Beyond Boundaries

19th Jan '11

Another earthquake struck yesterday night at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. It was 7.4 at the richter scale. I still remember the earthquake in POK which came in Oct of 2008 or the Tsunami which came in 2004. Natural disasters cause lot of damage to life and property. They span over thousands of kilometers and leave traces of destruction. Yesterdays quake woke people up here in Delhi itself.

What I make of such events is not the destruction but a hidden meaning which they want us to find. There's a song from the movie 'Refugee', "Panchi, nadiyan, hawa ke jhonke, koi sarhad na inhe roke." It threw light on the fact that borders are created by the people themselves. We create divisions among ourselves and then fight when they have been violated. God just made the world, we created divisions. He made everyone the same, we want to be different.

But in times when a disaster strikes can you really tell it to stop at the border? The Tsunami of 2004 affected seven countries. The earthquake of 2008 led to damages in Pakistan, Afghanistan as well as India. That was the time when it really struck. Pakistan and India are countries that don't let one man step on the others territory without permission. How could you ever tell an earthquake to remain on the other side of the border because it's epicenter was there?

Not only in our countries but it is very sad to say that we have created strong borders within the country also. Recently there was a big dispute in Maharashtra where the members of the Shiv Sena demanded all non-Maharshtrians to leave the state. The situation was so bad that a few people did flee the state they had been living in for years.

A distinction is somewhere necessary so that we have a sense of what we own and what is owned by others. But the cause should always be greater. There's a thought that I read and it is mostly said in the Army, "A man should first be there for his country then for himself." Even in the movie 'Chak De India' Shahrukh as the coach said, "Pehle apni team ke liye khelo, fir apne sathiyon ke liye aur fir apne liye."

There are also times when we feel connected to the whole world at one time and feel as if there are no barriers. It was the time when I saw the opening ceremony of the Football World Cup. An estimated 80 million people watched the show. Just the fact that I am watching something that people all over the world are watching at the same time made me feel connected to the whole world. I felt how similar we are to everyone. We can always find common points in cultures across the world. There are sayings, way of education, sports, music that connect us. An age old saying that parents tell their children in India, "Paise pedh pe nahi ugte," I heard it in an episode of a show called 'Full house', "Money does not grow on trees," which was aired somewhere in 1990's.

Watching movies or shows from all over the world also opens up your horizon and makes you realize how similar people the world over are. But this bigger truth is hidden in the want of being different. In the want of having something to oneself. We don't want to share anything not realizing that in the end we are going to leave everything that we own on this earth itself. One more thought that I would like to add here "Our similarities keep us together, our differences make us special." Celebrate the differences and cherish the similarities there is nothing that is going to stay forever.