Haughty and arrogant expression creeps stealthily on the pompous prick’s visage; he throws his head back, sticks his chin out before he blurts out his incorrigible opinion with a decisive manoeuvre. His “a slave’s son can only be a slave” shocks the pretentiously polite audience into stunned silence. A few seconds later a malicious, presumptuous bitch with a smirk on her makeup-cake- face addresses an upper middle-class guest as a servant girl vainly labouring under the illusion that she had scored a point over her rival. A silent observer to this unpredictable spectacle, she muses if ever class or race differences could be rid.
It is not every day we hear ‘from rags to riches’ stories however, we are not unfamiliar with the real-life stories of several successful men in the society who had to start from the scratch to reach where they are today. I can cite one too many examples of how children of men in lowly jobs have achieved remarkable feats because of their relentless perseverance and sheer industriousness. I have grown up reading and viewing success stories of IAS toppers who are children of auto driver, rickshaw puller, street vendor etc. https://www.jagranjosh.com/articles/ias-success-stories-1476969243-1
We all know that the late American president Abraham Lincoln is a shoemaker’s son and he shamed the arrogant aristocrats whenever they tried to put him down by referring to his low socio-economic status.
Similarly, Colonel Harland David Sanders went through myriad struggles and hardships before he became renowned for his Kentucky Fried Chicken. From a homeless individual to become the founder of Gardner and Co stockbroker firm, Chris Gardner had to face all sorts of adversities with fortitude, patience, handwork and his strategy-based approach. He has grown to be a larger than life American businessman, investor, stockbroker, motivational speaker, author, and a philanthropist. Those who know Marco Robinson are not clueless about the fact that he used to sleep in parks and even though he began with zero became a successful property developer whose net worth is more than £25 million. David Chiem, who arrived as an asylum seeker to Australia on a boat, hardly knew to speak the English language. Nine year old David, despite his traumatic experiences, excelled in education, A chance to act in the TV series ‘Butterfly Island’ became the turning point in his life, which influenced him to choose a career in acting and film-making. Mr Chiem founded the early learning organisation MindChamps in Sydney, which soon spread to other parts of Australia, and has also authored seven books over the years, including the best-selling, critically acclaimed novel Only the Heart, which spent many years on the NSW HSC curriculum.
Ignoring such success stories that has removed the barriers of class and race differences, a few intellectually shallow people, like the ones I mentioned above, chose to believe that every Indian whom they came across in Australia were from the slums, especially since the release of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. There were a few ignoramuses who were audacious enough to entertain the thought that I hailed from a menial background. Little do they know about the upper middle-class lifestyle I had enjoyed in a two storeyed home called ‘Jovilla’ or about the reputed institutions from where I had received my education. I often pin down their ridiculous observations and discriminatory attitude to their envy, insecurity and inefficiency. God save the unenlightened and the ill-humoured!
A Writer's Exposé 