A bigger canvas....

"Where are you from?" is a question that I often encounter from people and each time I try and answer it, I am not quite sure of what I am saying. 

To put it succinctly, I have been more of an urban nomad with a life spanning over multiple regions of this vast country. 

As a matter of my lineage, I am a Palakkad brahmin, who of course are this tiny group of people, who originate from Tamil Nadu and settled in Kerala, several centuries ago. Despite the influence of the years, they are still not steeped in with the cultures and traditions of their host state of Kerala. At the same time, this group of people are no longer directly linked to their original tamil ancestors. We have as a group over the eons evolved into people with a distinct cultural entity, starting from our food, festivals and language. 

To add to this, i was born and brought up in a stereotypical urban center - Delhi, the capital city of the country was my home for the first quarter of my life. 

Being quite a historical city, Delhi was the melting pot of many cultures and being brought up in a such a place, had an indelible mark on me. I am an urban kid in more ways than one.... I studied there and grew up along the way and consequently, had the attitude of one. I was more delhite than a south indian (as is common reference for people of origin from south india in the northern parts of the country) for a large part of my life. 

Eventually, of course, I happened to move to the emerging city of Bangalore for my graduate studies in molecular oncology from a premier research institution in the the country. Far from the mad rush and politics of Delhi, Bangalore was a quaint little urban center which was on its way to become a major metropolis in its own right over half of the decade that i was here. 

 However, it was also a melting pot of cultures... having inhabitants from all the states of southern India, it was my "rapid fire" exposure to my cultures and inheritances. Within 5 years, the city of Bangalore and the diverse campus provided me with a new outlook of the people in a upcoming, developing city. I met people from as far as West Bengal and Kashmir and were a window of opportunity for me to learn about the diversity of this country. 

At the end of 5 years, I had my home here and the city became a part of me in more ways than one. A brief stint in the United states also made me define myself in this more broad context of my nationality as an Indian. 

Now, after nearly a third of my life, I am completely unable to answer where I am from. I instead wonder at this inherent tendency amongst us to define ourselves and form groups. Why do we raise these walls around us.. ?? 

Why define ourselves and others by the past, especially factors over which we have no real control? Why do we build walls at different levels - at the level of the individual (me), family, locality, state and country ?? Why brand ourselves and others based on such narrow perspectives... ? 

If only, we could break down these walls and make the world our home. It would be a happier place indeed... After all, we are part of all these communities depending on where we draw the walls. Let us use a bigger canvas to paint our identities and the results will be remarkable indeed.