India is a land of "Unity in diversity", Fact or Fiction?

Hi friends,
Today I came across a link in rediff which displayed trailer of "SuperStar" Rajinikanth's next biggest block buster, "SIVAJI". But this blog is not about the film, it is about an article which I found below the trailer, about whether the film will get released in Karnataka state or not (because of the cuvery verdict). I was so much angry after going though this, that I was forced to write a blog about it.

The issue is that the comments/postings in the forum thread beneath that article had a whole lot of very ugly arguments, where people from Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Andhra, North and almost everywhere, posted hate comments against each other... you will be amazed to know, how many posts? around 500!!!, around 20 pages of hatred messages from all over India against each other!!!

This sucks, I mean, the guys who post these comments, I assume they are WELL EDUCATIED, enough to handle a computer, most of them I assume to be SOFTWARE ENGINEERS from all over the country. And they leave all their jobs to post these 20 pages of nonsense? we curse stupid politicians for making a mocery of our democratic society, but are we educated people have the same impartial behaviour, which we expect from the national leaders?

People... when are we going to realize that our strength is in unity? When do we ever learn the truth of "United we stand and Divided we fall"? Why there is so much hatred among fellow country men? For long, we have been invaded by Alexander, moguls to British and the primary reason we lost all of them was that we were not united amongst ourselves. This is HISTORY and a bitter truth.

My manager used to tell that, "we can make two mistakes, but don't make the same mistake twice", because, if we didn't learn from your mistake, we are either stupid or idiot or both. So, is it not important to learn from HISTORY and be united as Indians?

I will say definitely, that being proud of what you are, is good. Expressing good things about your own regional background, culture, language and heritage is always good, But you need to realize that it is crossing the line, when you say bad things about other's in the name of caste, religion, ethnic background, color, state or nationality.

I found many posts, where they said, Tamils cannot come to Karnataka and vise versa. I ask you SOFTWARE ENGINEERS, can any of you dare to say, that you can accept some of he American people comments that we are stealing their jobs and H1B visas has to be stopped? And people from India amongst other nations have to return to their own country? Can anybody agree with this point? Doesn’t it sound stupid? Don’t we feel angry when we see some comments, that outsourcing should be stopped? But, why the hell do you get angry when you can't accept the same concept within our own country?

I have been to USA sometime back, and I have always tried to be a very good representative of our country and always tried to make the fact that we are a nation with "UNITY IN DIVERSITY", (unlike some people, who go to America and start thinking that they are Americans and start every line with the words "We Americans....!!!" so funny…). But in one argument, I was not able to deny the fact that we in India, are one of the most EGOISTIC people in the world. Yes it is true; you can see the fact right from the roads. I bet everyone of you have experienced and cursed the infamous Indian Road traffic, but do you realize most part of it is because of the our utter disregard to others and our indecent road manners? In other words, our EGO? And do you realize it is in each and every aspect of life? Do any of you wonder why don't we have the concept of proper queue, for anything we do in India? The answer is EGO.

We can blabber all day, saying our culture is rich, heritage is far rooted etc. But, it is the fact that we are still known as "THIRD WORLD COUNTRY", a country of snake charmers and baggers. With all these upon our head, how do we get time and energy to hate each other, just because of we are from different states speaking different languages? We should be definitely ashamed of ourselves.

I have seen a very good documentary on king "Raja Raja, the Great", who accomplished a lot in his time, but one aspect of him I liked the most is that, he was a very humble person. So humble, that he made his one and ONLY painting drawn, with his religious Guru in front and his own face looking like he is behind him, humbly giving respect. If "Raja Raja" at his height of is power, can be so humble, do we deserve to be arrogant and self centered?

Sad part of our patriotism is that, it only exists when we watch Cricket matches against Pakistan. do we still need a common enemy to unite us? Do we need another invasion, to make us realize our weakness of division with respect to Religion, caste, ethnic background, color and language? When are we going to be smart enough to focus on the road ahead and not throw stones at each other? Friendship and brotherhood is not about getting together to CURSE a common enemy, it is about loving each other for what they are.

So guys, to make ourselves and our country better, please remember that, "MUTUAL RESPECT" and not "EGO" can make us successful. "UNANIMITY" and not "ENMITY" can make us strong. Yes, I agree that, we have our differences, issues etc. but this can better be resolved if we understand each other's needs and just think in other person's view point for a second. Please don't let these issues, create a divide between us. Issues are to be solved, not to be politicized.

One small story before ending this post, In MAHABHARATHA, once, ARJUN was jealous of KARNAN'S fame and greatness and he asked LORD KRISHNA that why Karnan had to be the greatest guy in the world, and not him, as he had the same skills that Karnan had and he had more money than him etc. So, Lord Krishna, to make him realize the truth, sent Arjun to bring back any person in the world who he think is great than himself, and on the other hand asked Karnan to find any person who he think is NOT as great as himself.

At the end of the day, Arjun returns with nobody, saying that he could not find a guy greater than him. At the same time Karnan, also returns with no person, says that, he found greatness in each and every person he met and so, he could not find any guy who is NOT AS GREAT AS HIMSELF. By, hearing this, Arjun realizes the truth that for being GREAT, you need to find greatness in EACH AND EVERYBODY you see, and so he goes away with his head down. So, the moral of the story is, admire people's strength and don't envy them and have respect for others.

As a nation united, we can counter each others weakness and can become a great nation. We have all the intelligence, survival instinct, natural and human resources for this. We just have to lose our EGO.

Japan is great because of its hardwork, Singapore is great because of their sincerity and law-abiding citizens, Middle East is great because of their abundant natural resources and faith And INDIA is great because of ..............? I would like see this blank to be filled with the word "UNITY",

DO YOU?