I opened the door and stepped out. It was a cold day and I wanted to have some sun. It feels good to have some sunrays on the shriveling winter skin.
But what do I see. The shoe rack is not as it was. It was at a haphazard angle. The shoes thrown here and there. When did that happen, I thought. Yes, a little while back, I had heard the Ethiopian girl playing in the corridor. And I had heard some noise too at that time. But had not bothered. Simply because that girl was always into some or the other mischief. Well can’t blame her actually.
She lives with her mother and some ‘aunts’. And these ‘aunts’ keep changing. I have a suspicion that they are not legally staying in Bahrain. Maybe they don’t even own their passports anymore. Illegal immigrants keep on changing houses to escape any probe. I don’t even know what profession they are into. The doorbell ringing at odd hours give me some hints. The others staying in the building avoid them. And so do they. They mingle with their own. No doubt the girl does get bored all alone without any friends.
I look here and there to see if someone is present to sympathise with me. At that time the door opens and the mother steps out.
‘What is all this’, I ask her. There is silence in the whole building and my voice echoes.
‘What’, she asks in her unique accent.
‘Your daughter was playing here some time back, it must be her work. Couldn’t she keep everything back?’, I ask.
She mumbles something.
‘I didn’t understand’, I say.
‘You don’t know English or what’, she yells.
That irritates me. ‘ I know English very well, thank you but your accent I do not understand’, I say and not wishing to hear or say anything I just keep everything back in place and leave for my walk.
Later me and my friend have a talk on Ethiopians in general. ‘Why do you mess with them. Their occupations are not known, you know they have this animal culture, just avoid them’, she advice.
I do follow her advice.
Some days later I am putting the clothes to dry in the terrace. Something happens and I faint.
Sometimes later I come to consciousness to find myself in the lap of one of the roommates of my neighbour. ‘Are you alright?’, she asks me.
I nod. She makes me sit in the shade while she puts my clothes to dry.
Then she helps me get up. Leads me to my flat. Makes me comfortable and asks if I need anything. I mumble a no. Then she leaves.
Later when she meets my husband, she narrates everything and asks him to take care.
So often we brand people according to their nationality or their work and so often we forget to see our own deficiencies.
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I am taking part in The Write Tribe Festival of Words 8th – 14th December 2013. The prompt for today People
Disclaimer: this post is not intended to hurt any one by their nationality, profession, looks, creed etc. It is just meant to show my own shortcomings.
The tendency to generalize is a common undesirable trait.It is a nice story with a good moral.
A trait which we should not have but unfortunately do have.
How true, all of us stereotype people based on the color of their skin, their appearance, their facial features, the clothes they wear, etc. It takes guts to accept one’s shortcomings in a blog post, and the fact that you have accepted it means that you have taken the first step in correcting this attitude of yours.
Nice post, like how you tied it in with the prompt 🙂
Oops, just noticed that this was fictional tale 🙂 Nevertheless my earlier comment still holds good 🙂
It is a story Jairam- my own. 🙂 Yes your comment holds true
Thanks Jairam. But it is tough to correct oneself. Takes a long time.
So true and often we do not display even a little bit of tolerance
The degree of tolerance is reducing Jaish. Even when I am on the road I see that. The moment the light turns green people expect you to fly 😦
I agree with you! We do this with our own people…Bangaloreans are like this, Keralites are like that, Tamilians are like this etc. When I was in Hosur, I heard that TVS people never admit Keralites in their factory since they are famous for unions!
Really.. 😦
When we were in the North I was named a Madrasi. When in South I was labelled a Northie. Now I am happy that I am just an Indian 🙂
That is so true. Judging others (each and everyone we meet) comes to us naturally. But we fail to judge ourselves. Well described. 🙂
ANd oh when we come to know we are being judged..it hurts. But then it is easy being judgmental and tough being judged.
We tend to stereotype people on the basis of race, religion and nationality. But its wrong to judge and demean them. a nice post.
Yes it is wrong to judge and demean. Thank you
no matter how much i would like to think i dont do such stuff, i know that at some level, there are stereotypes within me.. and i hate myself for it when it is brought to my attention.
My take on the prompt: http://www.godyears.net/2013/12/her-happiness-matters-to-me.html
I suppose that is a basic train in amongst all of us. And it is difficult to remove all of it.
all that we heard and grew up, wherever we have been come to stay in our minds, stereoypes about others about us, and it takes incidents like these to dislodge them .. conscious effort, that is, we need to try, otherwise every unjust on our part, and yes, can’t blame that others judge us this way as well.. fiction with a ring to the real.. and well connected to the prompt 🙂 Pins
Thanks PINS. And what u said is absolutely right
A wonderful message. Sometimes we judge people too soon. And when we judge them it does not define who they are but it defines who we are.
So right Shilpa, it definitely defines who we are.
That’s so true we have these weird prejudices against people of specific nationalities or religions and slot them all together without realising that there are good people and bad people in every sect.
Yes not only good and bad in all sects, good and bad within us too.
We have funny notions about people based on their colour and nationality. We forget that we are human beings after all.
True Sunita. Thanks for the comment
another beautiful little story. you are too good at this. loved it.
Thanks Padmanabh
Beautiful and sensitive story. At times, an action triggers an angry but unfortunate stereotyped idea about some people. I’ve been guilty of that and in a spate of anger, I labelled some people. But, it shouldn’t be that way!
It happens because we are humans and I suppose conditioned to jump to conclusions
I have found that, by having an open mind towards all persons, consciously keeping prejudices away, we can bring the best out of others and out of ourselves.
Superb story!
yes but for people like me it is not easy. As you say conscious and continuous efforts are needed
We tend to generalise behaviour based on stray incidents and common misconceptions, sometimes not rationalising our thoughts. A lovely story. 🙂 we do need to give everyone the benefit of doubt.
Sometimes we do not use our brains at all and merely go by heresay