Sep 17 2014 : Mirror (Pune)
The sociology of stupid
GOURI DANGE
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By keeping out those whose religious or behavioural practices differ from ours, we are ghettoising ourselves and breaking into smaller and smaller splintersWRITES ABOUT THE LOVE-HATE EQUATION THAT WE ALL HAVE WITH OUR CITY
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One builder (or several), without spelling it out openly, but through an in visible network, sells flats only to people with Brahmin surnames. An other one says he only sells to “96k“ people (Those who don't know what that stands for, go do some reading up on Maratha history). A bunch of buildings in Mumbai has steadfastly refused to sell or resell flats to anyone but Jains. The one family there that eats eggs, goes through an elaborate secret dance to “smuggle in“ the eggs, cook them with all windows closed and get rid of the eggshells in a convoluted fashion -wrapping them in newspaper and taking them out hidden in a laptop bag, if you please.Yet another building, though it cannot enforce the no-pets policy, systematically harasses the one pet owner and hopes that they will one fine day move away. This pet owner is now looking for a building that has a petfriendly policy, or better still, keeps out all pet haters and sells only to pet lovers! One retired air force man proudly tells me about his rather lovely apartment that I admire: “And the best part is that the builder simply declared `all sold out', even when he was not all sold out, to any `Gonsalves, Ali, Singh' type surname customers who enquired about the flats.“ And this is declared with a happy, proud smile. Err...excuse me Sirji, but surely after living and serving Jai Hind, you would not be so damned parochial? And so blatantly so? I think this, but do not say it out loud.
All hot and bothered about all of this, a couple of friends of mine and I said, let's do a sting -let's pose as JainsBrahmins96Ks Whatever-is-required to these different builders and flat sellers, and then record what they say, and then...well and then what? Perhaps this is breaking news only to the likes of us “secular types“ (said with that special sneer), and no one finds it remarkable or objectionable anymore, to build and sell and live along caste and community lines?
Oh wait, of course there is also the automatic class line divide anyway...certain areas and certain constructions will attract “certain“ type of people only. Avoid those, mass along financially similar lines.
Where will all this end? In ghettos that may at first appear like little havens for any particular community or group that has formed them, but will then splinter further on more intolerant and more sociologically stupid lines. Perhaps people with straight hair will find the sight of curly hair abhorrent and entire building societies will then consist of only curly haired people, shunned by and shunning the straight haired ones? Anything is possible. Let's teach our kids that plurality is passé and intolerant is in.
So now that everyone is trying to hang on to only the familiar and the “approved“, here's my very own list of prejudices, firmly in place -call it casteclasscommunitywhatever: I will not live with people who ban pets.And I will not live with people who abuse their pets. I will not live with people who think it is a waste of money to pay society dues. I will not live with people whose kids are free to pee in the lift for a lark and blame it on someone's dog. I will not live with people who use loudspeakers in the society in the name of devoutness starting with Ganpati, going through Navratri and Diwali, and ending only on an ugly crescendo on New Year's Day. I will not live with people who don't believe in separating their garbage. I will not live with people who don't greet each other when they pass on the stairs and who don't have the brains and decency to hold the lift open for someone. I will not live with people who scream beef pork, eee, nooo, etc. Basically I will not live with people who climb mentally into people's private affairs and decide to regulate their lives. Perhaps that relegates me into living in glorious lone splendour, or then other `my types' will band together and form our own ghetto? We will name it the Anti-Ghetto.
Forget about tolerance and civic living. Define your lifestyle, make it non-negotiable, find others who agree and keep out the rest.That's how India is choosing to live. In this way, we will break down into smaller and smaller and even smaller splinters -that will hurt us all, only like a splinter in your skin can.
All hot and bothered about all of this, a couple of friends of mine and I said, let's do a sting -let's pose as JainsBrahmins96Ks Whatever-is-required to these different builders and flat sellers, and then record what they say, and then...well and then what? Perhaps this is breaking news only to the likes of us “secular types“ (said with that special sneer), and no one finds it remarkable or objectionable anymore, to build and sell and live along caste and community lines?
Oh wait, of course there is also the automatic class line divide anyway...certain areas and certain constructions will attract “certain“ type of people only. Avoid those, mass along financially similar lines.
Where will all this end? In ghettos that may at first appear like little havens for any particular community or group that has formed them, but will then splinter further on more intolerant and more sociologically stupid lines. Perhaps people with straight hair will find the sight of curly hair abhorrent and entire building societies will then consist of only curly haired people, shunned by and shunning the straight haired ones? Anything is possible. Let's teach our kids that plurality is passé and intolerant is in.
So now that everyone is trying to hang on to only the familiar and the “approved“, here's my very own list of prejudices, firmly in place -call it casteclasscommunitywhatever: I will not live with people who ban pets.And I will not live with people who abuse their pets. I will not live with people who think it is a waste of money to pay society dues. I will not live with people whose kids are free to pee in the lift for a lark and blame it on someone's dog. I will not live with people who use loudspeakers in the society in the name of devoutness starting with Ganpati, going through Navratri and Diwali, and ending only on an ugly crescendo on New Year's Day. I will not live with people who don't believe in separating their garbage. I will not live with people who don't greet each other when they pass on the stairs and who don't have the brains and decency to hold the lift open for someone. I will not live with people who scream beef pork, eee, nooo, etc. Basically I will not live with people who climb mentally into people's private affairs and decide to regulate their lives. Perhaps that relegates me into living in glorious lone splendour, or then other `my types' will band together and form our own ghetto? We will name it the Anti-Ghetto.
Forget about tolerance and civic living. Define your lifestyle, make it non-negotiable, find others who agree and keep out the rest.That's how India is choosing to live. In this way, we will break down into smaller and smaller and even smaller splinters -that will hurt us all, only like a splinter in your skin can.
