The story is never new

So a year back when I wrote about Zhijia and her experience in Kolkata, there were people who told me that only foreigners face such things in Kolkata, but not Indians. This post today is to contradict such people. One of my classmates is from Assam and her initial journey in Kolkata is not very different from Zhijia's. She too was treated indifferently and was made to feel that she knows nothing. She was narrating us one incident where she was inside a bus and was asked for help by a woman from a different college who thought that she( my friend) was from the same college as hers. Hence the woman asked for the bus fare from my friend but immediately withdrew, when she came to know that my friend was from a different college. But my friend helped her with the money that was needed to buy the bus ticket, and also helped her with some extra money, in case an emergency arose. On doing so my friend was told by the other woman ' You are definitely not a resident of Kolkata '. In other words kindness does not come easily to the people of Kolkata. They try and test you, and if you are lucky, believe you. That was my experience too, in this city. A new place with new people will never welcome you easily. It becomes all the more difficult for people like me who take some time to open up. And what more? You face and experience some worse nightmares. The feeling of detection is mentally unhealthy and what is even worse? You know that things will never change.