Act 1: Education
This is a fictional story of an acquaintance Avinash in India. He had three siblings : two sisters, one of them was a year younger and the other was five years younger. He had another brother seven years younger than him. His father worked as a cook at the cafeteria of a big corporation and his mother worked as a nanny. Money was tight in their family. His parents were quite strict and they came from a very traditional conservative background. His sister Kalyani who was a year younger was also in the same grade. They both always had the brightest shirts and shoes. Their school uniform was white shirt, grey shorts and red tie for the guys and grey pinafore and red belt for the girls. For kids in higher secondary level, the uniform was white shirt with full pants. Apparently this was the rule to reduce sexual tension between boys and girls.
They both studied hard in school. He wasn’t very good in his studies but his sister was doing well. Being the tallest guy in class he was made the class monitor several times in primary school. In the higher classes because he wasn’t good in his studies, he was no longer made the class monitor. He said there was a lot more focus on studies as compared to extra curricular activities. Extra curricular activities were highly encouraged however grades and exams definitely mattered more. Now of course a lot of things have changed and a lot of emphasis is laid on extra curricular activities as well. Both he and his sister were also good athletes. As he began to realize he wasn’t doing well in his studies, he concentrated more on sports. They both were part of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) at school which provided very strict and highly disciplined training. Kids who did well in NCC got preference for college admissions.
Avinash: Bada hokar bade company main kaam karna hai. Amma, Appa ne sab kuch dala hai hamare padhai main.
(Translation: I want to grow up and work in a big company. Mom, dad have invested everything into our studies.)
Me: Are teachers mostly helpful in class?
Avinash: Mostly haan. Class teacher, maths teacher, P.T. Sir ache hain. Koi teachers ka bias dikhta hai. Hum toh lower caste se hai na.
(Translation: Mostly yes. Class teacher, maths teacher and P.T. Sir are very nice. But some are biased. I am from a lower caste you see.)
Me: Did someone say anything?
Avinash: Ek baar meri bahen recess bell ke 5 min ke baad ayi aur ek do doston ke saath. Our social science teacher was already there in class. Baki ladkiyon ko kuch nahi kiya par meri bahen ko scale se knuckles pe mara. Doosri Ladki toh doctor ki beti toh usko chod diya. Hamare maa baap aakar thodi teacher se jhagad sakte hain. Nikal denge hum log ko.
(Translation: Once my sister entered the class 5 min after the lunch break with her friends. The teacher was already in the class. She didn’t say anything to the other girls but hit my sister on her knuckles with a wooden scale. The other girl was daughter of a doctor, so the teacher left her. Our parents are not going to come and fight with the teacher. They will expel us.)
Me: Were you angry?
Avinash: Haan tumhe gussa nahi ata agar tumhare choti bahen ko Marta?
(Translation: Yes of course, wont you be angry if someone hit your younger sister?)
Avinash: Waise woh teacher thodi khadoos thi, sare bachon pe chillati thi. Par point ye hai ki hum logon ko koi madad nahi Milta. Isiliye mujhe bada aadmi banna hai taki mere bacchon ke saath koi Asia bartav nahi kare. Abhi Amma, Appa ke paas itna paisa nahi hai ki woh hum log ko donation seat de sakte hain. Agar Hamen merit pe college admission milega toh milega. College ke bina main bada aadmi Kaise Banunga?
(Translation: Anyway that particular teacher was very mean, she used to shout at all kids. But the point is, no one helps people like us. That is the reason I want to become a big guy so that nobody treats my kids like that. Mom and dad don’t have that much money to get us donation seats. So if I get college admission on merit, I get it and without college admission, how will I become a big guy?)
He told me that it was fairly common for rich kids to get donation seats in medical and engineering colleges.
Me: Isn’t it true that there are measures in place to uplift people from lower castes or people of lower socioeconomic status?
Avinash: Yes that is true, in fact in medical colleges, there was a time when more than 50% seats were for the reserved category comprised of various castes and tribes. So I have actually heard a lot of studious students who do not belong to the reserved category castes complaining about the quota system and about how it puts the meritorious students at a losing end. So yeah there are both sides to it. The government has definitely placed a lot of measures to uplift people from lower castes but sometimes change comes from people’s attitudes.
Me: Do you like your school?
Avinash: Ya I love it, its practically heaven on earth. The campus is beautiful. Most teachers and kids are nice, of course there are always some naughty kids but everyone gets along very well. I will miss my school very much when I leave. This is a very unique place. Located in a busy city such as Mumbai, there is no other place where you will find so much greenery. Plus because its where nuclear research is done, there is high security. So the safety level of this area is also very high compared to other places in the city.
Me: Were there any scandals in your school?
Avinash: Most kids were pretty studious so it wasn’t really scandalous. Sometimes you would hear an incident here and there or there would be some rumors about ye uski chavi hai (Translation: she is his girlfriend) and those rumors would spread really fast and would spread all over. Rumors used to even spread if a boy and a girl were seen holding hands. Sab uska bahut lete the (Translation: everyone would tease them a lot).
Me: You know kids in school can be quite notorious, surely there were some incidents.
Avinash: Oh yeah, ek tha, woh teacher ka beta tha, toh teachers ko Kafi tang karta tha. Uske wajah se woh section F famous ho Gaya tha. Jab Dekho woh section assembly hall main on their knees hote the.
(Translation: Oh yeah there was a guy, he was teacher’s son. So he would always trouble the teachers. He had made his section F infamous. They would always be punished in the assembly hall and would be kneeling in the sun).
Me: What would he do?
Avinash: He would answer back to all the teachers, make rude noises while they looked away, throw paper balls or paper planes at them, call them names, play pranks and write stuff on the black board, get the entire class to not pay attention to the teacher. He once brought a teacher to tears because he kept making fun of her looks. Reproductive biology class was cancelled for that section because the guys would just start cracking up at the mention of any female organs. Then there was a time when during the school assembly, firecrackers would go off in the boy’s restroom but I don’t know if he was involved with that. But that section had become infamous so anytime anything would go wrong, they would be the first suspects.
Me: Well, I appreciate you sharing your story with me. I hope you succeed and become a big guy.
Avinash: You don’t really know my story. You only know what I told you. And haan bada aadmi toh banna hai. Paisa bolta hai. (Translation: Yeah I want to be a big guy. Money talks).
Caste system existed and it does exist in some forms even today especially when it comes to marriages. But in terms of education, a lot of measures such as the quota system have been in place for a long time now to uplift people. In fact there have been a lot of protests against quota system because meritorious students felt they were disadvantaged by that.
As an Indian immigrant, I feel like this is the first comment that comes up if I ever speak of racism or white privilege. “Oh yeah your country is so perfect, what about your caste system?” So yeah there is caste system, there is racism in India. But there have been so many movies, so many books written on caste system, that its a cliche I feel Indians do not like to associate with. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
No, I am not white so I don’t truly know white privilege on a first hand basis. No, I am not African American, so again I haven’t experienced the injustices they face on a first hand basis. But I am a woman of color and I have been through some shit and I have eyes, ears and a rational mind to understand injustice when faced with it.
