Wednesday, 14 September 2011

Fitting the pieces together


India is a perfect microcosm of this world. This one sentence can easily sum up everything I’d like to say. Yet words fall short when I want to explain each constituent unit of this mosaic. Mosaic! Yes! That is the perfect metaphor!


Just like each cell in a mosaic is distinguished from the other by narrow spaces and spells its individual identity, each characteristic of our country stands apart showcasing its beauty, its exclusiveness.

Geography, climate, language, religion, race, culture, festivals, food, beliefs, values all exhibit their variety in abundance. This variety adds to the strength of its concrete foundation.

However, in recent times some of the constituent units have begun to complain about their position in the picture frame. They believe that not having been given a central position or lying somewhere on the periphery has reduced their value or undermined their contribution. To realize their aims these components struggle to emerge out of their defined space and cloud the complete image. What they forget in their entire pursuit is that an image is a two dimensional array. Sticking out may mean distorting the complete image and becoming “the ugly part” of it!

The importance of the peripheral objects in a picture frame is immense. It can tell the difference between a day and a night, a warrior and a sailor, a glad and a sad face, an angel and a daemon and most importantly between togetherness and disharmony.



India from time immemorial has portrayed a picture of peace with strength, of compassion with courage and of grace with valour which makes each and every cell on the periphery play its own part to conserve the true essence of this incredible image! The incredible India!

I hope that one day the people of this exquisite land will learn to look beyond the confinements of their cells and remember that just like living cells have the autonomy to remain selectively permeable they also have the distinction of being differentiated to perform their individual and specific tasks!


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