Sunday, August 23, 2015

Unequal among unequals

How low can a person get? OK, let me try again by putting it in a different way. How low can an educated person in his 60s get with a bunch of 2-3 year old kids? Before your mind shifts to pedophilia, let me inform you that it doesn't always have to be like that for someone to go low. Sometimes, it's just words and demeanor. Like it happened last evening. I was in the park with my partner and an elderly gentlemen shooed away a group of little children who were playing nearby. For the record, these kids belong to the labourers who have set up camps in our society for construction purposes. I could have stopped him from doing what he intended to by firmly asking the kids to continue playing but then, that would have meant disrespect and a loss of opportunity. A chance to talk to him in order to understand the substandard behaviour with people who barely size up to his knees. Apparently "They don't look nice" was a legitimate reason. Nice on what? It's not like they were climbing all over him. On further drilling, he concealed that those kids are a nuisance because they could untidy the park by shitting/urinating/uprooting the grass/nuclear attack/etc. He just couldn't say the more evident "They are poor. How can we let them mingle with our kids?" Although there is no precedent of these kids creating any of the aforementioned acts in the last four months, they are constantly harassed by the supposed well-wishers of the park. Retired oldies with sufficient pensions who have not much to look forward to in life except waking up early for walks, yoga, distinguishing between their privileged grandkids and the unwashed labourers kids and going back to sleep on time blissfully ignorant of the terrible examples they are setting for their loved ones. By the way, these labourers (and their kids) are temporary beings who will have to move to some other place once the building is constructed. In the meanwhile, they live in miserable conditions in tents that leak during monsoon and rattles during winter. But then, not everyone has good fortune on their side. So, as a bargain, a labourer ends up not only building houses for assholes but also parks for them so that they can't let his kids play under the sky. 

1 comment:

Manpreet ubhi said...

"Doojeya layi Mehal bnaunde, aap taareyan chhaawe sounde". its in punjabi.