Don’t make fun of us & the disease"

TNN | Mar 18, 2020, Kolkata: A young woman from Kalimpong, who is a first-year post-graduate student of English at Presidency University, has brought allegations of racial discrimination and derogatory remarks against a group of elderly men and posted a video of her harassment on social media last Saturday where she claimed she and her friends from the university were cat-called and touted as “coronavirus” as they walked past an alley on AJC Bose Road near Sealdah.

Three days after the incident, by when the video had gone viral and was shared multiple times by different Facebook users, TOI spoke to the woman

This is not the first time that I have been cat-called and harassed because of my features, but what happened on Saturday broke me from inside. I am from Kalimpong and have been studying in the city for several months now. Last Saturday, two of my friends from Darjeeling and I were going to an orphanage where we teach the kids. We stay at Presidency University hostel and took a train to reach Sealdah and were walking down an alley when an elderly man, sitting beside a tea stall, suddenly began shouting, saying ‘coronavirus eseche (coronavirus has come)’.

He said it thrice and his friends began laughing. I knew the comments were targeted at us and I protested. I ran up to him and challenged him as one of my friends began recording the conversation. The man didn’t say a word but the friends started defending him and tried to cover up saying the comments were not meant to us.

But I knew they were lying and didn’t realise we understood Bengali. I told them that me and my friends are from Bengal only and know the language very well.

In fact, one of my friends from Nepal had faced a similar harassment inside a local train recently during a field work. She couldn’t protest as she was alone but we decided to protest and shoot the video and post it for people to know what we go through for no reason.

The man later apologized for his deeds.

But we were really hurt at the treatment meted to us because of out facial features at a time when the world is going through a crisis.

I plead to everyone to not make fun of the disease and us, who are in no way connected with the spread of the same.

( As told to Tamaghna Banerjee)