You Are History!!

Each time I read any piece of non-fiction something new hits me straight in the face. And I just think to myself, "Am I so dumb as to not notice it in the first read!!" But that actually is the beauty of a non-fictional piece and I am not talking bout the plethora of lowbrow publications.

A thought is nothing in itself. It has to be seen in a context. That is how the question of identity struck me. Whose identity? Mine? Yes and No. Well of course I love myself so it is bout me but no identity is exclusive. It only puts on a charade of exclusivity when all it actually is, is a part of a collectivity.

Back in kindergarten parents goaded us to answer the same five set of questions to all relatives and friends :

1. What is your name?

2. What is your father's name?

3. What is your mother's name?

4. Where do you live?

5. What is the name of your school?

Now the last one left many a toddler confused. While some were simply clean bowled on the last one others valiantly repeated the first answer. And mind you the entire exercise was in English, the road to high glory! The colonial hangover as they say lingered on with the 'Bengali baboo' mentality making the English speaking category the new 'saheb' and 'bibis' or 'mems'. Who was the 'ghulam' then? Oh sure this category got transformed into the 'gawanr'. How often do we overhear, "I tell you, he is so gawanr na, he can't even speak in English and man have ya eva listened to his pronunciation, pucca dehati he is!" No guesses where the dehati hails from.

Just today someone was tagged in a newspaper article, "Auratein Mardon se zyada bewafa". Hail the world dear Lord, its not just a question of Venus v/s Mars, it demands a statistical analysis too! Back in school all we cared bout was to beat the guys in studies. And so it continues even now. The colourful news headings cheering the 95.7% girls who passed as compared to say a 92.8% of boys comes as a shocker. Fine, you need statistics to compile your reports based on which you say you make policies for the education of the girl child. The policies and their fate we all know but what kind of category politics is this? Is it a new age tactic to spur on the kids who already slog on for say eighteen to twenty hours a day to work harder. There are yet other news headlines screaming that so and so kid who topped did nothing except sleep for 5 hours, watch news, eat and study. Consider this, a foreign student from some Scandinavian country who had to submit a paper for evaluation at the post-graduate level was all jittery because he had never given a formal examination in his life.

At the college level, the caste identity hits you hard. SC, ST, OBC, Minority, Kashmiri Migrant or General. You either end up hating the system with so many quotas or the invariable 'creamy layer' which avails these seats or your forefathers who hung the albatross around our necks. What irks you the most is the attitude some people chuck. As in a coaching institute, " Sir, hamara toh quota hai itna padha dijiye ki pass ho jayein" (Sir, we have a quota just teach us enough to pass). Or someone else who says, " I don't believe in the quota system so i have applied in the general category." To this someone else adds, "Bhai, ek seat aur kha jayega" (Brother, you will eat up one more seat). Yet a fourth would say, " Mera toh merit pe hua hai quota se nahi (I got through merit not through quota) or in a deprecating voice, "Oo, Quota!!"

But are these my only identities - English speaking general category female student. Definitely not. There are the other add-ons - Religion, country, region, complexion, sub-caste, et al. While a Yadav girl threatens her mother that if coaxed into a marriage for the next two years she would elope with a Muslim, a Bihari is not given a paying guest accommodation on the assumption that they "capture" property with political clout. An American would not be expected to take a shower daily and a north-east student has to be into drugs! A Rajput cannot cry openly and a Parmar cannot marry a Lohia Rajput! Besides people take a look at you and decide which part of the country you come from. A Bihari can't be fair and a South Indian would speak in English with a distict south flavour!

But is that all. Whom are we kidding? What of the brand name? A school, a college, a LV bag, a picture with a celebrity, some distant cousin topped some bureaucratic services, a wedding invite to a royal-do, an uncle living abroad even if it is Bhutan, a cricketer or a politician from the same district. We all revel in finding connections, in associating ourselves with 'the people'. And then we proclaim we are individuals in our own right. Need a reality check!

Some might say why not but each one of us has his/her own mental faculty. True. But who uses it irrespective of these categories or identities or tag-ons. We are all manipulative identity transformers. The same person who parties with the who-is-who of he town by night would be the crusader against the same folks by morning, singing the song of the masses. An elsa ( LSR-ian) would vociferously debate over the ills of a caste society and eventually give in to the rigours of the same society. Not everyone would adopt the same veils, but veils each one would adopt.

Is there some thing wrong with this? Well depends on a number of factors which I would not get into. But for Heaven's sake quit calling yourself an individual with a distinct voice, conscience and blah. You are History!! It is the age of identities, it is they who win or lose. There might be a maverick in a million but the rest are nothing except superimposing identities. Dear self, high time you believed you are a mere placard being replaced now and then, in different shades and in different texts! The new age is an age of identities coupled with associations, individuality is history!! Wonder who or what ever thought that identity as a word in a singular format could ever be used?