‘Cast’ing around in circles

When I think of some of the most obnoxious conversations I’ve had the misfortune to be a part of, one such instance just breaks into my memory where a man wearing a white diaper is running towards the road holding a gigantic red flag in his hands. Before I go on to explain the incident, let me just clarify the bigger question here. The diaper man. When a human being is threatening your peace of mind or to put it simply, being an asshole, sometimes being the imaginative one and imagining that person in a white diaper is much better than responding. You get a laugh out of it which will further put you in a better mood and you need not waste your time and energy trying to make that person understand his stupidity. The origin of this imagination came in the year 2002 when I had to stand in front of the entire school during the morning assembly to deliver the  Indian Pledge. Two days before that particularly dreaded day I had started my preparation of learning the pledge word for word and I even paused in between each sentence for the imaginary crowd in my mirror to repeat after me. What I couldn’t comprehend was the entire students and faculties who would be staring at me all the while it happened. As I paced around my room the previous night of my recital wondering whether I could simply make up excuses to avoid it all together, my dad came to the room. He always has the best advice when it came to dealing with stress and difficult situations. So I told him about the pledge and how the stage fear is giving me butterflies in my stomach.

“This is your first time, give yourself a break. If the crowd is what intimidates you, know that they are all people like you having fears of their own and wearing underwear just like you and me. Isn’t it funny to imagine an entire crowd in an underwear? That’s all it takes to ease your mind.  It will lighten your anxiety and you would be able to focus on your pledge. Remember, Jo darr gaya(he who fears)…samjho woh mar gaya(is already dead), so be fearless vave(baby)!”

The next day’s assembly went rather fine and I continued my entire life carrying forward his advice whenever I had to be on the stage. Soon I started imagining people I find irritating but at the same time can’t do anything about it in a white diaper. So when people oblivious or completely aware of their rather digging questions and jabbing statements trying to get a nasty response from me, all they ever got was a zoned out me followed with a giggle and a smirk.

Coming back to the incident I wanted to talk about. I was studying away from home when this happened. A few of us friends were sitting around discussing various topics and somehow our conversation went towards reservations and caste system in India. One guy who had joined in our conversation proclaimed out of nowhere,

“I don’t care if there is a reservation for the sc/st, they don’t have what I’ve anyway.”

“And what is that?” we asked.

“God.”

For a minute none of us really knew how to respond to such a statement because we didn’t expect such words to come out of an educated person. I casually asked him.

“Okay.. do you want to explain?”

Who should take http://deeprootsmag.org/2013/05/24/offering-god-beautiful-music-and-hearts-at-peace-with-him/ cheapest viagra in australias If you face loss of erection during the sexual act. In fact, it isn’t an illness in any respect! But, for decades people have believed that alcohol addiction cheap cialis pills this could be a disease. And, how profound is this? It takes 9 months cialis prescription deeprootsmag.org to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. Chiropractors focus on aligning the spine to purchase cialis prevent any interruption in the mechanism. “We are brahmins, we are the only caste who is close to God.”

Before anybody reading takes offense over the fact that he said he is close to God and nobody else is, understand that being close to God wasn’t/isn’t  my priority but what my priority at that time was to make him understand how stupid he sounds for bringing caste into a conversation and being arrogant about it. I probed further to establish his intelligence.

“You mean to say that the rest of the people who pray to God aren’t being heard by God because of their caste?”

“Yes, that’s why we have priests in temples because they are the only ones God listens to. So your prayers can be heard through us, brahmins.”

“Did God create caste?” I asked.

“Hey, I don’t want to offend you, but we were created by God first and we are the messengers of God to the rest of the people. Do you know brahmins don’t die of poison?”

I badly wanted to give him poison then and there so as to make him understand the arrogance and ignorant stupidity which was still intact in every words that came out of his mouth. He was probably fed all this by his amazing parents, I thought. Soon the rest of us felt irritated, uncomfortable and awkward around the guy. I simply imagined him in a white diaper running around a road carrying a red flag showing off his caste to everyone.

Even though it felt good to imagine him in a diaper, the fact that there are so many people living in India with a caste bubble around them infuriates me. Every government and private forms  in India requires you to mention your caste which somehow decides your position in the society. So many of my friends have given up on love simply because they know that their parents will never grow a brain when it comes to the obsession with their caste and would never let them marry a guy of their choice. There are also people who still have the courage to marry a partner of their choice, but never are close to their parents anymore.

I can imagine saying these to a caste bubble and he/she would start explaining the reasons why it was a necessity in our society then and why it is a much needed system now. But fortunately, I wouldn’t be able to get past his narrow brain. So diapers it is! 🙂