Article by Shreya Tiwari

We are currently in the 21^st century. An age which is often referred to as the era of technology and in a more technological and fancy aspect of artificial technology. But are we really developing and emerging?? We still disassociate with fellow humans whose thoughts don’t match ours and continue to discriminate. This ideology of discriminating and distancing on the basis of caste and religion starts straight from our home. Remember your mum’s warning of not straying into the so-called “masjid-gali” or “mandir-lane”. The scolding you got when as an innocent child you played with your maid’s son or daughter. And suddenly you were sitting in a classroom with the teacher asking you to treat everyone with equality and to not differentiate on the basis of religion. What a big scam, a reality of how what we inculcate in our children is something we refrain them from practicing in real lives.

On top of this, as adults we have devised politer ways of knowing a person’s caste and religion. These ways range from asking “your full name please” or “which place are you from”. We have now in an innovative approach started to associate places or geographical locations to certain religions and castes. We have further moved from religion to cardinal direction discrimination. People down South are considered too arrogant since they flaunt their English always and do not talk in Hindi. Is it really so difficult for us to try and believe that maybe they are really poor at speaking Hindi or can’t make head or tail of it. The same way blings and slings might not be a hit in South, but grooving to gorgeous dance moves in flashy clothes is North India’s style statement. Maybe this glamour and glitter is not a drama or show-off but another way of expressing or defining oneself.

Let us accept each other with these differences inbuilt instead of expecting each one of us to be alike. These different mindsets and values are what makes us as human beings open to everything around us. We are all creations of a supreme power and as classified by scientists the brainiest of all. With such grand titles the least we owe to mankind is being true to humanity. These virtues and acts are neither very big nor too un-realistic. All this needs is a step of trust and change that we all should take as a united mass with diverse thoughts.