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October 12, 2004
What’s NOT in a name?
I came across an interesting incident a couple of weeks back. One of the astrologers was not getting enough orders through a particular astrology portal and the business team thought there could be an interesting reason behind it. He is a Christian by birth, and obviously he has a Christian name. And MOST Indians wouldn’t prefer to consult a Christian astrologer – and that was their argument. They called him up to ask him if he could change his name to a Hindu name, so that he can get good business. And thankfully he refused to do so.
At first, I thought the concept of people preferring others by their names and that religion is one of the prerequisite to determine the credibility of a person and his acceptance in the society were foolish. But then, my photographic memory helped me to extract some sense from what was happening around us, even when we flaunt about human consciousness, religious equality and IT revolution in the 21st century.
I always loved to have a beard, and I am having it since it started growing. I was looking out for a house, for my sister who had got a job in Chennai in 1997, along with the house broker. The broker kept staring at my face once in a while, and he could not resist himself from asking what he had on his mind. He shot the question – are you a Muslim? I usually get damn irritated when people ask me about my religion and caste. May be because I am not sure of both of them. I always try to exist as a HUMAN, and that is how I was trained to. I told the broker, “NO, I am not a Muslim.” Then he shot his second question, then? Are you a Christian? I said why do you ask these things? And he honestly confessed that I wouldn’t get a house if I happen to be either of them!
I was having an informal chat with a Tamil writer, who like any 3rd person on the street wanted to direct his own movie. He had some valid inputs that enlightened me to certain extent. He said the whole movie industry loves to be referred to as a Hindu body though we may call our country a secular country in the print. Hence, you cannot see many movies, which has hero or heroine having Christian or Muslim names as casts until and unless the story revolves around religious subject.
A Citibank Credit Card marketing guy barged into the Indian Express office to get guys to buy the cards. I had (still have) a very good friend named Masooma Colombowala, who incidentally was a Muslim. She was damn excited to get one Credit Card, and the guy rejected her application saying we don’t give cards to Muslims. And he justified his stand saying, we don’t even give credit cards to Shahrukh and Aamir Khan!!
The print media is called the 4th Estate, which is supposed to stand for justice always. I was personally taken aback, when my Mass Communication HOD told us that the leading newspaper of Tamil Nadu always prefers to take people from their particular community, and that 90 per cent of their employees belong to same caste.
None has to be blamed, for birds of feather always flock together!
Posted by Kenni at October 12, 2004 10:49 AM