Yesterday, I just happened upon the last 15 mins of the movie, ‘Parzania’. Today, it’s ’31st October’ that’s going on while I walked into the room… Both very painful movies portraying the horrendous riots and violence that our country has seen… the Godhra riots of 2002 and the massacre of innocent Sikhs in 1984… the pain of the marginalised or minority… or injustice one section of our country have been dealt… It hurts… because I’ve seen and heard those very movie ‘dialogues’ (not necessarily towards me, in person)… but about my ‘faith’ and my ‘people’…. sly insinuations intended to sear deep within.
So it all boils down to assuming that the ‘majority’ would value their pride of place and live and let live the minorities…
Or is it that ‘majority’ equated with decimating every minority to assume complete control? And then use petty but incendiary tactics to instigate gullible or sensitive mobs to do crazy things…?
And finally…. we see these pervasive, insidious thoughts in our families… divisive, exclusive propaganda taught by parents to their children… indirectly… making scathing remarks about neighbors of other faiths – refusing kheer from Muslim neighbors or scowling at ‘Malayali Christians’ … yes, even I didn’t know there was a specific section of the community until I heard it…. but, then, maybe… just maybe… the specification was to mollify me as I wasn’t a Malayali??
Or perhaps, and this is more likely, that I was given the label that ‘Mangaloreans are all money minded’ 🤔🤔 Or just the wide brush accusation that Christmas is, after all, a festival of ‘all show’….. so that took care of me, I guess…
But no, no one knew the answers to the symbolism of some of the pooja samagri, or direction of placing tulsi (& why)… or even that 3 Ganesha idols in a house is supposed to be bad energy…. and how does that matter anyway?
But no…..
But yes…..
That pain, inflicted as well as experienced…. nationally, societally and individually, is real…. and the intention to cause another person, community or group pain…. simply because one is capable of doing so…and allowed to… and get away with it because … they have the privilege to get away with it.
Such is life….
I live… I learn…
And… with this, my core, my foundation, my essence only talks about … inclusion…. because to not include is to harbor that thorn of divisive disharmony.
What are we if not one?
In our homes, in our offices, on our streets, in our classes….
Luvena's World 