Yesterday someone forwarded a video on Whatsapp, with a message "we need to be aware and conscious of our actions...". A very well intentioned message indeed.
The video depicted a kannadiga reading a Kannada newspaper sitting on a bench. Slowly several people join him, a Telugu person, a Tamil, a Hindi speaking person. He shares the space and the paper with these people. Finally a Malayalam speaking person tries to adjust, resulting in the Kannadiga person loosing his seat and the rest of them not caring and moving on with their activities. The kannadiga guy wonder what will they do to Karnataka.
Now this could have been any scenario. This kannadiga could have been replaced with anybody:
A Marathi in Mumbai facing a deluge of Gujaratis, Tamil, Biharis and what not
A Bengali facing deluge of refugees from Bangladesh
Europeans facing their refugee crisis
A person in USA facing the immigrant workers
A mother in law sharing the home with a new daughter in law
The list is endless...
What this video has done is, nothing but,feeding the inherent fears in people. If one is really interested in the welfare of the society, then they could have given a positive feedback where one of the newcomers gives back the seat to the Kannadiga or the Kannadiga being more graceful and accept people by being part of the group. Instead this video makes everyone look like intruders to a Kannadiga who would watch this video. The Kannadiga here represent everyone who is facing this deluge scenario. But unfortunately this video does exactly the opposite and just increases the divide. How is it different from the one sided views presented by the news channels for TRP? May be park is made with the tax money from the migrant workers, who knows.
We belong to a country where the moguls, foreigners at that time, ruled the entire country at some point, the Maratha Bhonsles ruled Tanjore in today's Tamil Nadu,the Maratha Gaekwads ruled Gujarathi Vadodara. The state boundaries are drawn for sake of better management, not for dividing people by language.
Several years back when I decided to move back to India, my company decided to move the project I was on to India too. So 3 more people were hired locally. So our four member team included one Kannadiga , one Telugu , one Tamil and one odiya. One day the Kannadiga guy commented on outsiders taking their job. I quickly asked him "which job?". After all, the job he was working on , was supposed to go to France, but moved to Bangalore because of my wish to move to Bangalore.
It is important to realize that it is not you vs. me, but you and me (we). It doesn't matter whether the boundary is city, state, language, country, caste, religion or race. Our minds are too naive to understand the complex relationships in nature and how we depend on each other.
"Panchhi nadiya pawan ke jhonke, koi sarhad na inhe roke...
Sarhad insano ke liye hain, socho tumne aur maine kya paya insan hoke"
The video depicted a kannadiga reading a Kannada newspaper sitting on a bench. Slowly several people join him, a Telugu person, a Tamil, a Hindi speaking person. He shares the space and the paper with these people. Finally a Malayalam speaking person tries to adjust, resulting in the Kannadiga person loosing his seat and the rest of them not caring and moving on with their activities. The kannadiga guy wonder what will they do to Karnataka.
Now this could have been any scenario. This kannadiga could have been replaced with anybody:
A Marathi in Mumbai facing a deluge of Gujaratis, Tamil, Biharis and what not
A Bengali facing deluge of refugees from Bangladesh
Europeans facing their refugee crisis
A person in USA facing the immigrant workers
A mother in law sharing the home with a new daughter in law
The list is endless...
What this video has done is, nothing but,feeding the inherent fears in people. If one is really interested in the welfare of the society, then they could have given a positive feedback where one of the newcomers gives back the seat to the Kannadiga or the Kannadiga being more graceful and accept people by being part of the group. Instead this video makes everyone look like intruders to a Kannadiga who would watch this video. The Kannadiga here represent everyone who is facing this deluge scenario. But unfortunately this video does exactly the opposite and just increases the divide. How is it different from the one sided views presented by the news channels for TRP? May be park is made with the tax money from the migrant workers, who knows.
We belong to a country where the moguls, foreigners at that time, ruled the entire country at some point, the Maratha Bhonsles ruled Tanjore in today's Tamil Nadu,the Maratha Gaekwads ruled Gujarathi Vadodara. The state boundaries are drawn for sake of better management, not for dividing people by language.
Several years back when I decided to move back to India, my company decided to move the project I was on to India too. So 3 more people were hired locally. So our four member team included one Kannadiga , one Telugu , one Tamil and one odiya. One day the Kannadiga guy commented on outsiders taking their job. I quickly asked him "which job?". After all, the job he was working on , was supposed to go to France, but moved to Bangalore because of my wish to move to Bangalore.
It is important to realize that it is not you vs. me, but you and me (we). It doesn't matter whether the boundary is city, state, language, country, caste, religion or race. Our minds are too naive to understand the complex relationships in nature and how we depend on each other.
"Panchhi nadiya pawan ke jhonke, koi sarhad na inhe roke...
Sarhad insano ke liye hain, socho tumne aur maine kya paya insan hoke"
Birds, rivers, gusts of wind
No border inhibits them
Borders are for people
Think about it, what have you and I
Beautifully written Mala. Kannan the Kannadiga first received the video from my Kannada friends and I actually sympathized with it even as I grappled at the irony. I was the ಮಣ್ಣಿನ ಮಗ ( Mannina Maga) who is really a தமிழ் speaking magan. I resented the fact I still don't own a home in my own hometown while the "outsiders" were all living in their own homes. I was irked that I couldnt speak in Kannada to most of the folks who manned the security gates. I was also amused. We were the beautiful peaceful folks who were known to say "Hogli Bidi, Paapa" We welcome. We learn. We prosper because we embrace every culture and language. Bengaluru kicks ass better than any other city in Bharat because we are the melting pot of our country. I hope one day I will own my own home in my hometown like my many of my hard working honest Kannadiga friends because we worked for it not because we resent the outsiders who contributed to the success of my city. Don't let that one stupid viral video define us. We are all Bengaluru. Namaskara.
ReplyDeleteRead your musings when I was about to share my musings for today with my brothers in India (A bunch of 80+ year olds). I live in the US. I liked them.
ReplyDeleteIf you get a chance read my blogs- venkataramaniblog.wordpress.com