Pink for me and blue for you,

What’s the difference between the two?

In dark or light, bright or pale,

They are just colors, all the same…!

So are the colors black and white,

Who decides

the beauty of its sight?

It’s in your outlook,

it’s in your view,

It’s in the impression

That you carry within you..!

Not many of us would be comfortable to accept or express the circumstances in which we would have faced discrimination, nor would any of us accept the situations in which we have knowingly or unknowingly discriminated with respect to another. No, we don’t really acknowledge a problem openly, do we?

We have accustomed ourselves to the “it’s alright” attitude, taking everything into our stride and adjusting. We are in fact an apt example of living by the phrase “what doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger”.

But that’s not the case always, many a times, there are people who succumb to the injustice of discrimination to the extent of loosing their confidence, their morale, their zeal to live, finding it difficult to live in their own skin, to accept their own reality.

Discrimination is not limited to one country, nor is it limited to only “racism“, there is discrimination on the basis of gender, financial status, educational background, sexual preferences, in fact it exists in anything and everything on which a situation or a person can be categorized into possible options or versions.

Here in India, a democratic nation with vast diversities, numerous regions, religions and communities, we have a huge range of options in which we can club, categorize and distinguish one from the other. In a recent statement from a journalist in the Sushant Singh Rajput’s case his family was referred to as ‘toxic Bihari family’ and a further stereotype was carved out mentioning that sons of such families were expected to be ‘Shravan Kumar’ (an ideal son) due to family’s pressure. This statement was countered and criticized by not only Sushant’s family members but also by a lot of others on the social media platform. Look at the ironical and sad reality of the situation, a family which recently lost their young son in an untimely manner has to also endure such unnecessary biased and opinionated comments ! How fair is it to put them through this? I wonder if this is an additional price they pay as their son belonged to the film industry so along with his work in films which is available in the public domain, the media took an additional presumed liberty to probe into their family life and family set up, generalizing its biased and narrow viewpoint to the people of an entire region?

Why have we conditioned our mindset to be judgmental and function in a compartmentalized demeanor, I wonder? Why preformed opinions somehow hold a higher place of acceptance as compared to seeing a situation or a person for who he/she really is ? Is it due to the years and years of existence of the practice which divides the society into its various classes and categories ? And if yes, then isn’t it also true that this practice was introduced, promoted and infused by us humans? So, it’s only fair enough to hold ourselves responsible to undo what’s been done in an inappropriate way over the years. It’s an initiative which we will have to shoulder and execute.

One might choose to argue that it’s not only humans who are responsible for bringing around the differences with their practices and social norms , in fact “Nature” too did provide differences of its own. But while holding on to that thought, one will also definitely acknowledge and agree that the beauty of Nature’s differences leads to a harmonious consolidation and creates something beautiful to be in awe of, while on the other hand the differences created by us “humans”, brings about discrimination and unrest.

It’s high time we changed, evolved and came around for good, let’s hold each other’s hand to grow and flourish, to be united for the betterment of the world as a whole instead of discriminating among each other and dissipating into bits and pieces of non-existential value.

Let’s together make a constructive impact to make the world a good, beautiful and positive place for our future generations to come, a place which appreciates and gives the breathing space for each person and each aspect of their life to beautifully survive, co-exist and feel complete and accepted in their raw, original, imperfectly perfect “true form” without facing the constant pressure of conforming to the social parameters of judgments and approvals.