racism....

My first exposure to it was in my first year at college. Till then racism was something i connected to South Africa (apartheid, remember?). i was shocked that people should treat me differently because i look different. i mean, how can you measure intelligence by the size/shape of your eyes? My illusion of this world being perfect shattered then. Anyway, it had to shatter someday… In college, in the initial years, we used to be in this “north-east group” – you know something like bird of the same feather flocking together. There we were, facing more or less the same problem, of trying to adjust to a new place without loved ones, of trying to make yourself understood and trying to understand. Maybe that is what bound the group for the initial years.

And then, inevitably, i made new friends, discovered new passions and was ready to leave the nest and try out my wings. The realization that what people think of you does not change/reflect what you are inside made/makes me less bitter whenever i encounter unpleasantness in the form of ignorant people. That coupled with the knowledge that i am no less a person than anyone with a beaked nose. Oops, that was mean of me!

Of course, i do face those inevitable moments when people on the street pass inane comments but it leaves me indifferent rather than flustered. i don’t see any reason to lose my cool because people are ignorant. Of course, when the need arise, i have deigned to clear their ignorance. Like in my campus interview, the recruiter from one of the country’s biggest IT firm went on about how the people in Manipur are ‘fast’ (and from his expressions, he didn’t mean it in a complimentary way) and that got me because i had not expected that from someone supposedly educated. So i gave it back to him good, surprising him (and myself too, i guess). Just in case you are curious, i did get the job offer, much to my surprise.

More on this next time.