For once i will start this post without trying to be over smart, ever since 9/11 muslims as a whole have been targeted and looked at in a totally different manner, yes i do agree that a lot of us Muslim's are overzealous when it comes to our religious views and practices but so are most of the priests of other religions. The major problem here is since one or two major people who carried out those attacks were of a certain religion , the rest of us get branded as scapegoats for any thing that does happen. We must have tolerance for all religions is what i believe, a ton in fact most of my best friends aren't even muslim which we all kid around with each other and religions to an extent, we know there is a limit not to cross and of course respect is key to a happy community of people.
Coming back to the point of the blog, people preconceive what a person will be before they even know them, this has happened quite a few times , like when i was traveling back with my parents in KL, where we met another family from India, the drive was pretty long and seeing that we were from one country they decided to start a conversation, minutes passed by we all chatted about where we were from and what to expect and see in Kuala Lumpur then arbout 10 minutes into the conversation they asked my dad what his name was
Dad replies "Karim"
and bang they don't speak with us for the rest of the journey , twas another 50 minutes before the car dropped us off to the hotel, but this wasn't the first time it had happened and people do look at us muslim's like we were born to blow places up , It has happened to each one of my muslim friends and this cannot be denied.
Here comes the bit I actually wanted to write about and bring a comparison, being muslim may be hard enough in a world full of snap judgements and stereotyping , but believe me being a former or even a current STB student comes a close second, especially in Calcutta, since most of you must know by now St Thomas Boys' school is one notorious place, believe me i have faced it, but most importantly it seems a people freak out and react way differently as soon as i let them know i am a former STB student.
The first such case happened when i decided to enroll into my CAT preparation class, i walked into a Career Launcher center and was asking about the payment details and what was to be expected from the institute, the next day i came around to pay the amount for joining the class and the female and male receptionists were busy chatting with me, they asked what were my hobbies and all, you know the crap that receptionists especially female receptionists do, they are good looking, well versed and can flirt like hell, so the three of us chatted for around 5-10 minutes and then the male receptionist asked me which school was I from, i proudly replied "St Thomas Boys' Kidderpore",now i have to say Kidderpore because there is a St Thomas Day school, completely different from ours but people do confuse both the schools, as soon as i said Kidderpore the reactions on their faces change, and again while my receipt was being prepared for the next 10 minutes not one of em spoke to me.
Then this happened in my college as well,Techno India, people just dont expect STB students to speak proper english, although i do credit this to me constantly watching Cartoon Network [in english FFS] and being in Dubai for a long time ,its not an excuse for others not to speak good english, fortunately all me pals from STB speak pretty good english, some of em are even better than I am.
Like a guy from Techno India told me "There is a rumor in La Marts [ a snobbish school from where most students come out as a prim and proper snob, which is why i love STb even more , no fucking fakeness] that any students in STb who studies from KG and passes out is a certified Gunda"
Well it is true to an extent, the number of fights, police cases ,etc i have seen in STB is far more than any average student should see in his entire lifetime but then again if it wasn't for STB you would have the freak that you have now, believe me back then in 2002 i was actually a decent,respectable member of society....and thank fuck for that changing
STB RULES
as we had made a saying for our 2007 batch
"gaali khayega ,line mein aayega"
Those beautiful days....sigh
No comments:
Post a Comment