Bhitti (Autobiography of S.L. Bhyrappa) Post 2 - Discrimination against Brahmins
Prashant Parikh
Bhitti (Autobiography of S.L. Bhyrappa), Post 2:
Namaste, as mentioned earlier, I shall be posting relevant excerpts from the book. Here, Bhyrappa is conversing with a Professor about a well-deserved scholarship that he was denied, on account of being a Brahmin.
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Bhyrappa: Sir, I am the only first class S.S.L.C. student in a class of a hundred. I have no mother. Father is a vagabond. I don't have any means of eating food. I don't have a freeship, not even half a freeship
Prof: Is that so? Have you applied in time?
Bhyrappa: Yes Sir, I had applied
Prof: Did you have a fee concession in high school?
Bhyrappa: I had freeship. It's written in the T.C. also
Prof. (After thinking for half a minute he asked): What is your 'caste'?
Bhyrappa: Brahmin, Sir
Prof. Then? (He said as if everything was crystal clear) That's why you haven't got it. What can I do about it?
Bhyrappa: For my classmates who get three hundred rupees every month from home, as much as an Assistant Professor's pay, who are making merry by owning a Raleigh bicycle, woolen pants, a wrist watch with a gold chain, a gold necklace around the neck, all these boys have got a scholarship. They are people who have passed in third class in second or third attempt. With my merit and my poverty...(I stopped there)
Prof: You Brahmins have come up by knocking off opportunities right from the beginning. Everyone is educated in your caste. Let others also educate themselves (he said in a moralistic chastisement
Bhyrappa: I'm not envious of others studying, Sir, but it is just those with so much money, why should they get a fee concession? It's just that with the kind of merit and poverty that I have, why should the concession be denied to me? (My tone was emotional)
Prof: You can do some other job. Why should everybody study?
Bhyrappa: What will I get if others study? I have also tried working at other jobs. I was a server in a hotel. I was a coolie in Bombay. I did my SSLC by selling agarbattis as a traveling salesman. With all this I have got first class. My only aim in life is to educate myself. I have come back to study after finding out that the other professions have no meaning for me. I have no means of getting seven rupees per month.
Prof. Tell this to the Goverment. Sorry, I'm helpless. (He walked away)
BalaVenkateswara Sarma Devarakonda
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