Let us Celebrate Differences

Differences are a part of our life. Wherever there is a little bit of intellect, differences are bound to be there. In any team, howsoever strong it may be, if there are two or more than two members in a team, differences will be there. Can anyone show me any single organization, company, NGO, a political party or any department anywhere in the world where no differences exist? And if really you are able to show me some where people just listen to one individual/leader and follow him or her blindly, I will be the first one to declare that its end is very near. We all have differences within our family too, with our children, between husband and wife and with grandparents and amongst siblings.

Differences are not bad, in fact they are good. They help in the progress of organizations. They are responsible for innovation and creativity. They can lay the foundation of strong and stable organizations. They help in plugging the loopholes existing in the organizations. Differences enable people to widen their horizon to look at a picture from the other person’s perspective. The members of a team should be encouraged by the leader to air their differences. Everyone should express his/her opinion but when the leader takes a final decision after due consultations with the team members, that decision should prevail and all members of the team should work with full energy and enthusiasm irrespective of their original personal view even if it was different.

Look at the various communities in the world. There is awesome diversity. So many languages, so many religions, so many races, so many sects and sub sects, so many isms and so many ways of interpreting the same thing. Doesn’t that make the world interesting and make it beautiful. Just imagine if all the people in this world were all whites or all blacks or all were of wheatish complexion. And they had the same features. The world in that case would have been a big bore. These differences make this world beautiful and interesting. We can always have a dialogue about our differences and diversity with dignity without disturbing the peace of mind and ensure that these differences don’t lead to any divide in our hearts. Our shoulders should be broad enough to embrace criticism and try to convert it into collaboration.

But why should we keep talking about differences all the time? Does it help in bringing harmony in the society or in our organization? Can’t we ignore the differences we have and not talk about them? I don’t mean that you stop talking to a person or a group of persons with whom you have differences. Breaking the communication channels will only increase the barriers. We must keep talking but less about differences and more about commonalities. We can build bridges and strong bonds even with the people who outwardly look very dissimilar. We should not burn those bridges because of a few odd differences.

Differences will start disappearing as we focus more on the commonalities. If you just try to figure out the commonalities you have with a person, group or community, you will realize that our commonalities are many more than our differences. Those who keep on harping on the differences all the time are dangerous people for any organization, for a community, for a country and in fact for the humanity. Any organization should be careful about such people who create a wedge in your organization or in the country by talking all the time about differences of caste, creed or religion in the name of freedom of speech and democracy. Why such people don’t talk about the development of human kind. There is a time when we must put an end to a debate on issues that don’t lead us anywhere and instead concentrate on issues that are common to all of us.

I think the quantum of diversity in India is much more than whole of Europe or Africa or any other continent on this earth. You name a religion in this world, we have the followers. The number of languages and dialects spoken here in India is a delight. The variety of cuisines we have can be very perplexing for the people in the west. India is a crucible where the philosophies from all over the world are welcome and the basic ethos of this country enable them to co-exist. The concept of ‘वसुधैव कटुम्ब्कम्’ (The whole world is one family) enables us to recognize, accept and celebrate our differences. This world will be a beautiful place devoid of any terrorism and wars if we start accepting and celebrating differences.