(Disclaimer: This article is not at all related to the movie “Toilet- Ek Prem Katha”. Read it and I’m sure you’ll understand the meaning of the title.)

Here comes another great ideologies issue and this time my friend was lucky enough to get a chance experiencing it. Let’s come straight to the point. Since ancient times, Brahmin is a caste which is considered very learned and on the top of other castes. According to Indian culture, Brahmins can only do high profiled works. They cannot do other works which are not considered “Good enough”. But today we live in an era where all people are considered equal. Now we don’t differentiate people based on their castes. But as it is very difficult to change people’s thinking, there are some people who only consider other people based on their castes. So, one fine day my friend had taken the work of cleaning her whole house. She was accompanied by her mother-in-law and a lady servant. All things were going fine. My friend, then, asked the lady servant to clean the bathroom and the lady servant started doing as she was told. As she started cleaning the commode, the mother-in-law of my friend shouted from the other room and came running to her. My friend followed her mother-in-law to know what the matter was.

“Wait. Wait Rita!” said the mother-in-law.

“What happened ma’am? Did I do something wrong?” said the frightened lady servant.

“No, Rita. You once told me that you are a Brahmin, right?”

“Yes, I am.” replied the lady servant.

“How can you clean the toilet if you are a Brahmin?”

“Arey ma’am, that’s all right. I’ll do it” the lady servant replied in relief.

“No, you cannot. Come in the living room and I’ll show you some other work.  My daughter-in-law will clean the toilet” said the mother-in-law fiercely.

The lady servant followed the mother-in-law and my friend was standing there, witnessing the old wives’ tale in person, shocked.

She called me the next day and narrated the whole story. I was shocked as well because I never knew her mother-in-law believed in such superstitions. On one hand she believes that a Brahmin lady cannot do the work of cleaning the commode but it’s okay for her to make the lady of her house (“Ghar ki laxmi” quoted by the same mother-in-law) do that work of cleaning the commode.  I simply don’t understand the logic behind these things. I don’t intend to offend any caste or person. I personally respect every caste but I really want to bring change in people’s ideology and this Article is a small initiative for that long process.