ONE

Republic Day has come and gone, leaving me with mixed emotions...as always...but with a little more intensity than before.

When I look around, I see a world of extremities, a world in which some multi-national companies have died while others have gone on to buy 400 crore yachts. I'm not condemning anyone for anything. But one cannot prevent from entering one's mind the thought that the money could (should?) have been better spent.

I see optimism in my father's eyes about India's economic future and I find myself wanting to join him in his optimism... but I can't. I find myself UNABLE to do so. The reason:
No country is independent of the others.

Well documented world history dates back to at least the 17th century. Which means that we've had at least 400 years of civilized society. And yet, the world has not become one, we're not yet ONE people. We still fight each other instead of working together toward a better future for everyone, EVERYONE!

Till date, India has been 'attacked' by no less than 3 'outsiders' viz. Alexander the Great, the Mughals and the British. History tells us that whenever India has been divided, it was united by an outsider. Then the people rebelled and overthrew the alien ruler only to go back to fighting each other and again being divided till a new 'alien ruler' arrived and united the people, albeit against themselves.

Why should it take us 4 centuries and more to accept what we so clearly see? Are the people really incapable of living and working with each other instead of against each other?

But let's come back to that a little later.
Let's look a little further, shall we?
India has taught us that the people united against an external threat.
Will it take an external threat to unite the world? Human beings are supposed to be the wisest of God's creations. Why then do we do we insist on being so primitive?

Why is it that apathy has become the universal emotion? Why are people out to cheat, steal from, KILL other people?

The world is progressing in fields like medicine, astronomy, nuclear physics, art, politics, economics, every possible field.

Medicine teaches us how to save lives and protect each other. Nuclear physics teaches us that we are all basically the same, made of the same basic components. Astronomy teaches us that we are all together on this beautiful little planet called Earth, a planet we all call home, a planet that is one among so many that if each person on earth were named after one, we'd fall horribly short. Politics teaches us how to live with each other, how to effectively work together as a whole. Economics teaches us that we are all connected to each other in more intricate ways, in more intimate ways than we ever thought before. Why then, do we refuse to share and play together?

There are those among us who DO share and play fair. They're the one's who are responsible for whatever we, as a species, have accomplished. It is these people whose example we all must follow.

I do not say that competition is bad. Competition keeps us from going soft, it prevents stagnation and it pushes us to be more and better each day. But it the heat of competition, we mustn't lose sight of our REAL objective - the betterment of all humanity. 

I'm also not saying that fighting is bad. Fighting keeps us alert and ready to counter an external threat. But WE are not that external threat. An external threat may come from another planet in the form of a people we do not know. But today, people from another country are NOT these 'people we do not know'. They are humans, people just like us. That is what globalization has done to the world today. It has allowed friendships between people from all parts of the world. Ergo, the time has come today to put aside past rivalries, grudges, enmities and move forward, together, for the greater good.

Let us this day, vow to work together, as ONE people, as a WHOLE, toward a better tomorrow for all Indians, for all Asians, for all HUMANITY!