Ever Since, I started writing my blog on the subject of dignity, respect, self-esteem, love keeps coming again and again and again. Honestly speaking, this is not my favorite subject to talk about; however I am compelled to talk about it repeatedly for may be very obvious reason as I grew up in Bal Mandir [ a children home ]. Where the pressure of feeling human felt odd, we were treated like less than human being. Although, I was never smart enough to know it at the time when I was young still I remember people looked at us differently and treated us differently and they have the different smile reserved for us. When I say differently, I mean; we were treated like a second class citizens. We were never given due respect, with few exception, people felt comfortable to humiliate, insult, disrespect and degrade us. People in management and staff ignored the very fact that we were the the reason they have and position which gave them status in society for being a social worker. That lead me to abhor the word social workers.
What is so intriguing is, we were customized to believe that, its because of our karma, we ended up in Bal Mandir because we had done something horribly wrong in our previous live, and this was our divine punishment. So, it was the belief system of the people, especially junior staffs at the Bal Mandir, who used to treat us so roughly.
Then again; when I read the stories of black Americans, they also felt the same thing, I mean, what I have gone through when I was growing up in Bal Mandir. As I am writing this, I remember movies like Glory and The Help which gives us the inside story of black Americans in America. We cant escape from such reality in life as it is very moving and soul searching feelings. To be honest, I was not quite sure about all this fancy words of dignity, respect and self esteem. I began to understand it all when I looked back in my life and started writing and posting on my blog. Those movies helped me to understand my own feelings now what I felt then, back in Bal Mandir. What is so striking to me now is, comparatively speaking America is considered a lot civilized society than the one I grew up in 1980s Bal Mandir. When I am writing this America has a black president, this is his second term in white House.
When Hitler came into power in Germany, the Jews were treated like less than humans. Who can forget the memories of holocaust ? Movies like The Pianist and the Schindler's list do give us close glimpse of the other side of the so called superior people in Germany. And then there are the very people in my society who act like they are so called upper class people because they come from higher caste and they treat some segment of society in such a way that its worth reading their behavior pattern because they treat people with discrimination.
Are people really superior if they treat other human a lot less like humans beings ? There are some people who treat poor people with same kind of discrimination that the white used to treat the black Americans during the 1900 in US. But, was not the whites were richer to buy black and then treat them like animals ? And the whites from UK were doing the same to Indians in India during the British ruling era ?
Do I have to feel good that my condition was not as bad as the victims of the holocaust in Germany or the black Americans who have to go through nightmarish life in white peoples society ? Are we really talking about self esteem or the inferiority [ superiority] complex when we talk about situation like this ? When we know that this is about basic human rights issue. Is this really the subject of lack of self confidence, fragile self esteem or there is more to it ?
Why majority of lower class people feel insufficient in front of rich people and their show off lives ? Should all that must add to our inferiority ? Should their superiority behavior has anything to do with our own self esteem and then hit our ego ? If not then what is this ? What we are talking about ?
Are we not talking about our basic humans rights here ? Don't we all have to stand for our own Identity in one point or other !
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