This is our story, a story of me and my engineering college friends. This is a story of shame on the age old social taboos and hypocrisy which is inherent in our society. A night I hate to recall but yet find it essential to share.
I was a student of Chemical
Engineering then and in our last year we were supposed to complete an In-plant
training of 45 days. Many of my friends including me, were placed in plants of
Haldia (West Bengal), the so called industrial hub. We had rented two separate apartments
one for the girls and another for the boys. The boys had compromised on the
luxury part of stay as the girls’ accommodation was far better than theirs.
However we all used to study together may be till 10 pm in the night in our
flat. It was a huge group of around 10 students, from Rajabazar Science
College, which is a reputed institution in West Bengal. And obviously when 10
students are studying together, there is ought to be a little bit of jokes, fun
and noise.
That evening I was not feeling
well, and decided to skip dinner. All my friends went to the local market to
eat. We stayed on the fifth floor of an apartment, which was mostly occupied by
families of people working in the different famous industries like IOCL, HPL
etc. Hence supposed to be belonging to the literate strata of the society. The
apartment was situated in one of the best locations of Haldia, so called posh.
The view of the petrochemical and refinery complexes in night is awesome, with thousands of Illuminating lights. After my friends left, I sat in the balcony, viewing the star studded plants and enjoying the soothing breeze. I was starting to feel better. Suddenly a knock at the door alarmed me. My friends were not supposed to return so soon and I hardly knew anyone else. To my utter disgust and scare, the lights went off at the same time. Load shedding was common, but that night it felt different. I went ahead to ask who was at the other side of the door and was aghast to find, that it was a group of men. The knocks increased in frequency and impact each time and I feared the door might break. A situation too hard for me to believe to be true. I demanded what they wanted. The answer infuriated me but I kept my calm and vowed not to open the door. They said, that they thought that we were doing some wrong activities in the flat, a thought as filthy as this, from the educated society without even gauging the reality was ridiculous. I immediately called my friends who ran back without even eating. The knocking, howling and nonsense carried on for a long time, but by the time my friends came they were gone. This incident shook us. In a civilized society, a group of students can’t mix freely, can’t talk freely and we call ourselves cultured. The next morning, I and my friends went to the society head of the apartment, only to find out he was the leader of the group. As he was not there, we expressed our disgust to his family and said we would take the matter to higher level as whatever they did was on the basis of baseless assumptions. Neither did we do anything nor did they return. But our belief that education enlightens and exposes ourselves to a brighter horizon was shattered. For some people, civilization is a mere word and my question is will this hypocrisy ever die out?
The view of the petrochemical and refinery complexes in night is awesome, with thousands of Illuminating lights. After my friends left, I sat in the balcony, viewing the star studded plants and enjoying the soothing breeze. I was starting to feel better. Suddenly a knock at the door alarmed me. My friends were not supposed to return so soon and I hardly knew anyone else. To my utter disgust and scare, the lights went off at the same time. Load shedding was common, but that night it felt different. I went ahead to ask who was at the other side of the door and was aghast to find, that it was a group of men. The knocks increased in frequency and impact each time and I feared the door might break. A situation too hard for me to believe to be true. I demanded what they wanted. The answer infuriated me but I kept my calm and vowed not to open the door. They said, that they thought that we were doing some wrong activities in the flat, a thought as filthy as this, from the educated society without even gauging the reality was ridiculous. I immediately called my friends who ran back without even eating. The knocking, howling and nonsense carried on for a long time, but by the time my friends came they were gone. This incident shook us. In a civilized society, a group of students can’t mix freely, can’t talk freely and we call ourselves cultured. The next morning, I and my friends went to the society head of the apartment, only to find out he was the leader of the group. As he was not there, we expressed our disgust to his family and said we would take the matter to higher level as whatever they did was on the basis of baseless assumptions. Neither did we do anything nor did they return. But our belief that education enlightens and exposes ourselves to a brighter horizon was shattered. For some people, civilization is a mere word and my question is will this hypocrisy ever die out?
Aritra Chakrabarty Sengupta
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