To be or Not to be: The great Indian Conundrum

Many a river runs through a great nation called India. My India.

In fact, rivers were the cradles of our civilizations (Saraswati on North and Vaigai in South), arguably the oldest ones on Earth.

They helped many many life forms to thrive, not just human species alone, wherever they ran.

Some rivers grew, some changed paths, some disappeared altogether. Still, they all keep flowing in the hearts of a Billion strong nation. They do.

Scores of people lived and died by these rivers. We still do.

We all can hear the murmurs of the waters flowing through the biggest of these rivers just by cupping our ears!

Yes, the one giant river that connects all the rivers and the lives of our great soil is a river of blood, our blood; it runs through each one of us...

Blood has just one colour, Red, regardless of who we are, what we do, what we eat, where we pray, what we think, how we live.

No amount of human efforts to change the colour to Blue, Green, Saffron or something else will ever succeed because blood is Red and shall stay Red always.

Any attempt to tamper this in the name of Religions, Monarchies, Anarchies  (and rarely by democracies) results in periods of dislocation, disharmony, misery, pain and suffering. History has shown us (these) time and agsin. We all know too well what crops these rivers helped grow. We all know too well that they invariably turn back to Red unlike manmade boundaries, political / economical / geographical / religious.

It is our turn to witness this; not just in India but throughout the world.

Red it is. Red it will always be. Like water (is blue). Like plants (are green).

Still, the dilemma we go through now is real and inevitable. This too shall pass.

National security is nonviolable. So is dialogue in any democracy. This is THE need of the hour, not heated rhetoric.