they look different? People from Bihar, U.P are discriminated against just because they belong to a particular region. When will we all take oath to think rationally, rather than regionally?
We all have the same feelings- feel happy, feel betrayed, get hurt, feel sad n blah blah. We all are human beings, for heavens!! We have not been declared regional beings and do not have any different feelings. But we hardly care about others. Why??
Who ever reads this blog, please promise to take an oath that we will never indulge ourselves in hurting other respectful human-being because he might have been defaced by circumstances yet he a feeling- being... Let us respect each other!!
