A message to my fellow netizens of internet era

http://www.cybervictims.org

It is disturbing to see how India is getting divided due to the pranksters and mischief mongers who took full (mis)use of social networking sites and digital communication medium, especially SMSs. Too many news reports, blogs, media high lights and I am distraught to see how the fear wave touched my own dreamy university town Tirunelveli. Yes, the fear has spread like a fire and people belonging to north east, who used to work in various industries including hotels, brick kilns, ports, every one is running back to their home land (See http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/article3794140.ece) . All for a dreadful SMS which instigated the violence in Bangalore and then it did not take much long to push out others from other southern cities of South India. I know this will die down. It will either have a natural death, or the phenomena would be killed in the rightful way by the authorities. But the fact remains fact. We are never encouraged to be  INDIANS  first. I married a Tamil and got settled in Tamil Nadu for past thirteen years. I speak the language of the place which has given me motherly comfort and which actually blessed me to become what I am today. But I am still tagged as a “north Indian” (I am not from northern part, I am from the eastern part of India), some of the oldies in my in laws are scared of me because of my non Tamil lineage ( a peculiar sociological behaviour which actually bars people from different regions from accepting others due to some age old cultural beliefs), some blame me for bringing in the Calcutta culture in my own home consisting me, my husband and my multi lingual and multi cultural child. In my virtual life, I often  get to see ‘groups’ of  Bengalis, Tamils, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, ................... the list is endless. Yes, all of us are practising our precious rights to speech, expression, religion, and life. But where is the red line? Who bars us? The answer is known to none. We are now a generation of internet era. Probably we are the first generation. How would our children who are born of multi-linguistic, multi religious, multi- cultural parents tag themselves? What about those who have migrated to other parts of the country for good? They are neither south Indian nor north Indian, neither Tamils, nor Kannadas, nor Bengalis, nor Assameese. They are INDIANS  of the internet era. But still then, the division stays; some over smart opportunists try to create the separatist movement through the digital technology and we are unnecessarily feeding them to grow like poisonous trees by taking them extremely seriously. Isn’t it an irony? When scholars, researchers, cyber psychologists bravely announce that every human being in the NET must learn how to detach oneself from the NET,  the NET is gripping us more by sheer technological ‘magic’ to forget about the human side of the users? 

          In spite of the fact that I had my ups and downs in this place due to cultural differences, I would still say people of Tamil Nadu have hearts  that are tied with the heart of India.  From my part, I am not giving any opportunist any opportunity to break my country and my family. What about you?

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