I guess I'll just start with the topic that's uppermost on my mind right now. I have been searching for a new apartment to move into and the discrimination seems to just keep getting worse with time.
As if things like religion, caste, sex, class, ethnicity and regionalism were not enough, our society has come up with a number of new ways to spread their bias. One of the foremost among these is the bias against bachelors. Now, normally I wouldn't care about what society thinks in general but when something affects you personally, you notice.
And the reason that I notice is that it has become more or less impossible to get a decent place to stay at a decent location at a decent price in Mumbai. More than half the doors are shut in your face (or to be more literal, phones are slammed down) as soon as you mention the B word. Everybody wants to rent out their place to a religious, traditional, vegetarian family. They run from people like me as if we carry the pox. Even if you manage to find a prospective landlord who is willing, the all-powerful housing society will come into the picture and ban all bachelors from their particular building.
Despite all this, if you do get hold of a flat, be ready to pay crazy amounts of money as "Security Deposit", even if the flat is an unfurnished one, and to bear the sickening condescension shown by the landlord towards you, as if you would have starved on the streets if it weren't for his gracious helping hand.
And I really don't understand how this bias has been so well established. I mean, sure there are quite a few bachelors out there who maybe get drunk and make a lot f noise, but I'm sure their number is less than the number of married couples shouting their lungs out at each other or the number of parents with one-year old babies who are just discovering the pleasure of screaming bloody hell in the middle of the night and watching their parents dance around them. At least, when bachelors make a noise, its out of joy and happiness, not because someone got the wrong kind of butter from the store. You can tell the bachelors to stop making noise and they'll listen to you, try the same thing with a baby and he'll just poop on you.
The only solution possible to escape from this discrimination would be to get married, though even thinking about that brings too many proverbs about rocks and frying pans and hellfire to mind.
P.S: For those idealistic ones who might be offended that I am comparing serious issues like religion and caste with my personal problems, once again I say, I don't care.
As if things like religion, caste, sex, class, ethnicity and regionalism were not enough, our society has come up with a number of new ways to spread their bias. One of the foremost among these is the bias against bachelors. Now, normally I wouldn't care about what society thinks in general but when something affects you personally, you notice.
And the reason that I notice is that it has become more or less impossible to get a decent place to stay at a decent location at a decent price in Mumbai. More than half the doors are shut in your face (or to be more literal, phones are slammed down) as soon as you mention the B word. Everybody wants to rent out their place to a religious, traditional, vegetarian family. They run from people like me as if we carry the pox. Even if you manage to find a prospective landlord who is willing, the all-powerful housing society will come into the picture and ban all bachelors from their particular building.
Despite all this, if you do get hold of a flat, be ready to pay crazy amounts of money as "Security Deposit", even if the flat is an unfurnished one, and to bear the sickening condescension shown by the landlord towards you, as if you would have starved on the streets if it weren't for his gracious helping hand.
And I really don't understand how this bias has been so well established. I mean, sure there are quite a few bachelors out there who maybe get drunk and make a lot f noise, but I'm sure their number is less than the number of married couples shouting their lungs out at each other or the number of parents with one-year old babies who are just discovering the pleasure of screaming bloody hell in the middle of the night and watching their parents dance around them. At least, when bachelors make a noise, its out of joy and happiness, not because someone got the wrong kind of butter from the store. You can tell the bachelors to stop making noise and they'll listen to you, try the same thing with a baby and he'll just poop on you.
The only solution possible to escape from this discrimination would be to get married, though even thinking about that brings too many proverbs about rocks and frying pans and hellfire to mind.
P.S: For those idealistic ones who might be offended that I am comparing serious issues like religion and caste with my personal problems, once again I say, I don't care.
