Caste Away

I am sure that most of you have heard of the caste system that has persisted in India and defined her societal interactions for thousands of years. The caste system is a hereditary system of classification into the social strata wherein an individual inherits from his/her parents at birth their position in society. As a birthright, the caste into which you are born is your caste for life and upward mobility from the lower castes such as the scheduled castes (which generally consist of former "untouchables" ) and those that fall within the Other Backward Classes (this is the "technical" term for a grouping of over 3000 lower castes) is impossible.




Though the caste system has been illegal in India for over 50 years, its influence is still starkly evident every day. There exists in this country a palpable sense of position that time has not yet erased, and a knowledge of being better, or lesser, than your neighbor. The idea that "All Men are Created Equal" is absolute nonsense here, which gives rise to some very uncomfortable and difficult situations for a Westerner like me. And as hard as I try to understand, I simply can't and I am often frustrated and infuriated by the side effects of this backward and ignorant system.




Eric has already described the violent and demeaning scene between the police officer and the auto driver, a consequence I believe of the caste system. The effects are usually not so dramatic, but the result is always the demeaning of the "lesser" person. For instance, my trainer, after knowing me and working with me for many months, still insisted on calling me only "Madam". So during my workout he would encourage me by saying "Good work Madam", "Fantastic Madam", etc. I found this to be quite uncomfortable as I felt that he was elevating me to a position higher than the position at which he placed himself. I strongly feel, and hope that all other Westerners (and ideally, all humans) agree, that no person is better than another. There is a time and a place for addressing others with respect, but the gym is not one of those places. So I asked that he please call me Suzi. His reaction to this request was that of complete confusion. He asked, "Do you really like your name, is that why you want me to call you by it?" I told him that no, I was no more fond of my name than the average person is, but that my friends call me Suzi and I hoped that he would please consider me a friend.




This issue of position is also disturbingly evident in my workplace. The professors here are no less than tyrants that seem to delight in berating, belittling, and demeaning those that they view as "lesser". This includes, well, everyone. Post-docs, graduate students, master's students, junior trainees, janitorial staff, kitchen staff, support staff, administrators, service representatives, salespeople; it seems that almost no one is immune to their wrath. I have personally witnessed this and it is a sight that literally makes my stomach turn. There are certainly bad bosses all over the world, but I have never seen or heard of such mistreatment of employees to the degree that I have witnessed here. (And remember that I am in one of the premier research institutes in the entire country, a place for higher learning!) The students and staff seem to tiptoe around for fear of arousing the attention and subsequent anger of any given professor. As you might imagine, this does not particularly lead to an atmosphere of collaboration and honest discourse if one is constantly living in fear of your boss, so ultimately the science suffers (and I am sure all other forms of industry suffer as well due to this environment). I have seen my boss berate and humiliate many of the students in our lab, lashing them verbally for little or no reason at all. Particular care is taken that this be done in the middle of the lab, to assure the maximal humiliation by the presence of a captive audience. It is disgusting and despicable and I honestly don't know if I can continue to stand by and watch this type of behavior for another two years. The professors are nothing but bullies, so insecure in their own intelligence (often for damn good reason) that they exert their position of power by instilling fear and loathing in their students, constantly kicking them down to keep them in their place. This results in a population of meek, submissive worker bees, afraid to think or question for fear of being the target of the boss's unpredictable rage. I sometimes consider it a miracle that any Indian educated in India can think for themselves, as it seems to me that this urge is immediately quashed by a tyrannical educator.








The complete and utter lack of respect for students by their bosses was made evident to me yesterday, when I heard the story of a senior graduate student here. Students at the NCBS have a tenure, and if they have not yet finished all of their work for completion of their PhD, they have to ask for an extension from their boss to continue to provide a pitifully small stipend as well as to set aside a room in one of the hostels (NCBS has two dreary dorms where students stay, not for free, without television, in some cases without internet, and the student has to provide even a bed for the room). This particular student has had a successful graduate student career by any measure, she is hard-working, she is intelligent and she has submitted a paper to a very reputable journal, which is currently under review. Her tenure is up at the end of July, and she has asked her boss for a three month extension during which she would be writing her thesis, the final requirement for completing her PhD. Her boss, who has been her mentor for the past seven years, said no, why would he continue to pay her while she is writing? What this means is that she has no income and she will be thrown out of her room unless there is some intervention on her behalf. In addition, because her PhD isn't yet completed she is not free to pursue a post-doc or other industry jobs that require a PhD. That is what seven years of intense work gets you, thrown out on your ass without any concern for your well-being. That is how the "lesser" people are viewed by the professors, expendable commodities that you throw in the garbage after you have finished with them.



I have so far been fortunate enough to not be targeted by any of the professors here. I am not sure if my Western heritage provides me with some unseen force field against the caste system, or if it is just a matter of time before someone tries to make me aware of my "place". I hope that if that day comes, I am prepared to stand tall and make known that not I, nor anyone, is lesser than anyone else and anyone who thinks different is an ignorant fool.

Chaya and Mira

Well, after intense deliberation and negotiations, Eric and I have picked names for our kittens. The kitten with the white paws and chest is called Mira (pronounced MEE ra) after the Hindu heroine Mira Bai, a woman who was persecuted by her husband and her husband's family for her devotion to Lord Krishna despite their insistence that she worship Durga instead. Her husband sent her away to drown herself because of the shame that she brought to his family, but she was rescued by her Lord Krishna and freed from her marital bonds. She went on to become a saint, a philosopher, a poet and a sage. She is a very atypical Hindu heroine because she does not represent the ideal of the loyal and dutiful wife, and as our new kitten is also quite headstrong, we thought that Mira is a nice fit. Mira also happens to be a red giant star approximately 418 light-years away in the constellation Cetus, and like the star, our kitten is sometimes gaseous.



The second kitten which is dark all over has been named Chaya (pronounced CHI ya), which in Hindi means shade. Chaya is also the Hindu goddess of the beneficial effects of muted and dappled sunlight. We felt that this was a pretty apt name due to our kitten's dappled appearance. I have included several pictures of our kittens so that you all can meet them! (I have a feeling that I am going to be one of those annoying pet owners that love to talk about their pets and show pictures constantly, so be prepared!)

To err is human, to purr is feline.

While we were visiting the U.S., our good friend Jill was kind enough to let us stay at her place for about a week. I guess it is probably more accurate to say that Jill's two cats, Squints and Berkley, let us stay at their house. We enjoyed their company so much that when we returned to India, we decided to look into getting a couple of kitties of our own. We guessed that cats would be the most appropriate pets for our lifestyle as we are not home during the day and as cats are far less needy than dogs (and since neither Eric nor I really care that much for dogs) it was an easy decision. Also since I managed to kill the last pet I had (the virtual pet, Seaman, who hated me so much because of my lack of attention to him that he constantly insulted me before finally going belly up, literally), I figured that the lower maintence, the better.



I guessed that the appropriate place to try to get a kitten would be an animal shelter. As luck would have it, my bus stop is directly in front of a veterinary hospital and I assumed that they would also have a shelter, or at least be able to tell us where one is. So two Saturdays ago Eric and I made our way to the hospital and were instructed that the shelter was directly behind the hospital. I have never actually been to an animal shelter in the US, but I have seen them on TV in documentaries and other shows so I thought that I had an idea of what to expect. I was wrong. The animal shelter seemed to be in two or three buildings, all clustered together. It was not difficult to figure out where the dogs were as you could hear constant barking coming from two of the buildings. I am no animal expert, but I am pretty sure that so much barking must be extremely damaging to the dogs as their stress level must be through the roof. The cats and other miscellaneous animals were kept in another building. "What do you mean by miscellaneous animals, what other types of animals are kept at a shelter, guinea pigs and hamsters perhaps?" Yeah right, more like chickens, ducks, goats, horses and cows. That's right, looking for something to keep you warm at night, how about a cow? Just go to your local animal shelter and pick one up! Okay, back to the shelter... The animals were actually kept outside, with little or no protection from the elements in metal cages with dirt floors. We spent the whole time near the cat cage, where all of the cats were kept together in one large cage. It is difficult for me to describe the smell; it was as though every cat on the earth was lined up to take a turn in a fairly large litter box. It was so strong that you daren't take a deep breath and nose breathing was kept to a minimum. And in this filthy, smelling hellhole were kept around fifteen cats, from adults to a litter of newborns, some clearly diseased and all starving. They were fed, but their food consisted of bread soaked in milk. First of all, giving cow's milk to cats is not a great idea; it can often make them sick and almost always give then diarrhea. Secondly, cats are strict CARNIVORES. I dig that most Indians are vegetarians, but come on, give me a break, give the cats some damn meat. Unlike dogs, who are omnivores, cats can not make many of the essential vitamins and amino acids required for survival and have to obtain these from the meat that they eat. So every one of the cats were for all intensive purposes, starved. There was no litter box, the cats just did their business wherever and had nowhere comfortable to rest, either in the filth on the floor, or on wire racks within the cage. Not surprisingly, some of the cats had gone rather mad and would run wildly through the cage, others would hiss at you if approached, and others were limp and completely weak. It was miserable and utterly heartbreaking.





We had initially planned to check the place out and then bring home one kitten the next weekend, but after seeing how horrible the shelter was we decided to rescue two, and we just couldn't leave them there for a whole additional week. We told the people at the shelter that we would be back the next day to get our kittens, we couldn't take them immediately because we didn't have a single thing for them, no food, no litter or litter box, no basket for bringing them home, nothing. So we immediately stopped at the first pet shop that we could find. Now I should mention at this point that having a pet is a fairly new concept in India and the pet culture is completely different than in the US. For instance, we stopped by the vet hospital after leaving the shelter to inquire about spaying and/or neutering. The vet sort of looked at us strangely and asked, "You mean that you want to have your cat sterilized?" Uh, yeah. I mean seriously, has this guy never heard of Bob Barker or seen the Price is Right? Animal population control is not a priority here, and street dogs are constantly reproducing, I actually don't think that I have ever seen a female dog on the street that isn't either pregnant or nursing. I guess that it shouldn't be a surprise that animal population control isn't an issue here as there isn't any more thought given to human population control. Anyway, as I was saying, pets are a new thing here, and apparently the only pet to have is a dog. So the pet shop was loaded with all types of dog food, dog treats, dog toys, but almost nothing for cats. We were able to find some kitten food which we bought, but when I inquired about kitty litter and a litter box I again got a strange look. No kitty litter, but they would happily build me a wooden litter box. Right, a WOOD box would be perfect to absorb all the little kitty piddle. My god. Anyway, we tried three other pet shops and still no litter. So, in a panic, I called my friend who has a friend who has a cat and asked where she gets litter. She directed me to a shop quite a distance away and since it was getting late we decided to go the next day to get the litter. In the meantime we went to the local shop that sells all sorts of stuff and found a plastic tub to use as a litter box and a plastic basket to carry the kittens home in. So the next day we went to try to find this pet shop for the litter, and after walking up and down the same street for about 25 minutes Eric finally spotted it. We went in and found kitty litter, but no pooper-scooper, no toys, and only one kind of treat (vegetarian by the way). But at least we got the litter. That same afternoon, we went back to the shelter and picked out two tiny and skinny four-week old sisters (the mother and any other siblings were not there) and brought them home. Since then our days have been a whirlwind of kittens and poo and piddle. Luckily, they warmed up to us very quickly, the first night we had them home they were already crawling on us. They are doing pretty well with litter, especially considering that they had never used it before since there wasn't any at the shelter. They are putting on some weight, the food was the very first thing that they found when they came home with us and I look forward to the time when they are tubby kittens instead of skinny ones. I am quite embarrassed to say that our kittens don't yet have names, even after one week. Right now we are considering some Indian names (duh) and some Greek names (inspired by God of War II, the video game that Eric is playing currently). Hopefully we will make a decision soon and post some pics of the newest additions!