‘Some people are born with a silver spoon’ This is wrong. ‘Some people are born with a golden spoon or even a platinum spoon’. This is reality! I hate it when I have to believe it. Life sucks..sometimes. Sorry for my cursing. Sorry for beginning the story of a part of my life this way. But this is it. This is my life. I was never a girl like this. I always thought hard work paves the way. Yes it does. I know hard work strives. I’m just exaggerating right now. I do this most of the time when I see God playing his game dishonestly.
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My name is Ayesha Dutta. I am born and brought up in Guwahati and am still here in Guwahati. I’m a Scheduled Caste, not by birth but by document. My grandfather used his brain quite well in deceptive work and managed to get a SC certificate for himself. This certificate helped my father to get his and then it helped to get mine. Whenever I see that piece of document, my body boils remembering my school days when a classmate of mine saw it and spread the news like wildfire that I had illegally tried to seek advantage from the deprived category of class. Horrible days of Class X!! Well, I never took that advantage and never in future too. My parents were badly enraged one day, when they got to know about my act during college admission. I lied to them about applying in Guwahati’s best Government College under SC quota. I never did. When my parents found it from a friend of mine who was a ‘Sharma ji ka beta’, I got a good beating. And for your information I didn’t get the admission! Talking about gold, silver, platinum spoons, I sometimes wonder whether being too good and honest in life is favourable.
I always did what I felt is right. Seeing my fellow friends misusing quota seats angered me. Their fathers, grandfathers did what my grand-dad did. They utilised what should have been the right of someone, without any hesitation. A good friend of mine once told me that God is there and She/ He would punish them from their sins one day. I am still waiting for that ‘one day’… Quotas are necessary. It is necessary for those who are still behind the shadows of the rich and powerful. We are in that stage now where we call ourselves to be uplifted in education, income, lifestyle or globalisation but we are blind to the harshness of reality. Although we are advancing, we are still behind. It is like a cycle of debt of that typical borrower whose paying off debts never ends. Unless we clear our minds of greediness and looting from the innocents, the poor will always remain poor, the deprived will always be deprived and India would still remain in that period of caste discrimination.
—— By the way, I’m a junior assistant without using my fake quota!
By: Manisha Das
