Tag: #Humanity

Discrimination

As lot of discussion is going on regarding racial discrimination, thought of documenting my feelings and experiences and share it with you. This blog is dedicated to everyone who were discriminated in any form.

I am grateful for having a diverse experiences in life; my roots in Kerala (a state in India), childhood in Telangana (a state in India), education in Karnataka (a state in India), Germany and China, personal and professional trips across countries and cultures as well as being married to a partner from a different faith and region. All along, there were lot of incidents where I was treated differently; in a good way for eg. in Japan, China, South Africa.  In some cases, I was treated differently in a bad, insulting way and intentionally too (across the world), for color, religion, region, food habits…DISCRIMINATION. A few examples are:

  1. During my high school  & college days, I was called names because of my faith by fellow students and teachers
  2. My family was settled in a different state and were asked several times to go back to our home state and a few even challenged us for owning property
  3. In the UK following the July 7th bombing, I have experienced how all the Asian men were treated as potential terrorists by some of the Brits
  4. Being a foreigner in Germany, it was a challenge to get a fair deal while looking for a property to rent/buy

Most discrimination I have experienced is by Indians, in India and abroad. For those Indians who are feeling furious, please keep emotions aside and retrospect rationally.

When I look back, I did feel bad during a few incidents but never carried any hard feelings. However, what made me wonder was, how can one say or do something mean to other humans and be happy inside. I still don’t understand. Best part is that the same people who discriminate others expect a fair treatment, when they are in a similar situation.

Such behavior could be a result of beliefs, fears, prejudices, superiority complex, etc., It is normal to have such emotions/feelings, however it is the reactions based on those feelings, that needs to be checked. Most of the older generation (60+, I might be sounding discriminative here) were not exposed to globalization during their prime years, hence it might be challenging for them to overcome the cemented beliefs. But what is wrong with the younger generations? I do not have s solution, however from what I have seen, I believe such reactions are part of our human DNA, hence cannot be eradicated completely. However we can reduce the incidents and its impact. To achieve that education alone is not sufficient. Key is awareness and to create a fundamental and non-negotiable idea of humanity, thrive towards zero discrimination of any form and advocate fearlessly.

Talking about fearlessness. My daughter shares how some kids in her kindergarten talks about her brown skin and black hair, sometimes even making fun. I tell her that we all are the same but different and no one is superior. Have also asked her to respond back to the kids and say that they are “WHATEVERCOLOR” in the similar tone and make fun if required. Do not want any kid to feel inferior for any reason! Hope, as the kids grow, they will be more informed and will not repeat the mistakes of previous generations. 

Apart from a few incidences, I am blessed to have met best of people across the world. Thank you for sticking along!! In case I have discriminated against someone, here is my unconditional apology.

Let us remember that we all are in the journey of LIFE with same destination. Why not we share all the ups and downs while enjoying the journey TOGETHER.

Bon Voyage!

Pandemie

Like most of you, it is the first time, I have stayed home for such long period of time. Though it was a major change, I got used to it, as there was null alternatives, unlike several options in our phones and computers. “DELETE” has been the mostly used option/key in recent weeks to remain sane from all those hand-washing videos, root cause explanations and remedies. Though I was irritated with most of those forwards (I had an easy way out…DELETE), I was more disappointed to see some influential people, asking “commoners” to stay home and at the same time bombarding with their videos of cooking, work-outs, showing how cool their lives are, without imagining what it means for those commoners to forgo their wages and stay home and stare at starvation, especially in countries like India. Really hope the support provided by the Governments is reaching the people.

There is just too much information out there and to improve awareness, the message needs to be structured and focus on the “ultimate goal”, which according to me is to minimize the casualties, till we have a vaccination. So the privileged ones like us should spread messages and do the needful in our capacities (moral, emotional, help with local/online chores, food and financial) to people who are suffering the most. I can think of elderly, migrant workers, illiterate, foreigners, differently abled and less privileged. In my opinion, Corona virus is with us and will remain, also I have no doubt that we HUMANS will not let a virus win over us and change everything we are used to, though we will be probably following a new set of glocial (global-social) etiquette.

Recently I realized that we have been living for some years with another pandemic which needs more awareness and immediate actions; it is hatred, discrimination and inhumanity. Recently, I have been following the developments in India on Corona and I was surprised to see how so called “journalists” have been spitting venom and spreading misinformation, creating divide among us people during the time of crisis. Surprisingly, no big stars or influential people in the society has condemned that. Kept wondering whether all our souls are mutated with pandemie of hatred. Searching further I got lucky, there are a few brave ones, who focus on bringing the real stories. According to me, journalism like medical profession, has power to create progressive societies, however looking at some of the insensitive journalists, I believe they are doing injustice to their profession as well as to the societies.

Let us thank all the medical professionals around the world for their sacrifices to save us humans from the Corona pandemic. Now we all humans need to reject all sorts of discrimination, misinformation, biases and let us use the most powerful tool we possess – HUMANITY.

Let us help each other to help ourselves. Stay safe!

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