Let me tell you an interesting story –
Once upon a time, there was a bachelor who tried to rent an apartment in India – a free country.
He failed.
The end.
Cool story. Real struggle.
My housing society passed a “resolution” to ban bachelors from renting an apartment. Now when I say this, one can picture smartly-dressed men discussing, debating and drafting a bill in the legislative assembly, but no.
The resolution is passed in an abandoned apartment by a group of unshaven middle-aged men in their pajamas on a Sunday.
But this new resolution means –
1. No bachelor can rent an apartment in the society in the future.
2. The existing lot, who don’t have a rent agreement, has to evict the premises.
This is wrong because –
1. It is discrimination.
2. It is causing deliberate discomfort to a group of individuals.
They have not even started to look for an apartment, and pushing them out is similar to rendering them homeless.
And this is not new. There have been cases where the housing society was taken to court and the tenant was allowed to stay and there have been cases where the tenant was evicted because the house owner didn’t stand up to the Housing society.
And the most common complaints against bachelors are –
1. They are “loose”.
2. They are noisy and make a lot of commotion.
3. They drink and smoke and keep the apartment dirty, leading to repair costs.
Firstly, I do not get the concept of “loose”, I think the word people are looking here for is “free”. Bachelors are not caged in a fucking gilded cage of schedules. They will come and go as they deem fit, with whoever they want to. It is a free country and it is none of the society’s business.
Secondly, yes, the complaint that they create commotion is probably the only valid one – but even here people end up generalizing – all bachelors are gorillas who party every day. Whereas the truth is that there are very few cases of bachelors causing a chaos, but that one stray incident is stamped into the society’s memory forever.
Thirdly – that’s why people collect a deposit against renting an apartment – to cover the costs of accidental damage that might happen.
This is wrong on so many levels. Somehow being married makes you a better social person? What if we start discriminating against the married people –
1. They indulge in marital rapes and yeah, it is all silent.
2. There are wife beaters
3. There are husband beaters and children beaters too.
4. Married people drink, smoke and fuck around too. Ever heard of divorce?
When will people understand that you can discriminate against anyone, if you have the will to do it?
When will people understand that it is the person that causes problems and not the fact that he is unmarried or a non-vegetarian or a Muslim or a woman?
And if that doesn’t make sense, the following thing happened in a meeting at my aunt’s society –
She was attending one of these routine society meetings on a Sunday.
Just out of the blue people started ranting about how much of a mess bachelors created and everyone joined in. And just like that they talked about passing a resolution to ban bachelors.
Now, my aunt knows the difficulty at which I found an apartment and she stood up and asked them,”How many of you have children studying abroad?”
8-10 people raised their hands.
“How would you feel, if people over there started passing resolutions like this? Where would your kids go?”
They were silent. They didn’t pass the resolution, but this is just one case.
Many do not realize the folly of such a rule. Most of the society members do not realize they are leaving people with grudges.
These people – bachelors – when they turn out to be “married” and “responsible” adults living in societies will have decision-making power then. And if you were responsible in causing their eviction now, who knows your kid might end up in their society in the future.
How would you like your kid to be treated then?
Would you want him/her kicked out because he loves to eat chicken?
Would you like it when someone calls him/her loose?
Would you like to get a call saying that they do not have anywhere to go, because they were kicked out?
Are we so fucking heartless that we cannot tolerate a few runts going about their life in a loud way?
Are we so fucking incapable of communication and influence as adults that we cannot sit them down and tell them that the excessive noise is not appreciated – in a civil way?
Can we please show some kindness to them and not look at them like they are a bunch of “loose” wild animals.
Can we make our society a bit more communicative so that when our kids go out to live when they are in college –
there are no “NO BACHELORS ALLOWED” boards outside the gate right under “BEWARE OF DOGS” signboard.
Remember –
What goes around, comes around.
Stop discriminating. You are just sowing the seeds of hatred that will grow into a plant to bite your next generation in the ass.
And you will be a long way away.
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