CASTE IS ACTING HUMAN

By Tamirisa Janaki

Translated by Nidadavolu Malathi

“Gopi, come here,” Suseelamma shouted angrily.

“What’s it, amma?” Gopi came into the kitchen.

“Why’re you taking him into every room? Let him sit outside. Why’d you make friends with him, anyways? Walk around with arms around each other’s shoulders, what’s it with you?”

“Amma, Ramu is my classmate.”

“So what? You may not know about his caste but I do. Don’t you ever bring each and every boy into this house, like that.”

“Why not?” Gopi asked, watching his mother and a little scared.

“We must not touch them. We belong to higher caste and he is low caste,” his mother replied all wound up and sat down in front of her gods for her daily worship. She spent one half hour chanting the stotras and finished with her last chant, mitrasya maa cakshusha sarvaani bhoothaani sameekshe, mitrasya cakshushaa sameeksha mahe [May all living beings view me with compassion; may we humans view each other with compassion].

Gopi was scared of his mother. He took Ramu to the front porch. Amma always talks about caste but his little brain could not comprehend what it meant. Poor Ramu. Gopi has been asking him to come to his place for a long time and finally now he is here. Gopi was so zealous to show his entire house to Ramu—the room upstairs where he sleeps, and overlooking the river Godavari, and the Goddess temple, and all that. But amma is saying he should not bring Ramu into the house. They both are of the same age and they’re in the same class. Ramu excels in all subjects. He has been always ranking first. Gopi likes Ramu a lot. So does Ramu. I bring him here since he is a nice boy and I like him. Why is amma upset? Gopi couldn’t understand that part.

He couldn’t hold back anymore. That night, Gopi raised the question with his mother, “Amma, what do you mean when you say caste?”

“Caste means, well, caste means …” Suseelamma could not find the right words to explain it. “There are several castes like brahmin, kshatriya, vaisya and so on,” she said, although she was well aware that that was not the correct answer to his question.

“So who decides who belongs to what caste?”

She thought she could answer her son’s question this time.

²²²

The small company where Gopi’s father, Seshagiri, was working went out of business and Seshagiri lost his job. After that he couldn’t find another job. So, he took out a loan and opened a small department store. They were managing somehow to make ends meet.

One day he received a letter from his younger brother who was living in Hyderabad.

“What did he write in the letter?” Suseelamma asked her husband.

“Nothing special. Finally he has come around, it seems. He is beginning to understand his responsibilities. He has been fooling around for so long. Now he has learned to hold a job I suppose.”

“What has happened, exactly?”

“He said he has opened a drycleaning shop in partnership with a friend.”

“What? Laundry shop?” Suseelamma said, disparagingly.

“Why are you dismissing it like that? Drycleaning shop brings good money in cities. You should be proud of him. After so many years, he came around finally and is making a better life for himself.”

“What else did you expect me to say?”

“He did not do well in school; barely made it through tenth class. I tried to pursuade him to go for higher study but he was not interested. Let’s be realistic. Nowadays not all the educated are landing good jobs either. Look what’s happening. People obtain degrees, grow beards, stand in line and threaten to starve until the government showed them jobs, to what point? All they’ve got is the label unemployed. If you ask me, each person should find a way on his own and learn to make a living for himself.”

Gopi was also in the room. Their conversation pierced through his ears. He understood parts of it and some parts he didn’t.

“Amma, can I go to Ravi’s home to play? Just for a little while,” Gopi asked his mother.

Ravi has a puppy in his home. They got her recently. Ravi told Gopi several times that the puppy was very cute and that he should come to see her. Gopi was dying to see the puppy.

“What? Ravi’s house? Have you lost your mind?” Suseelamma yelled crushing his Gopi’s enthusiasm.

“He said he’d go to Ravi’s house. Why are you asking if he lost his mind?” Seshagiri asked, surprised.

“Yes, that’s what I’m saying. How can he go to their house? I am sure you knew it too. Ravi’s mother belongs to one caste and his father to another. How can we send our boy to the house of a mixed couple?”

“Abbha! You’re giving me a headache with your caste, race dilemma; blabbering about it all the time.”

“You get on my case every time you’ve got a chance. You are so tired of my words. Why did you marry me in the first place?”

“That’s enough. One more song you’ve been singing forever.”

“you can say whatever you please. You think that I am not going anywhere no matter what, no matter however much you insult me.”

“What did I say wrong, now?”

“Hum, You say whatever comes to your mind and turn around and ask me what did I say? You’ll never change.”

“Whatever you mean? What part of me I should change?” It started out as a little disagreement and soon turned into a storm. Gopi shut his ears and sat on the front porch for a while. His parents argue for something or other almost everyday. A huge doubt popped up in his head—Do all parents bicker all the time like his?

Ravi kept insisting and Gopi decided to visit his puppy, on his way home from school one day. The puppy was cute, really. She came to Gopi quite friendly. Both, Ravi and Gopi played with the puppy for a while. Ravi’s mother told them to wash their hands and come in; she made snacks for them.

“I’ve to go home,” Gopi mumbled vaguely.

“You can go after eating something along with Ravi,” Ravi’s mother was very kind and he couldn’t refuse. Ravi’s father also walked in. He hugged Ravi and asked gently, “Is he a friend of yours? What’s his name?”

Ravi told him his friend’s name. His father said, “Good. Did you show our house to your friend? Did you show him our puppy? Also, the figurines your mother has made?”

“Stop it, you are talking like my figurines are masterpieces,” Ravi’s mother laughed shyly.

”I don’t know. I like your figurines a lot better than all those great masterpieces. They are special for us. So, what’d make for tiffin today?”

“Didn’t tell me to make pakodi earlier this morning.” Her gentle voice was pleasurable for Gopi and he wanted to stay there and listen to that voice over and again.

“Ha, so you made pakodi. Good. Children, come on, let’s eat hot, hot pakodi.”

Both Ravi and Gopi went in, washed their hands with soap and returned to the kitchen. Hot pakodi were set on the dining table, causing his mouth to water. Ravi’s mother sat next to Gopi. Ravi’s father was telling amusing stories and his mother kept serving more and more pakodi in their plates. The entire atmosphere was very pleasant; pakodi tasted doubly delicious.

After they returned to livingroom, Gopi asked Ravi, almost in a whisper, “How come your mother let me go into the kitchen without asking what caste I belonged to?”

“Caste? What’s it?”

“Don’t know what caste is?”

“No, I don’t know.”

“Your mother never mentioned it? You really don’t know?”

“No, really, I don’t know.”

For Gopi, that sounded very strange. Ravi spread a mat on the floor and asked Gopi, “Shall we play carroms?”

“Yes, let’s play,” uncle, Ravi’s father, said and sat down with them. That was again one more surprise for Gopi.

“Gopi, you and I can be one team,” aunty sat down across from Gopi. He was delighted. He was not good at carroms but played enthusiastically. He didn’t realize how much time passed by unnoticed.

Gopi returned home and the atmosphere here was the same as always. Mother and father were fighting like crazy about something.

Suseelamma saw Gopi walk in and screamed, “Where did you go?”

“I went to Ravi’s house,” he replied. He was not in the habit of lying. His teacher at school told him several times that lying was bad.

“How dare you? How many times have I told you that you should not go to their house? Why did you go there?”

“You keep saying such people, such people. In fact, they are very nice,” he said, looking into her face straight, although a little frightened at the same time.

“Ha! ha! Here is a big boy born to certify their good nature. Whatever goodness you’ve seen in them. She belonged to one caste and he to another,” said Suseelamma, making face, as if belonging to different castes was a huge sin.

“I don’t know what castes they belonged to but they are nice people. They talked with me with the same kind voice they’d talk to their son, Ravi. They never fight like you and dad do, Ravi told me.”

Seshagiri was shocked as he heard his son’s words. He began to understand the thoughts that lay dorment in that little heart. Now he realized what a turmoil their daily arguments must have created in his tiny heart. Both he and his wife are always tense. They snap quickly without thinking twice.

Gopi continued, “Ravi’s mother and father play carroms with him; ring tennis with him. Whenever he brings his friends home, they invite them and speak with them kindly. They don’t drag Ravi into the back room and inquire about his friends’ caste. They don’t tell him not to bring friends in, or make them sit on the front porch.”

“That’s enough.Don’t you lecture me.”

“Amma, you said that castes are based on people’s calling. Chinnanna has a drycleaning shop and nanna has a department store. So, what is our caste?”

Suseelamma couldn’t listen to him anymore. She started staring at both of them as if she’s lost her mind. Seshagiri walked up to her and put his arm around her shoulders. She twitched and stared back at him. Their eyes met. Numerous thoughts pervaded the two pairs of eyes.

“Will you take me to your friend, Ravi’s home tomorrow and introduce me to his mother, Gopi?” she asked him.

Gopi’s eyes glowed delightfully. He looked at her as if he couldn’t believe his ears. “Woud you go to their house? You told me I couldn’t go there!”

“I will never speak like that again.”

Gopi, in raptures, embraced her. “My amma is so sweet,” he said.

²²²

(The Telugu original, “maanavate minishi kulam” [Compassion Is Person’s Caste] was published in the anthology manasidi neekosam [this heart is for you], published by spandana sahiti samakhya, 1989. Author’s permission is gratefully acknowledged.)