How many countries do we live in?

When I was born I was told that I belong to a country named India which is rich in tradition, culture and has a historic struggle for more than a century to get its independence. That is definitely a history worth speaking about. There are many forces across the world, who have tried to disintegrate this part of the globe for various reasons. And to complement this we have our internal corruption denting the development of our country. Recently I came across another such factor.

Commercializing – Everyone wants to make big money and that too fast. And the media is ahead of them all in doing that. The breaking news in the news channels nowadays have been quite interesting to say the least with the likes of - a lost dog, a child in a pit, the climax of a never ending serial, the possibilities of an affair in movie world and the cricketing community and the list goes on. Now this has become normal. Recently, I saw ads about a sports (Cricket) event where teams from various cities in India would clash against each other. The ad depicts the maltreatment that a dentist offers to a patient after he realizes that the patient is from the rival metro. Well I have a question here. Why should the media fuel a rivalry between two cities? Why can’t an ad be made in a self-effacing approach which doesn’t create a contention in the minds of our fellow countrymen? Already we have too many issues brewing between adjacent states over commonly shared natural resources. Now we have this to cater to.

Part 2 – There is this kids program which focuses on a dance/singing competition between kids from the cities and kids from smaller towns. Why should the entertainment industry differentiate kids like this? Why can’t they get a bunch of kids and ask them to perform and grade them only on their merit? Such kind of segmentation is sure to have an impact in the minds of the young viewers. Such kind of rivalry would have a long lasting effect on the state of affairs down the line.

The answer seems to be fairly simple. Rivalry sells. And it sells for big bucks. Yes – it is important to make money for all of us. But somewhere we should look back to understand at what cost are we making the money. Down the line I may have to give a different answer to my child when he asks me about his motherland.