a personal account for those of you who still have the audacity to make statements like "oh casteism is restricted to these small rural communities, not urban cities like ours"

Bangalore, 2015 - dad and I were going around applying at colleges for my 11th and 12th (1/n)

at this particular college, the principal had invited us to sit down for a chat as she reviewed my application (and possible admission) - the college was considered to be of great repute in terms of producing toppers and "traditional values" among other things (2/n)

Naturally, my parents were keen that I join there (much to my displeasure) and as we sat for the interview, she noted that we hadn't filled the caste/community column - I remarked that it wasn't relevant as my marks met the cutoff set but she insisted that we fill it (3/n)

Hesitantly, I filled in that I was a member of an OBC in the space provided - she took a look at the form and instantly the mood and the tone of the principal shifted - within minutes the interview was over and dad and I were asked to leave her cabin (4/n)

As I was leaving, I overheard her calling in the peon in and instructing him to DISPOSE the cups in which tea was served to us - not wash but straight up throw the damn cups away (a shame since they were pretty nice tea cups) - and this blew my mind (5/n)

The fact that someone at the highest levels of an educational institution reaffirmed her beliefs in an archaic system, just goes to show how deep rooted these belief systems are in the societies we live and participate in (6/n)

This is just one of the thousands of stories I've heard and read about - people being denied jobs, housing, educational opportunities, access to common facilities - all in urban, metropolitan cities and all owing to the caste that they were born into (7/n)

Just because you haven't experienced it or seen it with your own eyes, gives you NO right to deny the existence of a system which continues to actively oppress millions of people across the demographic of this country (8/n)