Untouchability

The lines drawn were invisible but they were there all the same and were present since time immemorial. Nobody was supposed to cross the lines so nobody crossed them. It was as simple as that!

Untouchability! And in how many different forms did it exist! Neither did it allow others to come near the elitist Brahmin class nor did it spare even kith and kin from its lasting effects. Right from birth to death it cast its shadow! At childbirth, it came in the form of Soyare or Suver. The new mother and young baby were not allowed to touch anything or anybody and vice a versa till the time they were purified on the tenth day of new arrival. And at the time of death it was Sutak, where the days to observe varied, depending upon the nearness of the relation. It was present during menstruation. It presided over the cooking preparation, it even affected cleaning and purification. It was not restricted to the human beings alone but included the inanimate things also. Simple water required for the religious rituals too, was stored only after it was sanctified. And once that was done, it was beyond the reach of lowly souls!

And when it wore the sovlay it was devastating. Like a twister, it destroyed everything that came in its purview. Even the lifeless shadow of a ‘lesser’ mortal from the lower caste did not escape it! It was all pervasive not leaving any sphere of the life "Untouched'. It restricted people not only from entering the kitchens but also from the minds!

Touch! Simple touch, many splendour gift of the sense to mankind. So brutally kept away from it by the Brahmins due to their vanity and their vacuous pride in the caste superiority, that it deprived even them from having the tryst with the divinity, in other words the ‘Touch’!

Touch! That sense of joy, which conveys the feelings without a word! A sense that carries the tornadoes of passion, which are quietened by the pools of compassion. A feel that takes the form of the delicate smooth silkiness of a newborn’s hair at one end to that of reassurance flowing through the wrinkled hands of age and experience, at the other. That cozy, warm feel of hand-stitched quilt on a cold chilly morning or the tingle given by the sudden splash of ice cold water on the face on dry, sultry, mid-summer noon.

Love, in many forms, bloomed in many hues and shades using ‘Touch’ as its medium, just bypassed them! By keeping themselves aloof and 'untouchable' though Brahmins prided in being superior, in fact they were a miserable lot who ended up being isolated from the mainstream in the long run.