The Wagah Posturing!

was at the wagah border at attari last month. got to witness the 'change of guards' at sun down. thats when the indian and paki soldiers march to the gate separating the neighbours, shake hands, bring down their flags and close the gates till the next morning.

frankly, i was a little disappointed by the whole act... had heard so much about it that i was half expecting goosebumps like the day they played 'jana gana mana' at grand central where shahrukh khan was shooting.

far from it! the army men from the two sides seemed like they were trying to itimidate and out-shout the other... we had speakers blaring with patriotic bollywood songs while the folks with green flags on the other side were chanting the supremacy of allah. a columnist once described this event as 'where allah meets bollywood'. how appropriate! there cant be a better summation of this posturing by the two sides.

on the drive back i was reflecting on what i had witnessed that evening. i had read about the 'world citizen' which i had been discounting as a phrase that describes a person always on the go. but somehow it kept coming back in various contexts and seemed to have a different, deeper meaning... where similarities of issues faced by different parts of the world seem more compelling than the geo-political boundaries that divides it... where poverty, religious wars, global warming are faces more familiar than that of priests and politicians... where humanity, without any doubt, comes before patriotism.

its almost as if the human race has lost itself in a bid to identify itself with a set of beliefs we call religion.