United we stand

There's an Airtel advert airing currently on television. This ad shows the significant contributions made by Indians to various fields - it shows Aryabhatta, Sushrut, J.C. Bose, and many others who left behind an indelible mark in their respective domains. The ad concludes with the tagline, "Just image what a billion people can do together...". Well, the possibilities are boundless. But then the question arises, will the billion odd people of India rise as one? Will they keep aside petty differences of language, of dressing, of the cuisines? Will they consider another Indian as an Indian first - and as a Sindhi, a Marwari, a Bihari, a Gujrati, or a Madrasi later? Can an Indian in Tamil Nadu empathize with another in Kashmir, and vice versa? Yesterday, when news of the terror attacks broke, colleagues and friends came over to ask if everyone in the family was fine. They did that as courtesy, as well-wishers. But not everyone had the same experience. As I was talking to one of my friends, she said that not even a single person asked her if her family was fine. So much so that her colleagues who sit right across her, were too busy in their own activities to ask her. How can they be so distant, she asked. How can they be so casual about the whole incident, was her refrain. Well, that has been the trouble with us Indians through out history. That we couldn't stand as one, especially when it mattered the most. That we couldn't empathize with our countrymen in other parts of the country. These views may seem cynical. I'm not saying that there is no goodness left in our people, that the milk of human kindness has dried up. No. That is not the point. The point is that we've become way too selfish to think about anyone else. About our neighbor. About the guy who sits across our desk. About the colleague who is going through some family crisis. And these people, these are white-collared, educated people. So it makes me wonder. Does education really teach us to care for each other? Does it teach us empathy? Do it teach us unity? Well, I doubt if it does. It just gives us with an opportunity to feed ourselves and our family.
I'm not saying, not even implying, that education is useless. That it does not make a good individual. It does help in creating awareness, in spreading the knowledge and ideas to all. It does help in creating equal opporutnities. It does provide even the person in the lowest strata of society the chance to excel. But is that itself enough? Is it the solution to the narrow-minded and selfish attitudes that have taken us over today? Does education have the solution to the divided state that the nation finds itself in. A friend of mine works for the non-profit organization Akanksha. This is a non-profit organization working for under-privileged children. But it does not just focus on educating them, in the sense of formal education. Inculcating values and a sense of belief, in themselves, in their brothers and sisters is a big part of the kids' 'education' in Akanksha. When we were in school, we had a half-hour activity called value-education. This was intended at inculcating good values in us kids. But is it possible to inculcate values by having a class of value education in the curriculum? If it were so, then would we find ourselves at this juncture today? How can we forge the social fabric that binds us? How can we rise as one? We can, if we put aside selfishness. If we think about our neighbor, as much as we think about our own family. If we show a little empathy. But how do we do this? Well, there are no easy answers...