who am i??

Saying that you are proud to be an Indian isn’t much different than saying you’re born on a Monday- you are just stating a fact not an achievement to be proud of. Are you even aware of the fact what it means to be born as an Indian? We remember our identity as clockwork only when the national holiday comes. The free day albeit with full salary is a day of rejoice not because of the underlying sentiments but because we get paid to be home. What an achievement. Rajnish, an office goer at the Local courts is happy and nonchalantly says, it’s fun because it gets combined with the week-end, and thus I don’t need to go to work.
The ridiculously, outlandish celebrations in shades of orange and green the loud sloganeering, and the louder caricatures of Bharat Mata portrayed in a white sari with a green border Hema Malini style. The overdose of patriotic color and the customary display of flags everywhere die out when the de rigueur ribbon cutting is over and laddoos are distributed.
Why no thoughtful, intelligent, low-key, austere function where one remembers the sacrifice of the soldiers who have died in battle-fields for us? Why do we have to prove that we are Indian by loud over- the top functions? Do we wake up for one day , discharge our national duty for that particular time frame finish and the rest of the 364 days we get divided into narrow , compartments of religion or state identities. Where has all this bigotry come? We all shout Mera Bharat mahaan from the day we enter our nursery classes but according to a recent survey carried out by an online net magazine:
If you live in Punjab,or another part of India, are you an Indian citizen, or how do you see yourself first and foremost?
As an Indian
As a Punjabi
As a Sikh
As a Sikh- Indian
The shameful results are as follows in order of choices given: 8.7%, 9.3%, 69.8%, and 12.2%.
Isn’t this shocking? Why are we being fragmented into compartments by religion? Dr GS kalkat says he is an Indian living in Punjab practicing Sikhism. Let us at least follow this octogenarian’s diktat and not get narrowed by the grandiosity of religion. Simply being born into as Sikh family or a Hindu family earns you nothing. By mere happenstance you find yourself linked to Sikh religion. You are given a basic understanding of your religion which maybe any..Hinduisim, Islamic, Jewish, Christianity or even Buddhism. There is a certain amount of assimilation of religion via the media, intenet,pamphlets, books visits to the temples but does that make you a Hindu, Sikh, Muslim?
So, does this make you to be Sikh for eg? Richard Dawkins, in his book The God Delusion mentions a pet peeve of his. He loathes it when children are identified as Christian children, or Muslim children etc...
Why do we start labeling them? These labels are cultural context to the children in which they define themselves and they obtain a sense of moral guidance. Dawkin however insists that morality comes from within and resists the proposed monopoly structured religion claims on human morality.
A poll participant called Rabia Sultan from across the border, Multan says we are human beings first and last nothing else. It is important that we should all have a cohesive national identity as opposed to personal religious identity. On the last count, there was no significant medical discovery or break through which professed in distinguishing the color of the blood by its religious identity. There is however the lucrative Nobel Prize for medicine which is up for grabs till immemorial if anyone happens to decipher the code.
As a nation we need to embrace oneness rather than get sold to the highest bidder in the dirty game of politics.