The ride of a lifetime...

We have all grown up with prejudices, be it for people from a certain social background, caste, religion, status, et all. We even have prejudices against men or women, the biggest of them is for Eunuchs. I have been petrified of them ever since I was little kid, even today the sight of one gives me the hibbie jibbies, but today something changed it all...

I was to meet my cousin at a CCD near my office. just to get to the place faster and save my lazy ass some trouble, I called for a rick.As soon as I got into the rick, an Eunuch came running towards my rick and begged of me to drop him somewhere. I froze at the sight of him, n then I told him that I cant drop him. He started begging of me all the more, apparently it was an emergency. I told him that I was scared and asked him to get another rick, but there were none. After a lot of begging he said to me, am I not a human? Is it my fault that god made me like this? I froze again the minute he said this. I let him/her in my rick and sat there petrified. Minutes after the ride started, my head filed up with a million possibilities...

What if he took out a knife and robbed me? What if he snatched my gold chain? What if he and the driver kidnapped me! I sat there holding my bag close to me, hoping and praying for the journey to end soon, while he sat in the corner, repeatedly asking me to calm down and saying that he wont hurt me. My ordeal ended shortly when he decided to get off at the signal. Before he left, he turned around, smiled and said Shukriya beta. He also said that I am not goin to hurt you, if god had made me normal, I would have had a daughter like you...

As he left, I sat there staring blankly at him. I don't remember a lot of 'normal' people who bother to say shukriya. He had no intention of hurting me. Just like me, he had to go somewhere urgently too. Then why was I so scared? And just like me, there are a million others who refuse to be associated with a eunuch, even their own families abandon them, the rickshawala refused to take him in his auto! Why are these people shunned by the society? Don't they have the right to lead a normal life too? This incident did give me that much needed jolt of reality check and am going to look for answers to these questions. This was the ride of a lifetime, lesson learned: Have no prejudice, and don't let society decide your fears...