Always an Outsider (standard:non fiction, 680 words)
Author: Juggernaut	Added: Feb 09 2013	Views/Reads: 2604/1953	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
If one travels from one culture to an another, again and again like Juggernaut, the chances of being treated like an outsider is very high, as long long it wont affect making a living, it is Ok to be treated as an outsider.

Always an Outsider 

Subba Rao 

Juggernaut attended a 4-year agricultural college in Bapatla, a 

rural town without drinking water supply.  On the campus, some students 

from the peasant background despite their effluent life style were 

boorish. Disagreement during a quiet conversation could turn into a 

shouting match or worse a brawl for no reason at all to the surprise of 

Juggernaut. Some of these behavioral problems perhaps reflect their 

countryside upbringing. Coming from an urban professional family, 

Juggernaut felt as an outsider among them. For four years Juggernaut 

felt as if was living in an overcrowded barracoon from the unsanitary 

hostel conditions and bad cafeteria food. After graduation he was happy 

to leave with 

In 1970, when Juggernaut joined graduate program briefly at the 

Banaras Hindu University in Banaras, one of the holiest places in the 

country on the banks of river Ganges, he knew he was an outsider with 

no knowledge of local language.  Among the several students on the 

campus were few from his own state already in attendance for several 

years. Juggernaut had a rude awakening from this particular group of 

students that treated him like an outsider and worse hostile at times. 

In retrospect, these students badly needed a group therapy to resolve 

their inner conflict. 

Juggernaut was happy to leave the confused group for a 

different program at a different University in different cultural 

setting in Bhubaneswar, a city known for Buddhist monuments and 

temples. Here things got worse; the local students were hostile to the 

out of state students like Juggernaut.  The locals suffered from a 

phobia of outsiders taking over and few students on the campus carried 

this sentiment too far. In the same city of Bhubaneswar, few decades 

ago, the local politicians were responsible for pelting stones at 

former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi causing her bloody nose. 

After completing graduate school, Juggernaut took up a job as 

teaching instructor at the same college where he was an undergraduate 

student. At his department, some staff was clannish and judgmental in 

their views.  “I am sure the children of these men would have a 

different view of the society,” thought Juggernaut on leaving the 

teaching job. 

Juggernaut lived in the Caribbean islands working in Trinidad 


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