Only-slightly discriminated against

Picture taken from http://www.chicagoemploymentlawyer.net/gender.jpg

TISS (we study and work in the area of social sciences (check here))is buzzing and active at all times, something I am much averse to. One hears of certain phrases and words liberally included in high-pitched conversations at the dining hall over tea or at a round-table conference in one of the classrooms amidst the thumping of tables, which are arranged in a manner appropriate to the name of the conference or at the tapri behind college over masala maggi and cutting chai. The more scarier ones are the 'isms', to which my mind frankly shuts down and which comprise in their scariest form "neo-liberalism", "post-modernism" and numerous other such "discourses" (I do not even understand what the last means).

One also hears of things like "do not have a voice", or "uneducated" or "disadvantaged" or "socially excluded" in reference to the under-dogs.

Then there is me. I am an average person from an average background and with an average understanding of the matters of the world (which in TISS translates to condescending half-smiles subtly-disapproving head-shakes). I do have a voice and it is especially audible when there is a need for an auto-rickshaw. I have received education- quite a bit of it and nothing that is connected to a rational career-pattern, if you ask my father; I am disadvantaged only to the extent of the company of pretty people I keep that tends to highlight my highly unflattering physical form and I am socially very much included in everything, most of all gossip that is of the derogatory kind, owing to my Punjabi genes.

So I am part of the urban, empowered youth that is living in a cosmopolitan metropolitan amidst other urban, empowered people. Caste, religion, gender and other parameters of the conservative society are not of any relevance here and when I study about problems like gender inequality and patriarchy, I am supposed to think of a time from my small-town life that qualified "because you are a girl" as a satisfactory response and that I have left far behind me.

Or so I thought. As the lease for my current accommodation draws to an end, I have started looking for another place to move in and I see how I have been living in a bubble of equality and freedom. As a tenant, I have a checklist of things I am looking for, in the house I rent. So I want it at least semi-furnished and I want it well-ventilated with those big, sliding windows and I want it close to a market place or at the least, to a vegetable vendor's stall.

Apparently, the house-owner too has a checklist. And it reads like this- should not be a Muslim, should not be from a strange community of one of those North-East places, should not be working in one of those call-centers, should not be too modern and yes, should not be a female.

I have never realized truly how wrong I have been in thinking that the problems of gender, race, community and religion belonged to the more conservative small-towns and rural areas.

When I am asked what community I belong to, I feel threatened, even if I belong from one of your "acceptable" communities. When you ask me if I am a vegetarian or if I eat meat, I feel uncomfortable. When you ask me details of my work and raise an eyebrow at my flexible working hours, I feel insulted. And when you say you cannot give me your premises simply because I am female, I feel very discriminated against.

The absence of a window would give me some breathing trouble so I believe it is a logical expectation from a home but how the absence of a penis would be undesirable when you rent out your property sounds absurd, even to me and I am not the brightest things out there.

We are all talking about reservation bills for women in politics, facilities in schools to encourage the girl child to study, financial schemes to promote women entrepreneurs and others. Then there is something like the issue I just tried to put forth, though I am not quite sure I was successful at it, given my habit of meandering to other topics. But coming back, this is a very urban problem and one that, I am afraid would be labelled to the "middle-class" (that BTW, is a phrase so overused that it is frayed) habit of cribbing. The standard response I can foresee is similar to the response of the English teacher, Mr. Morgan from the movie "10 things I hate about you' when he says

"I know how difficult it must be for you to overcome all those years of upper middle-class suburban oppression. Must be tough!"

So I say, sometimes being middle-class and only-slightly discriminated against is a real pain.