Maps in our Mind

This post is not about Mind maps, rather the borders/maps we create in our own mind.   And this is in response to the statement made by our Hon. Home Minister, PC.  "Original Nagaland Maps lost" - http://ibnlive.in.com/news/original-nagaland-maps-lost-chidambaram/80773-3.html. 

I sincerely pray, at least we have Map of India in safe custody :-). 

Having said that, it is interesting to wonder whether “Mother Earth” keep a Map and differentiate between Countries.  Like all mothers (or most of them), Mother Earth too could be quite impartial and love all her sons and daughters in equal measure. 

  It is known that certain animals do mark their territory and guard it quite zealously. But Human beings are supposed to be "Evolved further” compared to Animals.  We boast about Self Awareness which Animals does not possess.

 At the same time, still we retain some of the animal Instincts intact with us. 

Probably we created the Maps in our mind and then in paper.  There are Maps which delineates Nations, States, and even Districts within States.  It helps us to distinguish between "Us" and "Them"...  Anybody within the line is “Us” and anybody outside the line is “Them".  I worked in Germany for almost six months in 1998.  It was almost 9 years, since the demolition of the Berlin Wall.  One of my German Colleagues was discussing about the Integration between East and West Germany.  His brother who was a communist chose to live in East Germany. Even though they started meeting again in family reunions, they recognized the fact that the walls in their mind were not yet demolished. He was jokingly telling me that it is tougher to break the walls in our mind compared to the Berlin wall. Also I do follow with interest, the stories about reunion of Korean families who were separated after the Korean War.  

While we talk about Pakistan and Bangladesh, we forget the fact that they were part of the same country not long back.  People complain about Bangladeshi infiltrators (which may be valid), but I don’t see anyone talking about the need to seal our borders with Nepal.  Don’t they think, Maoist elements in Nepal could be helping to fan the naxalite strife in India? What about the support we had provided to LTTE over the years.  Even though after the Rajiv Gandhi murder, our support was not overt, I am sure still there are elements in Union of India who support the cause of Tamil Elam in Srilanka.  

  Hardly we realize, that we apply the same perspective, mentality and attitude within our own country.  How is it different from   Amchi Mumbai, Mannina Maga, Namma Bengaluru, Madrasi and Ente Keralam etc?  When the enemy from outside takes central stage, we forget our own borders, just for the moment.  The moment “the perceived threat” from outside, wanes, it is back to square one.  Mumbai for Marathas... and Bangalore for Kannadigas...  I was asking a friend of mine from Mumbai, why there were only  posters of  Hemant Karkare, Salaskars and  Khamte in Mumbai.. Don’t they think a   Gajendra Singh or Sandeep Unnikrishnan deserve the same  treatment?  Why the coverage of election from Mizoram was so poor in our national channels compared to even Chhattisgarh?   Chinese seems to be wanting  our north eastern states more than we do. :-).  

 Regionalism, nationalism, Linguistic chauvinism & Jingoism are some of the Isms along with a lot of Religion "isms" and   Economisms (capitalism and communism); we created to separate us from one another.  

  I understand there are no easy answers to this.  It is not easy to change the structure of our thoughts and the way we live that easily.  

 It is not easy to transcend the boundaries in our mind.  Very few people in the history of mankind were able to achieve that.   A  Tagore, A Bertrand Russell, A Gandhi... 

 One thing I am sure about  is, the candle lights Barkha Dutt started lighting  in Mumbai may not be enough to drive away the darkness in our minds.  We may need Search lights.