By now, we know that what we learn from books is very different from reality. It’s okay to forget our calculus lessons (a module most kids struggled with) but if we forget the moral lessons based on sensitive issues such as racism, gender, and social equality, it affects our overall personalities.
This beautiful video by UrbanClap got us thinking – while we are taught about ‘equality‘ in our moral science class, why is there a separate plate and glass for someone who cleans our home? Elders were making this discriminatory decision based on either their caste or hygiene without realising about someone’s feelings. But we’ve gotten over that unnecessary tradition and the coming generations must prioritise empathy.
Be it our maid, our cook or our electrician, the people who come to provide a service at our home are actually trained professionals with respectful art to display just like us. That’s equality!
Everyone deserves an equal and respectful treatment and that’s exactly what this beautiful video from UrbanClap is trying to portray.
A video that actually reminded me of more such instances when we all commonly behave discriminatorily and don’t even realise.
Disclaimer: The following points are not true for everyone.
1. When we allow our full-time house help to sleep in the kitchen on a floor.
While many prefer on sleeping on soft mattresses worth thousands, they feel it’s absolutely fine for a house help to sleep on the floor of a kitchen but it’s not. They may or may not be used to it but by being a bigger person, maybe you can assure them that they deserve better.
2. When we let our house help eat the leftovers after we’ve eaten our meal.
Our house help deserves to eat fresh meals like us. They are as hygienic as we are. They made that food and they cleaned our house so they deserve the respect. Instead of asking them to finish leftovers that are a few days old, let’s try and share the same fresh food that we eat ourselves.
3. When we don’t accept a bad meal from mom but we appreciate our father when he makes bad tea.
We are so used to eating that perfect meal our mom made that we almost forget that she’s a human who can make mistakes. The moment we eat a meal that doesn’t taste as good as usual, we’re pretty quick to react irritably. But dad making tea on a Sunday morning, we aren’t used to that, so we’ll take it with a smile even if it’s without sugar. Why the discrimination, bro?
4. When we assume someone who is large, is overweight because he or she eats a lot of junk.
Just because we see an overweight person, we can’t assume that they’re unhealthy or someone whose diet is all about buckets of ice cream and burgers. We can’t start judging or commenting on something we don’t know about. There are plenty of blameless reasons for a body to gain weight other than food – thyroid, hormonal and menstrual cycle disturbances, genes, allergies etc.
5. When we silently judge someone who doesn’t talk to us.
If someone doesn’t talk to us, it doesn’t mean that they’re snobby, weird, different or should be a target of gossip. They could be shy or they could simply be introverts. We don’t HAVE to judge them. We can just let them be.
6. When we treat the kid on the street differently.
That kid asking for food on the street is still a kid. No one is forcing us to give money to him or her. We can give or buy them food if we wish to but nothing gives us a right to judge them. While we are buying our kids a fudge brownie from Theobroma, we are actually hesitating to buy that kid a street kulcha.
Again, not everyone does these things, but by avoiding discrimination and snap judgements, we can just make the country a much better place.
Bonus: It feels good to be good and it doesn’t cost much!
GIFs: Giphy
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