I was born as a normal human being but now I am a Hindu/Punjabi/Kshtriya/North Indian/Indian/Asian

Yes, I used to be a human being. In my childhood, I was not aware that there are so many bifurcations which I will have to encounter in my life ahead.

So, how it all happened? How I got molded to a non-human being?

It remained mostly unnoticed as a child that I am a Hindu. Maybe I was not aware that there are other religions available for practice. Maybe I was not aware what a religion is. Still, I think, it all started when I was in school. I knew few people who were following other religion. They have different gods and festivals. But, I was happy with this diversity because we used to get holidays in school for all festivals. This was all that I knew about the word religion.

How I became a Punjabi? For those who doesn’t know what Punjabi is, don’t worry. Till date, even I am not able to define what is it. Origins of my family are from Punjab region and we are following some customs which belong to the same region. One might call Punjabis—an ethnic group, but I am not sure on this. So, the point is, my family is a Punjabi family or at least proclaim to be same.

Now, why is it difficult to define a Punjabi? Earlier, I was not sure whether to call myself a Sikh or a Hindu. And how does Punjabi fit with the religious structure. I have never given a thought about it. What I know is I am not Sikh as I am not following their rituals. People of other part of the country often get confused with Punjabis and Sikhs. To simplify the things, we can say Punjabi may refer to a culture or tradition and on the other hand Sikhism is a religion.(Doors are always open to explore more)

There are some common preconceived notions about Punjabis:

• Punjabis are avid drinkers or consumption of alcohol is their highest priority.
• Punjabis are jolly in nature and love to flaunt
• Punjabis have good built and fair complexion
• Punjabis wear turban(infact that is associated with Sikhs)

Whenever I used to say that I am Punjabi, the person who has asked that question will surely give an observant look from bottom to top and then he will ask again: Are you sure? I don’t have an answer for this. I really don’t know how to prove that I am a Punjabi. I really don’t care about it either.

So, till now I became a Hindu following Punjabi culture.

One day, a friend of mine asked me a question which I was unable to answer-

Friend-Who are you?

I said-I am Rohit

Friend- That I know, bro!! But, what your family is? They must be following some rituals, culture.

I said-I am Punjabi. Again, he gave me the same look. Observing bottom to top.

Friend- Okay. But, what is your caste or your gotra.

(I was not able to say anything for a while. I have never heard this question. I felt like I was supposed to know this really very important piece of information about myself.)

I said- How you came to know your caste? I don’t know mine.

Friend- My father explained me that we are one of the most respected gotra(clan) in our community/caste.

At that moment, I was feeling like an ignorant boy who doesn’t even know who he was!! So, I posed the same question to my father and got a reply that we are khatris and as per the other system you can call it Kshtriya.

So, that curious question from my friend made me Kshtriya.

Now, next avatar- North Indian:

In the world map, there are only 4 part of our country, North, South, East, West. But, I belong to the 5th part, known as Madhya Pradesh or Central State or Central India. But, does it matter really? I never gave a thought about it till I came out of our country. For every other person from Taxi drivers to my fellow country men, I became a North Indian. The philosophy behind this is simple: Anything above southern India is North India. There is nothing in between. It’s not there mistake either. Firstly, most of them have not visited the other part. Secondly, MP(central India) government should promote tourism of the state so that people should start recognizing as a state instead of a route to North India. Anyways, again the question is does it really matter?

When I interacted with people of different countries, the Indian in me took many leaps ahead . And when I was talking to people of Europe, US my identity was again changed to Asian. Now, I am representing Asia along with China and many other countries which I have never visited.

This is how I got converted from a human being to an Asian.

In this whole process of identification or branding of a person, no one sees if you know how to love, how to respect, how to be compassionate, how to agree or disagree. In the long run, only these values will help us to interact with any other person on earth or may be in other planet.

The question is — Why are we so community bound?

Since we are a social animal, we need a group of persons of same values or thought process to interact, live, play. But, this whole idea of community should not restrict us from interacting with other communities. In the long run, it will hinder the progress of mankind. It is always good to think about the people of your community, their needs, their requirements. But, it should not come in way of growth and peace of other community.

If someone thinks that by interacting with other communities his thinking or his community culture will get disrupted, then he should remain in his community for rest of his life. There is no need to get help from any other person outside of their community neither for food nor for livelihood.

One thing, we should not forget that at the end of the day we are human beings who are being branded with different names to sustain in this world. It is like wearing different clothes on different occasions but the body and the soul remains the same.

Life is really very short to create complexities. It is bestowed to us to spread love, happiness, respect and above all to be human.