dil ki baat...
this is about dear PROF> MATHEW only..... guys these days we are having movie screenings..... some of the finest films i have ever seen....the central station (spanish)........grave of the fire flies(japanese.. animation).....all about my mother(spanish again).................and today documentaries..
1st documentary:- About the caste system... religion... communal riots... and gender bias..I was horrific when i saw how Bal Thakrey was playing cheap politics .... arousing public sentiment against muslims.."i will put an AK47 in every hindu's hand"..... some of the real inflamatory speeches by Saadhwi Ritambara..... Shiv Sena... is detrimental to the state of well being and happiness of this great nation. A sociologist way back predicted that yugoslavia and india... wd disintegrate with time..every1 mocked him.. but yugoslavia did break up... conditions in india are very similar....
These parties take the name of Shivaji, rana pratap etc . for so called hindu nationalism..... but shivaji had so many muslim connections... and Shivaji wdn't be shivaji if the muslim connections hadn't been there..... Rana pratap's friend in in his worst times was a muslim........ mardana accompanying Nanak was a muslim..
Same is the case with muslims... they believe.. the golden age when muslims ruled India is gone... they aren't getting their due... elements in their community too continuously pester them in to communally biased approach and thinking.
2nd Documentary-
titled '
LESSER HUMANS"...
www.ektaonline.org/events/stalin/index.htm.. it was base on the scavengers.. the pathetic state in which they live... they actually have to clean up what we throw up... from top or bottom.... human and animal excreta... dead bodies...There are old type toilets that are DRY and can't be flushed.. they have clean them.. and carry the 'night-soil '
on their head to the dumping site.
- Their state over the years hasn't much changed.. because if they don't do it... WHO DOES IT???
- they are the BHANGIS... or the Valmikis
- They are systematically kept away from all Govt. jobs.Almost all of them are on daily wages at different municipal corporations, gram panchayats.... families etc.
- They are paid about lowest possible wages..according to the documentary in 1997 it was INR50/month.... it can't be too mch now either... may be
- A lot of them are paid only in kind.... like left over food... and grain etc.
- Their main grduge is against the other lower castes.... the other 'dalits'... who avail most of the benefits for reserved categories....
- They are preferentially kept away from availing benefits... as otherwise who wd do their jobs...
- They are not alloted plots on housing sites.... bt in areas away.. where there's no basic amenities.. no water.. electricity
- UNTOUCHABILITY is still practised against them....in villages actively.... while educated ones...do it subconsciously too... c'mmon be thruthfull....will u be comfortable with the 'safaiwala'.......Wd u hug him and share ur food with him?? The BHANGIS are even more unfortunate.
- Its not that that the GOVT has been silent.... Atleast 5 times "cleaning of night-soil' manually has been banned. Picking up of human excreta on the head has been banned too... there is actually so much that has been done ON PAPER
- BUT its a lower caste vs higher caste problem.... and all important offices..infact the Govt. is controlled by higher castes... and so the implications
- The truth is .....REMOVING a stigma 1000's of yrs old "the varna syatem'.... isn't easy.. But what's appaling is the lack of efforts.... though some NGO's are doing a commendable job
- and what abt issues like resevation
A scavenger
i am a scavenger
they call me BHANGI
they keep away from me
the smell of shit emerging from me may corrupt their souls
and i clean up a lot
their shit.. their animal's shit
their dead... whom they find lying about
its we who give them their salvation
and the dead cats n' dogs n' cattle
in villages we carry bad news too
news of death to all other home n all other villages
accumulating curses
this makes our smell worse
do u think its easy
doing such stuff and getting almost n'thing in return
no.. actually there are returns
and 1 too many
In return u keep away from me
preferencially u keep me backward
and away from education
u can't do without me..
actually u can .. bt u don't want to
u r so used to this barbarism
that u can't forgo it
u can't build automatic toilets
but even if u build them
like they have in cities
we have to go in MANHOLES
man .. they are full of shit
and i m immersed in that shit from head to toe
some times the toxic gas can even kill me
now is that HUMAN
even remotely so??
As a child i was good at studies
sat on the 1st bench
but i was an untouchable
i made other kids impure
they made me sit at the last bench
i wanted to become a DOCTOR
the guy pursuing THE NOBLE PROFESSION
but they said this time n ' again
Wht's d use.. a bhangi shall remain so
there's shit u have to carry
shit's ur destiny.. u can't run away
in the end fed up.. broken
i dropped out...
even i couldn't play with other kids
their parents told them not to
and washed their own kids with water
when they came in contact
or touched them with fire
this wd make them pure
If sum1 accidently touched me
they wd apply GANGAJAL
or any water which they found
even drop their toes in the nearby drain
so u see...
even drain water is purer than us
if i m a woman
imagine my plight
i m a slave of the slaves
so is there any real incentive for us to continue living
but we continue to live..
so that we carry ur filth..
ur shit on our head
ur shit in our lives
ur shit all the time
it trickles down through ages
in to our destiny.. that's all shitty with ur shit
bt do we have a choice
certainly not
so we keep quiet
and carry on with our very own NOBLE PROFESSION
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