A City of Discrimination


This thought stuck to me while I was traveling in the train. The people in the city are the most cosmopolitan as well as most discriminating. Right from the train travel where we have 2 types of compartments, 1st and 2nd class. In 1st class people are dressed well, sharp, look sophisticated and generally have an attitude of superiority. While in 2nd class, you will see people of all types. I wonder why do we have such classes? Why cant all citizens be treated as equals? I have used public transport in quite a few cities around North America and there I didn’t see any divide between suit wearing hippie and a construction guy. They all travel in the same manner. I guess even after dividing people based on their religions, caste, sub-castes etc. we are still not satisfied. We want more division. We just want to live with “our” type of people. Nowadays even housing societies in this city are dictating which “type” of people should stay, what kind of food they are allowed to have? This is just plain ridiculous. There are pure-veg societies. Some only allow people from one particular religion, caste, sub-caste to stay/ buy the property etc. If this was not enough, there is now discrimination between outsider and natives. This is just so backward. No wonder the Britishers were able to rule us for such a long time. I dont think we have learned anything in the last 60 years of our independence. This is the state in India’s most cosmopolitan city, I fear how things might be in other cities or small towns across the country.