The Caste Insensitiveness of AN Educated Person

A class four student from a town panchayat, after school, just like the typical middle-class Indian parenting, leaves to tuition for all subjects.

The tutor was none other than his own mathematics teacher, whose residence was next street to the student’s home.

All was good until one day. Just like individuals get realize later in their lives about child sexual abuse, the student got to understand years later what exactly happened that day and henceforth.

That One Day

All the students were seated and busy mugging up their lessons for the next day class test so did he.

The tutor’s cousin was also our student's classmate. He too was a part of the student’s group. They all used to study together. The fourth class also had a few other students from the school coming to tuition.  Say five to six students from class four (including our student, the cousin and others).

That one day, the tutor’s mother who was also a learned woman, asked the student to sit separately.  The student did not question why he was asked to sit separately. He never wondered why he was asked to sit so.

Then this continued for days and weeks. He must sit alone daily. He did what he was asked to do. When the tuition was held in the terrace, the student was asked to sit on the steps and not to sit with the group.

He never knew what happened.

Even his friend’s mother would ask him to sit outside the entrance if he goes there to watch television. He did. All he cared was to watch television and nothing else.

The Cousin

What is very specific about the cousin? What significant part does he play in this in-sensitiveness?  

The cousin and the student were classmates and were tutored by the same person. As the student was asked to sit separately, sometimes, the cousin would mark a small space for the student, with chalk to reinforce the idea that the student should not come beyond his line of space.

After all the place is a small living area. Same school, same tuition, same shops, same roads and what not… Call it coincidence or bullshit, they both had the same model pen. The cousin lost the pen and informed the tutor that our mentioned student stole his pen. The student was not even inquired and was given left, right and centre. 

Adding fuel to the fire, the tutor also informed the student’s dad regarding the stealing act. End of story.

From then on, the student had to live with the feeling of guilt, for which he was not a part of it. Why was the student not inquired about the pen stealing act? Was it because he was not part of a community within power?

After that, the student was marginalized more. He never had any say in all the happenings.

All beginnings must come to an end

A universal axiom, all beginnings must come to an end, sometimes detours. Few beginnings never end.  All incidents passed on for years. It took close to ten years for the student to realize what had happened until he started to know things and read.

Remember, the perks of being a wallflower? After years you get to realize what had happened and the respect you had for the person is collapsed.

So was his’.