In the aftermath of the Paris
attacks, I did what many others were doing – I used the Facebook application to
add a filter of the French flag to my profile photograph. It helped me show my support
and express what I was having difficulty expressing otherwise. My sense of
shock & helplessness, my frustration against the irrationality of
terrorists, who seem to do everything against religion in the name of religion.
The despair of wanting to change things without any sense of what I, as an
individual, may be doing to contribute to the problem or what I may yet do to
end it.
Facebook was the one place I felt
less alone. Countless status updates and profile pictures showed me others also
struggling to articulate similar connected feelings. So I was shocked when a Facebook
friend accused me via a comment on my profile picture of not having empathy with
victims of terror in other places like Beirut & Kashmir. I felt so misunderstood
that I have pondered this strange unintended interpretation for days. And this
is my realization: the thing we can and must fight as individuals is this sense
of ‘other-ness’.
It’s in the way we express and
interpret things today. If someone expresses support for one person/country/religion/idea,
it goes without saying that he/she must naturally be against another. But, why must
there always be an ‘other’? As an Indian, why can’t I empathize with citizens
of other countries? As a Hindu, why can’t I respect other religions too? As a
woman, must I only envy men for being physically & culturally stronger and
never empathize with any burdens they might be carrying? How is expressing
empathy with one person/region/religion/ideology equal to not having any for
another?
Facebook is a nice place to
interact with the world from the safety of our comfort zones. We meet many ‘others’
– people who come from different places and cultures, different ideologies and
points of view. Can we try, if not always to understand and appreciate the
differences, to at least learn to live with them? Isn’t this what we actually
do in our offline lives when we have differences with family, friends,
colleagues and neighbours? What siblings or spouses or friends always agree
exactly on everything without discussions and even the occasional disagreement?
While it’s nice to have an easy visual
filter to show our concerns in a timely manner, maybe Facebook can’t keep up
with all the horror in the world. So here’s my little action, my
new Facebook profile photo:
By displaying the flags of all
the countries in the world I hope I am showing that I am making my effort, as
an individual, to breakdown my sense of ‘other-ness’. And if anyone can still
misunderstand this, then it means that for them, I will always be the ‘other’ –
the problem is now theirs to resolve, if they choose to.
