Such is Life!

Questions like who gave you the right to inherit everything that your parents had? Who gave you the right to be wealthy just because your parents were and who gave you the right to suffer from poverty just because your parents were poor? Who gave you the right to have loving parents and who gave you the right to go through an abusive childhood? After all, none of us has the ability to choose our family now, do we? I don't aim to find answers to these questions through this article, as I don't think there are any. No one chooses to be born in a particular family, no one would want to be born in a poverty-stricken household and no one would want abusive parents but some of us do get them right? Who gave us that right? And since no one chooses their respective background, why is there the existence of such dire inequality that currently exists in the world? Isn't every one of us just a human at the end of the day?

This is the story of Farhan and Jennifer. As midnight struck, in the local hospital cheers occurred in two rooms. A boy and a girl had just been successfully brought to life by the doctors and the mothers. Farhan was born to an extremely influential business-family while Jennifer was born to a waiter. Even though both Farhan and Jennifer once shared the same hospital, Farhan today was a businessmen, just like his parents, handling their family business while Jennifer on the other hand, was struggling for a job. Unfortunately both of them met their respective demise and had to die in the same hospital, they were born at. They shared the same hospital the moment they were born and the moment they died. They both were born as humans and they both died as humans, the only difference was, one of them had a fairly easy life than the other. One of them experienced things that the other could have only dreamt of. This brings us to an important aspect of living in a human society, Privilege.

Having being born in a country as diverse as India, I myself have a set of privileges that I enjoy. First and foremost, I am born into a religion that's in majority. Even though I am an agnostic Atheist and I consider myself to be irreligious, the fact is that I am a cultural Hindu. I am born and brought up in a religion that constitutes the majority in India which basically translates into me being less vulnerable to threats of religious attacks, something followers of minority religions like Christians and Muslims cannot enjoy. Secondly, the caste privilege; I never knew what my caste was, still don't and this in itself is a huge privilege since there are people in India who are constantly being reminded of their caste thanks to caste discrimination. Thirdly and most importantly, I am born as a male in a patriarchal society and this gives me immense freedom as compared to my counterparts, females and the transgender community. I don't have to think twice before stepping out of my house at night, I am not expected to hide any problems that I might have. I enjoy these privileges and I gladly acknowledge them…but what does acknowledging one's privilege even means? Is it equivalent to feeling guilty? No! Acknowledging your privileges has nothing to do with guilt. I don't have to feel guilty about being born as a male. So what does it mean to acknowledge your privileges then? It simply means that when someone comes up to me and says that we need better representation of women in the parliament and government institutions, I agree with them! Or when someone comes up to me and says that we need better representation of muslims and christians in the Indian cabinet, I agree with them! Acknowledging your privilege is not about feeling guilty for something that your ancestors did in the past or something that the society you live in is doing now, but supporting those people who do not have the fortune to enjoy the same privileges as you do.

Yes, the world isn't fair, I get it. But what have we done to make it fair-er? And have we done enough assuming we have done something? People always say that hard work brings money, I want to ask them, what kind of hard-work and what amount of hard work are they expecting out of a 14 year old boy who is currently sleeping in a slum in Mumbai? You see, hard work alone isn't enough, it requires privilege but unfortunately people like the boy mentioned do not even have the privilege to get them trained enough to do the said hard work. But, you know, as they say, 'Such is life!' even when it shouldn't be.