I happened to read an article by a Gujarati brahmin boy, about his experience in finding a house and his preference for non vegetarian dishes. He shared the discrimination and also togetherness.
I had a similiar experience in Chennai. It’s my 11th year in Chennai . I love the city , wonderful friends, colleagues and neighbours . Never left like a north indian in south India ( except when I have to do bargain in a roadside shop or auto?) I have never seen or will never see India beyond Indian , any corner of my country I visit, it’s so Indian and familiar, and I love it.
Coming back to my experience, which I was reminded after reading this article ? So within a year of my wedding, me and Sonia thought of moving out of my bachelor house . I had stayed in the house for 3 years and my house owner was a brahmin gentleman( in his late sixties that time), awesome guy, wonderful family, treated me well and after wedding, us well too, with so much love.
So we planned to move to a bigger place and happened to talk at the tea shop opposite to my house. So my neighbour, with whom I almost had a smile exchanged almost everyday requested me to see a house vacant in the ground floor of his house. We both saw the house, it was good . He was super delighted to have us as tenants. We paid advance, he white washed the house and everything was happening wonderfully to move to a bigger house in the neighborhood ( no transportation costs ??). Just the day before we actually move in with our stuff, we visited and he had hired people to water wash the whole house and everything was going good and then the twist happened, and in 15 mins everything changed and left me and my newly married wife shocked too.
So we met his wife for the first time, she was very happy that we are moving in. I guess her husband had done good branding of us ?. In the course of our meeting her , we talked and moved into the kitchen and then she asked an very innocent question, “do you eat non-veg?” , In my over enthu rapport building , I said yup, chicken, mutton, fish, egg and prawn( in one breath?) . Her face changed, she said something in Tamil to her husband and went off( oh how I wished I learnt Tamil properly?).
A still silence followed , then he very apologetically said that it will be very difficult for him to give the house to us for rent , still he will try to convince his wife.
We were angry & sad, not because we didn’t get the house , but because we just had it up on our face, discriminated, coz of our eating habits. So sometimes, somewhere , some people need mindset change , it’s good to accept the diversity of our country.
We all are different( God has made every person unique, even identical twins are not the same) , but their fundamental rights should not prevent one to alienate or hate the other.
Coming back to our story, me and my wife did what we usually do, sit down and pray that night , and God being our provider , we got a wonderful house, house owner and five years have gone by. Our previous house owner gave a farewell meal as we moved out, all veg food and very delicious. We had so much good experiences to share with each other. (My wife got to hear so many good things about me ??)
Even if one section of the society differentiates or discriminates , it doesn’t mean everybody from the particular community does it. I had and have wonderful friends, colleagues , neighbours, students, house owners , who like true Indians, never differentiated nor ever I did and my perspective towards them never changed or will change. So never generalize your experiences, the God who loves you, loves them too, unconditionally.
Respect , dignity and love makes our world and our country such a wonderful place to live . Generations after us too, need to experience what we have experienced. It is my prayer and desire that nothing should divide the country more and we mend all that we have divided for years before. Service to fellow beings, loving our neighbours, is so much much better and worthwhile than hating and killing each other.