It was a regular Monday morning I was making coffee for myself and my mom,and suddenly the doorbell rang. It was the technician for free service of our newly replaced R.O. system as soon as he entered kitchen I offered him coffee to which he hesitantly refused,then I did what every Indian host would do,I added another cup of milk anyway.
While having coffee.I tried to strike a conversation with him which went as follows:-
Me:-So, are you new in the team as I have never seen you when we were using previous models.
Him:-Ya,It was my brother who used to visit you.
Me:-Yes,I was thinking of it right when I saw your name.
Him:-Yes we belong to same caste.*An upper caste*
Me:-(Jokingly) That’s obvious but what does your caste has to do with your job,I hope they don’t have caste-based reservations there.
Him:-That’s not totally correct.Since most of the RO systems are installed in kitchens and people here are skeptical regarding who enters their kitchen and touches the stuff there , so they check caste before letting me in, since I am newly recruited some of them even check Adhaar card to confirm my caste.
After which he took out his sheet completed the formalities, and left.
I belong to one of those upper castes,some of the readers might have already checked that.His reply to my generally perceived notion left me thinking the people who are well-to-do enough to afford an R.O. system and educated enough to verify identity of some one using adhaar card are shallow enough to stop a person ,who is simplifying their lives to enter their kitchens just based on some shallow age-old ritual.
Is caste system really dead?