Racism continues to haunt people in the IT capital.

Hi,

I am a native of Orissa. I work for an MNC here in Bangalore and have been staying in Bangalore for the past 5 years or so.
Time and again I have come across racism against people who hail from states other than Karnataka, here is Bangalore. I thought of being more vocal about these issues and reaching out to broader mass of people. Hope I will able to achieve this with the help of others who think like me and vow to make Bangalore a nice and peaceful place to live in as it was earlier. I request you to put forward my views in whatever way to more people in Bangalore as well as India.

I am greatly perturbed by the fact that when the number of educated people is so high in Bangalore, how can one be faced with racism time and again in day-to-day life. This negative vibe is flowing dense in the local Kannadiga community in Bangalore. It is not that all those people think that way. But some people are really pursuing it hard to spread racism in Bangalore, dont know for what. Probably they do not realise there are bigger enemies to defeat.

Yesterday night, BBMP people poured concrete mixture on the road in front of my house in Ayappa Garden, Audugodi leaving no space for the people residing in that lane to commute. This can be seen from the attached photo.

My wife had to leave for office at 6.30 AM and when she stepped out of the gate of my house she found that the mixture was still not dried up completely. But as there was no other resort, she had to carefully step into the harder/dried surfaces to make her way.

But all of a sudden a father and son duo came out of their house and very very rudely urged my wife to step on the 4 inch wide broken base of the compound wall of multiple houses to make her way to the main road (about 150 metres) by clinging to the compound wall. (I was watching all these from my balcony). To this my wife replied that being a lady and also because she was holding bag and tiffin box in her hand, she could not cling to the wall and step on the non-contiguous, uneven and broken 4 inch wide base of the compound wall for so much distance and she would fall otherwise.

To this, both the father and son went out to my wife as if to hit her and very very rudely verbally abused her as if she was some animal. I could not bear this and then intervened into the matter saying to both the people that being a lady she cannot do that and what if she falls down. To this the father and son duo started to abusing me in English and then when I expressed that it is not possible for my wife to do what they are asking, they abused me again and also kept saying in English "Speak in Kannada, speak in Kannada. we wont let you stay here" etc.

I simply fail to understand who are they to abuse my wife for tackling with some menace created by BBMP in her own way. And from where this "Kannada' thing come into picture. People lack the simple humanitarian thoughts and only inviting those days where people used to fight with each other over petty issues and some third person used to exploit the situation.

There have been other instances like this also when the police people inside the police station have refused point blank to my friend who had met with an accident on Hosur Road on her way back from office that they would not lodge an FIR unless she speaks in Kannada and have gone to extent of provoking the other party in the accident to man-handle her husband.

It is deed of some sick minded people who just live is their own closet without bothering or doing something for the bigger issues facing the nation. They are spreading the negative under-current in Bangalore against people who are non-kannadigas for no reason and are forgetting that India is a democratic and secular country.

This is very very wrong both from the humane aspect as well as constitutionally. It is high time that we rise above these petty issues of spreading racism for no good and fight together for other greater causes.