The Oppressed

Today I am going to advocate for a section of society who has been “the oppressed” for centuries unknown and yet this oppression goes unnoticed by everyone.

I can probably understand and empathize with them more than anyone else because, even I once belonged to the same society.

No! I am not going to talk about any caste, sex or region here. On the contrary I am referring to another weaker section of the society- the society of lean people.

To elucidate further, here it goes…

I still remember very vividly the good old days in school, when school started after prolonged summer vacation. All of us returned to school with new school dresses, new bags, water bottles etc. The first day of the class was usually, a standard exercise followed by the class teachers of almost all the classes. It was the seating arrangement exercise where all of us were made to sit in the benches according to our heights - three per bench. My entire problem started only when my turn came. Only in the bench in which I sat, teachers used to push another extra candidate. Year after year, teachers changed, but this exception in my case continued. Not a single year passed, where I sat on my bench comfortably like everyone else.
My troubles were not restricted to school. Back home, whenever it was a travel time, like all other kids, I used to look forward to traveling. But, never I had a full seat during a bus journey. I’m not sure if it was special love or a reason to save ticket (though my instincts support the second reason) I was put on someone’s lap or was forced to sit between any two elders who traveled with me.

I was always hopeful that one day, I would have a seat in a classroom or in a bus.
But the saga of sharing space continued even in my graduation days. We belong to the older generation of graduation kids, who never had separate bikes or cars. So, whenever it was a movie time, we had to take autos and travel. We were a group of 5 girls – a number that was more for one auto and less for 2 autos. Since we always fell in short of funds, we would choose one auto over two and again, it was me who sat in the lap. I had a company this time though. Sometimes, I was lucky enough and got a relatively spacious place to sit – the side of the auto. I know! A weird place to sit, but only a person like me understands the comfort in such a place when compared to sitting on someone’s lap.
Well, one might call all the above incidents as cases of adjustment, then why am I referring people like me as the oppressed?

You have read through to know it…


After my graduation, I joined an IT firm in Mumbai and used to travel often to Hyderabad. On one such occasion, I got into the train at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminus (CST). My seat number was 62. The train started and all the seats in our coupe except one seat number 60 were full. I was surprised that for once in my life, I got lucky and would be able to sit comfortably. I settled down quickly and started reading the novel. The train slowly reached Pune and then I realized that there was a huge, gigantic figure standing in front of me. Oh, the person was so weirdly huge that he could have been easily mistaken for an alien. And then it was a joke that destiny played on me. The person’s seat number was 60.
How naïve I was for having trusted my luck with respect to sharing space. The person sat down in the allocated seat .The other person who was already sitting in seat number 61 was of considerable size too. So, they both together took advantage of my size and slowly pushed me. After a little unnoticed wrestling war, they were both successful in pushing me and squeezing me to the corner.

Isn’t it a clear case of exploitation of my lean structure?

The other case that made me realize my vulnerability is the share auto scene.

Hyderabad is quite famous for share autos. These autos though designed for a seating capacity of 3, the drivers here got innovative and remodeled these autos such that they carry 7 or at times even 8. One must be wondering how can a three-seater auto suffice seven or eight people. Well, that’s where people like me come into picture. The auto drivers count on the fact that the world is full of oppressed people like me.

Once I got into one such share auto and as luck would have it, as soon as I got into the auto another fatso huge aunty got into it. Her size intimidated me, so naturally I moved and adjusted so that she had adequate place to sit. The auto started and so did my troubles. As auto moved, the fat aunty started pushing me hard with her huge b**s. I was passive till a point when I realized that if I did not react, I would fall out of the auto. Out of the fear and anger that I would fall from the auto, I raised my voice and asked her to move a little. The response that I received from her not only hurt my ego forever but also forced me to take a resolution. When I asked her to move, she responded back in the most sarcastic voice,“ intha bakka ga unnavu, neeku kuda place kavalamma. Em padipovule, kurcho.” It means, “you are so lean, do you also need more place. It’s ok! Sit. You wont fall outside.”


I am not sure if it was the tone or the truth, but her dialogues made me realize how vulnerable I was. Be it a school bench or a bus or a train or a share auto, lean people were oppressed and were susceptible to such unscrupulous acts everywhere. So, I decided that day, that I will not allow this to continue with me forever. And so, I did something, which I feel every lean person should do.

I……….

I……….

I………..







I PUT ON WEIGHT. ☺))