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Showing posts from May, 2010

Casting out Casteism: Can you???

"Em Pilla, meeru evaru??" ("Hello girl..., who are you?", here 'who are you' signifies 'what caste you belong to'); this was among the first few questions asked when I entered my hostel, some 4 years back. I was not used to this type of questions. I'm brought up in a locality where almost people from most of the religions and most of the states live together. This question sounded odd to me... Nevertheless,  I answered "Hmm.. Brahmin... why?"  She was startled.. That's what I understood from her reaction.  She asked "enti? Brahmin aa?" (What!, Brahmin?) giving some extra stress to the word "Brahmin". "Why? What happenned?", I asked again.  "Ah.. Nothing re... You don't look like a Brahmin, so...", she said.  "Oh, is it??, By the way, I don't know how Brahmins look like... Please explain", I asked.  She smiled this time and said, "Don't mind, but brahmins are generall...