The Racial Row.

My father is surfing channels on TV. He pauses on TIMES NOW, watches it for sometime until there's a commercial break. The next moment he's watching Aaj Tak, later CNBC TV18, after that Zee News and so on. Reason? Indo-Australia test match (or rather controversy) updates.

I would love to quote this- 'A gentleman's game no more a gentleman's game'. Seriously, all these years cricket enthusiasts boasted about the manner of the game and today the world is talking about how ungentlemanly the game has turned into, and the credit goes to the Down Under guys. The issue has got much more attention than even the infamous 'Zidane head-butting Materazzi' incident. Do actions really speak louder than words? Well, but here, the word 'monkey' beats a 'head-butt'!

Racial abuse surely is coming under light with the help of the media. Most of the cases heard are from sports which show the un-sportsmanship of the players. But why do people have to racially abuse each other? These abuses are actually a tactic to weaken your opponent's mind. The person loses concentration and even his/her cool. Or may be they have some better reason to do it, right? I don't study human psychology (neither animal psychology), yet I believe that abuses can be of any kind. In India itself we have people describing some dark skinned person as 'kalia' (and if I'm not mistaken, there's a movie too going by that name.) Now, does this count as a racial slur? Not to forget that a firangi (foreigner, preferably white skinned) gets so much attention and has a good demand in the country (remember Yana Gupta).

I remember I had seen some show on TV years back when I was a little girl. I have a faint memory of it. But I'd like to share whatever I remember. The story goes as follows:

A small village scenario. Some family is happy about their son going to abroad for further studies (or he's got a job there?). Later they receive a letter from him conveying that he met a girl (a foreigner), fell in love with her and they exchanged vows at the altar. Now, they were coming down to the village as the girl wanted to meet her in-laws. The whole family as well as the village goes berserk. They are preparing everything possible to welcome the new bride especially that she is not an Indian. The D-day arrives when they come to India. Everyone is so excited to see the bride that they wait with bated breath as she alights from the car.

The smile on their faces vanishes within the next second as the bride steps out with her palms joined and says 'Namaste'. She is dark skinned! The guy's mother angrily walks away and locks herself in her room to show her disapproval. The son follows his mother, obviously crossed with his mother's behavior. He knocks at the door questioning the reason for her attitude. She opens the door and angrily yells back saying that everyone were so excited to meet the 'foreigner bahu' whereas he brought home a dark skinned girl. Their month old excitement had died away.

The son explains her that she's so wrong. The bride is a very lovely girl and asks what has it got to do with the color of one's skin? He tells her that while she's regretting over her efforts getting wasted, what about the girl who took pains to learn a bit of Hindi and traditions to please her new family. She even wore a sari especially for them.

At this, the mother realizes her fault and sends in for her new daughter-n-law to come into her room. The new bride enters and bends down to touch the mother's feet and says, "Pai lagoo maaji" her accent intact. Everyone was happy.

And the story ended there.

Isn't this the real picture in India? There are even more issues that are as worse as racial abuse. Aren't the Sikhs the butt of jokes even when they protest against it? Is the nation free of all the caste system and does not differentiate between upper castes and lower castes? Why do communal riots take place in India while we claim 'Unity in Diversity'? Holy places being razed down, priests are murdered, common man being targeted during violence, innocents killed... Are these just minor examples?

Having said all this, I would like to point out that before we raise a finger against anybody, why don't we keep in check the vices that lie in our own backyard?

The bottom line is- ‘Fight against racism and every kind of discrimination that differentiates a man from a man.’

Black Eyed Peas- Where Is The Love:

What's wrong with the world, mama
People livin' like they ain't got no mamas
I think the whole world addicted to the drama
Only attracted to things that'll bring you trauma
Overseas, yeah, we try to stop terrorism
But we still got terrorists here livin'
In the USA, the big CIA
The Bloods and The Crips and the KKK
But if you only have love for your own race
Then you only leave space to discriminate
And to discriminate only generates hate
And when you hate then you're bound to get irate, yeah
Madness is what you demonstrate
And that's exactly how anger works and operates
Man, you gotta have love just to set it straight
Take control of your mind and meditate
Let your soul gravitate to the love, y'all, y'all

People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love (Love)

Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love
The love, the love