Introduction to Indian Caste Systems

Do you guys remember when you were introduced to the Indian Caste System for the first time in your life? Well, in this post I'm gonna write about my experience about how I got introduced to the Indian Caste System. I can very well remember that incident; I was studying in 3rd standard then. I did my schooling in Vasavi Vidyalam in Tirupur.It's a typical govt tamil medium school.There were 2 temples(Easwaran,Perumal kovil) near my school.Both temples are only 2 mins walking distance from my school. Me and my friend Ganapathi Subramaniam (he was my best friend) used to have lunch together those days.Some times we used to have lunch in one of those temples.

One fine day I was getting ready for school,i asked my amma what did she packed in my lunch box.She said fish kozhambu with smile on her face.At that time i wanted to ask her why she packed fish kozhambu coz she never used to give me any non-veg for lunch but as i was in a hurry to get ready to school, i forgot the whole conversation and went to school.In the afternoon, me and my friend Ganapathy went to Easwaran kovil to have our lunch. When ever we go there,the priest in that temple used to enquire Ganapathy about his family and what lunch we brought in that day and stuff.He was his relative.He did the same on that day as well and i said fish kozhambu calmly .He turned back angrily towards Ganapathy and he was looking so nervous(I really had no clue what's going on between them).

Priest then asked him exactly this,"intha mathire pasangaloda ellam en sera?"(why do u have friendship with these guys?)Ganapathy was going like, "Mama illa mama ivan antha mathire aagaram ellam konduvara mattan" and blah blah blah.(No uncle he won't bring that kind of food usually).Then the priest said to him not to have lunch with me that day and turned back and said to me if you bring mamisam then you shouldn't come to temple .I simply nodded at him.We both went to our usual place in that temple to have lunch.Ganapathy sat 20 m away from me.

To tell u guys honestly, i had no clue what so ever at that time about what's happening.I opened my lunch box and found Tomato Kozhambu instead of fish kozhambu.I found the reason for my mum's smile when she said fish kozhambu in the morning (my mum's tomato kozhamu tastes like fish curry).I was so happy to see tomato kozhambu .I stood up and said "dei Ganapathi enga amma thakali kozhamba chummanachuku meen kozhambunu solirukangada" by saying that i went near him.He started running with his lunch box and i was chasing and shouting at him like "dei ithu thakali kozhambu da Ganapathy".he went to that same priest .

I went to that priest and explained him the whole story.He laughed and said "inimel nee mamisam sapidaratha iruntha Ganapathy koda sera kudathu".I said ok.Later when i went home, i explained everything to my mum,the whole family was there.when i finished my story everyone had best laugh of their life. I had no clue for their laugh.My dad said," Ganapathy Iyer veetu paiyan da avan curry ellam sapida matan".I asked him y?he said something.I couldn't understand his explanation that stage.

When I think back now,I guess it wasn't a bad experience.Which priest on earth would allow you to have fish kozhambu inside the temple?Someone else in his place could have easily created hatred in mind about Iyers.Luckly that wasn't the case in my experience.