#northeasterner

It’s been a busy day for our country as usual. Lately the social network, the media and all medium of opinion messenger is talking about a boy name Nido Tania, a name (along with other names) that will forever remind us how we failed to be an Indian. Many are joining the name because they feel sad that something is wrong with our country, while some are happy that something is wrong. Alas another heinous crime in Delhi!

So much said and done, yet so much more to do. When will a North East Indian fit into the imagination of the mainland Indians as a fellow countryman? We all ask this question to ourselves, people and government. For a north easterner it’s not hard to having different physical feature until you move to one of the big metropolitan city. Even harder to imagine that a city can be so unfriendly because you look different and the whole talks of assimilation in a big city was a big hoax. Your racial appearance will be the determining factor of your acceptance in a city, read as Delhi. It’s hard to have these small eyes, hairless body, ironed straight hair and smaller frame than the rest while being in Delhi. These images we posses for many are a source of empowerment to abuse, insults, cheat or just an exotic sexual plaything and yes even to kill with no guilt conscious.

Eventually all blame comes back to the Delhi as a city, the kind of city it is and what is it jinxed with. For any anyone coming to Delhi expected the city to welcome you with a welcome garland, people from different walks on life coming to pursue dreams, work, crave space or sexual freedom among many others. Yes the idea of a big city, the mosaic of culture where to each his own, the best one go to win the race. This is the promise of any city gives you and your image or race is a non relevant issue to be worried about. That is what a city is supposed to be. This is what the city promised us.

But Delhi seems to be stuck somewhere between medieval and modern era, almost like we made jump into a time machine to the future ignoring the natural process of growth, the city grows before your eyes, so does the people both in numbers and mentality. Sometimes it feels like we are fighting for a small space and an outsider either leaves or die. The concept of the “other” is so much embedded in the upbringings that it is impossible to cohabit together. Make no mistake, this problem of “othering” is a big social problem and we cannot expect a government to parent on the moral compass of the people, it has to come from the humanity side of us, no force of the state can bring about that change. To be a north easterner and to live in Delhi is one of an experience, the fact that you are the “other” here is just as same as walking on the edge with your hands tied behind, not a day go without some racist remarks hurled at you, after sometimes we learn to ignore it, just let it pass or just accept that we are the outsider here and just focus on getting home safe. The good Delhi citizen lives to face the burn of rage for all that is bad in the city while the guilty sleep in peace.

The feeling of insecurity and constantly worrying about our safety retires the lonely soul to their own kind, making very few friends outside their own racial group. To live constantly worried about your safety, one can only imagine a soldier in a war front.

Do we have a racial problem in India? Yes we do! Do we discuss, talk and accept that social reality? Yes, yes and no. Why deny its existence and strategically called it “discrimination” and never “racism,” there is very thin line between them anyway but terminology itself speaks volumes of how much we are trying to avoid the issue. Racism is an ugly word, no person, country, company, organization, or city would like to be associated with it but to deny its existence is even uglier, we need to talk about it, we need help, much like an addict who needs to go to rehab.

Compared to most cities of India, Delhi seemed to be the most in the news and all for the wrong reasons. Google Delhi, the first to pop up in the search engine is “Delhi rape,” the kind of image we sent about the national capital to the outside world is utterly disgusting. There is an urgent need to discourse this city, to bring it to a safety to revamp our police and the government officials at least to begin with. Delhi will only grow, there will be more influx of people and there will be more diversity, it will not roll back to homogeneity ever (but I doubt the city was ever a homogenous one). Delhi has so much to offer, so many places to go, and so much opportunity open to us all but all these aspects have been overlooked over a basic safety.