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Before you read on, let me clarify that I do NOT intend to trivialise affirmative action.

Nor do I intend to hurt any sentiments or religious beliefs.

I am against ALL kinds of discrimination and feel that there should be a level playing field for all humans and all living creatures.

Discrimination of a different kind.

In India particularly, discrimination is taken to another level. With the current case of the suicide of a medical student in a Mumbai college taking an ugly turn ( both religious and casteist), I thought I should share an incident that proves that it is not only people in India that face discrimination.

[bctt tweet=”Normal everyday objects face discrimination too” username=”viaunishta”]

With summer coming to an end and the monsoon threatening to strike, it is also time to welcome the common housefly. Despite all the cleanliness drives and citizen initiatives, flies herald our Indian monsoons.  Perhaps they like the cool weather that the monsoon brings.

The fly swat is an object that you never really find when you need it, so I decided to buy it in multiples.

♥ Buying a Fly Swat and other objects

Where I live, buying a fly swat is more difficult than swatting flies.

In the fly season, the newspapers at home are often folded up and splattered with blood, evidence that they’ve been used to swat flies.

One day, I decided that this had to stop: there had to be a more dignified way of getting rid of flies.  So I went down to the neighbourhood multipurpose store selling random goods from printer cartridges to bathroom mops and asked for a fly swat.

The shopkeeper  looked flummoxed and said, “What’s that ?”

“A plastic device to kill flies ”

“To KILL flies?” he said, visibly distressed and  stressing on ‘kill’, crossed his arms and pulled his ears ( a gesture signifying God Forbid)

“Yes, FLIES” I responded stressing on ‘flies’

“We don’t sell anything to kill flies,” he said, conveniently forgetting the insect repellent sprays that he had stored on the top shelf.

“Go to Crawford Market ” he advised. ” You’ll get plenty of those there”

And I hailed a cab to go to the wholesale market in town and bought SIX of them so that I wouldn’t have to go again and again and again.

If you think a fly swat is being singularly discriminated, I had a similar experience with an egg tray. For the life of me, I couldn’t get any egg tray.

♥ Buying leather goods

This discrimination extends to other things too.

Down the street there are several shops selling shoes and handbags. Most of these shops are owned and operated by Aga Khanis or Ismailis who have been in the business for years. Their shoes are always trendy, made from the finest leather and well worth the price. But of late I find that all the shoes they carry are made of synthetic leather.

Once again, this is not to save cows or save any animal but to cater to the sentiment of the local customer who only wears or uses non-animal products! This applies to handbags too which is why Louis Vuitton Neverfull in canvas is so popular with this crowd.

♥ Buying cake

This is something that literally takes the cake!

For years, even my vegetarian friends would make an exception of cake. After all, it wasn’t something that one ate every day and one piece wouldn’t really disturb the belief system.

But now, you actually have to ask for products that are made of egg. Not only are cakes eggless, but so are quiches and pies . And believe it or not, you can get vegetarian CHEESE in all varieties, and Non-animal milk too.

 

P.s . The trading community who operate most shops in my neighbourhood is largely Jain, strict vegetarians who abhor any slaughter. Some of them even refuse to carry stocks of synthetically flavoured chicken noodles!

Disclaimer :
I do not intend to offend, insult or harm anyone’s personal beliefs. What happened to the student is shameful and my condolences to the bereaved families.

I have no problem with things that are vegetarian or not but just think that discrimination sometimes does go a bit too far…..

Ciao