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A story about one of the most ignorant professors I ever learnt from
It was the first of a whole semester worth of nightmare-ish lectures. The professor walks in. It is hate-at-first-sight. One of the first questions he asks is “How many girls are there in this class?” I excuse this absurd-sounding question of his, giving him the benefit of doubt that he probably only wanted to know the figure for the purpose of evaluating the girls:boys ratio of the class.
A little while later, he goes something like, ‘So, who all are Jains in this class? Please stand up.”. I am taken aback. Close to 2-3 students stand up. I don’t (not because I am not a Jain!). He goes on and (very ignorantly) adds how all Jains are rich and “baap ke paise udane wale!”. He doesn’t stop at this. And, to my utter disgust, adds “Be friends with these Jains, it will help you in the long run!” while addressing the class. At this point, I want to throw up.
The Jains are now made to sit down. I wouldn’t have been all too pleased had I been in the place of the students that stood up. It is shameful on his part to segregate a group of students solely on the basis of their religion (and no other reason!). And this is a classroom of a tier 1 city of India. I literally feel second-hand embarrassment because of the things he says and does.
If there were moral policing in practice in any of his lectures, I am very certain that that lecture would have been his last lecture I would have had to attend (phew!!)…
But, let’s get back to reality! So, next, he “casually” brags about having a degree from the UK and about seeing film stars every now and then. What’s more? He BRAGS about being caught for plagiarism in his UK university like it’s a thing to be proud of! (In my mind I do the eye-roll several many times!!)
Despite all the mental irritation (to say the least!!) that it caused me, I am glad that the subtle racist undertones of his didn’t slip my notice and I will be the happiest when they don’t slip anyone’s notice.
Acknowledging an issue is a big step forward in addressing it. So, I don’t regret my decision of standing up TO him (figuratively!) by not standing up (literally!) when he had asked all the Jains to do so!
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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