Jeeezzz..You have been Profiled!!!

The first time I came across the word "Profile", one of my intelligent and worldly smart friends told me that, when you add a photo to a bio-data it is called a profile (I know I have very smart friends) so when I read in some newspaper that the police were asking for the profile of a murderer from the witnesses, I was like How the hell will the witnesses have the bio-data of the murder that too with a picture on it. By that time I was taught to look up in the dictionary for the meanings of words I didn't know and not to rely on the intelligent friends. The next time my mind went bonkers was when i saw some American news channel blaming some one for racially profiling someone and found that it can be used as a gentler and politically correct version of abusing someone based on his caste, colour, creed, sex, race, religion etc. This got me into thinking of all the times i have been "Profiled" and I didn't even know. 

I am really not sure if it was in my 6th or 7th standard. I was new to the school and some kid was bothering me, making it difficult for me to concentrate on the lecture. Although the teacher noticed it she didn't react, so I had to take matter into my own hands. All i did was take his book and throw it out of the class and that's when the teacher's hand landed right across my cheek with all the force and I was asked to get out of the class for being arrogant. I later came to know that the kid bothering me was that teacher's relative. I was "Relatively Profiled".

I guess it was my 8th standard and the context in discussion are our unit tests that are held every month. I have to give a bit of humble self introduction although it might look like bragging. I was a topper most of my academic life if not every year and since I have changed too many schools I had to prove it every time. so this was again a new school and new teachers. I never bothered about my marks in Science and Maths because i was the best at the remaining six subjects (Yes I had to study eight subjects for the first 10 years of my academic life) and they always got me into one of the top 3 positions. This time I was slipping the third position by two marks to a girl and I should mention that the stress is on "two marks" than the fact that it is a "girl" to whom I was losing that position. So I approached my Telugu teacher with my answer sheet and her answer sheet, don't ask me how i got hold of her answer sheet. I compared both papers, pointed out some mistakes and asked her why she was awarded more marks. Even her handwriting was no better than mine and I have even attempted extra questions. The answer she gave me was more than shocking and my confidence in fair evaluation was shaken to the roots and beyond. She said "Aren't you ashamed!! to compete with a girl" and she cut out two more marks from my paper and I slipped from 4th to 5th position. I was "Gender profiled".

I should also mention that I was little more on the chubby side, which made me look dumb and the so called smart students of the class didn't want anything to do with me. It is a different story that they were not smart enough to know that the girls in the class loved chubby boys only because i reminded them of their teddy bears.  Now I know I was being "Physically Profiled". So I hung out with the less fortunate students of the class who actually were dumb. Even before my first unit test in the school during one of the classes, I was clearing a doubt of one of my less fortunate friends had during a lecture (ok we were making fun of some students) which provoked the teacher to make me and my friends stand up and fired a series of questions all of which were answered by me. I thought she didn't have anything else in her arsenal but I thought wrong. She said "If you keep hanging out with these kind then one day you will be dumb like them". WTF I have been "Friendly profiled" (Profiled based on the friends I have) and they have been "Academically Profiled" (Profiled based on their academic competence).

Add another couple of years where we moved on to specializations and I had to take Maths Physics and Chemistry. I did well in Maths and Physics but i couldn't get a grip on Chemistry. These were not the years of my academic brilliance and I was just another average student partly because of my love for cricket and partly because I got over the feeling of hatred for girls (for reasons see "Gender Profiled") and started discovering feelings of a different kind. So my results in chemistry were my academic worst and were just enough to get me to the next year. I was never interested in chemistry lectures and spent time doing extra-curricular activities. During one of those sessions I was disturbed by the chemistry lecturer and he started firing questions, I had a sense of Dejavu. Like I said those were not the days of my academic brilliance, so I stood there silently for the lecturer to run out of questions. He was disgusted and said that people like me are good for nothing and I would become one those loafers on the streets and end up in a gutter some day, all that because I didn't show interest in his subject. OMG I have been "Subjectly Profiled". 

On an unrelated note Mr. Chemistry lecturer if you are reading this, your prophecy has turned out partly true. I have been loafing on the roads a lot but in a fully packed, high end version SUV. 

I was and I am still being profiled based on different aspects and really don't understand people getting all bent out of shape over this subject.