“Strength lies in differences, not in similarities”, an irrefutable quote by Stephen Covey which proudly endorses the idea of human diversity and its buoyant effects. It also conveys that how the varied strengths of a bunch of persons can collectively become a source of great unity and puissance. So veracious and utopian, isn’t it?
Enough of the boring and pedantic description of someone’s quotes now! Rather read on to know my take on Stephen Covey’s quote and its importance in the real world (Oh yes! I always shamelessly do it). So, according to me, his quote though seems true ideally, is hardly veracious in the context of real world. And to support my view, there are 1.2 Billion people of India who incessantly contradict the actual meaning of Stephen’s quote and that too mostly inadvertently!
India is like an enticing fabric encapsulating within itself vivid colors and textures and patterns of myriad kinds. No wonder people call it one of the most diverse countries in the world with limitless differences extant simultaneously. Everyone in the country has his/her unique cultural identity. But are these differences bound only to their culture?
Had the answer been yes to the above question, it would have been extremely good news. But alas, the differences between any two Indians have failed to limit themselves within the cultural boundary. They’ve shattered all the shackles by perforating through the various malignant loopholes that we have in our national society. Consequently, now we have differences among the living standard of any two Indians, the disposition of country’s resources to any two Indians, the honor and respect given to any two Indians and even the value of life of any two Indians.
The instances and situations when we get to witness these undesirable differences are innumerable. May it be a metro city of India, a mediocre city, a sober village or the smallest of hamlets, one sight that’ll always feast your eyes is that two human beings, apart from having the intrinsic cultural and religious differences, will also be having many other extrinsic bleak and depressing differences.
Here’s where Stephen Covey’s quote fails: The cultural, religious or any other innate differences between its denizens make India beautifully diverse while strengthening its unified identity and leading to the further apotheosis of its already glorified image. But Covey didn’t have a clue about the differences developed externally due to the lack of facilities to a portion of people and due to the faulty and apathetic ruling system of a country like India.
Albeit India has a whopping 243 Million internet users but still around 80% of Indians are bereft of the otherwise omnipotent online world! Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook, could not abstain himself from telling that with every internet-less person, the world, especially the software world, is robbed of many wonderful ideas. So, it’s quite evident that what India and 80% of Indians are losing on account of not having access to internet. The striking difference is that I use a variety of websites umpteen times a day but then I have many neighbors who don’t even know what www.google.com is!
One even more disheartening difference that exists between any two Indians today is the quality of security conferred by the Government of India to its different citizens. On one hand, in India, we have seen Rahul Gandhi and many other VVIPs enjoying the Z-PLUS level security where 36 well-trained personnel are delegated to fight threats on behalf of their masters and on the other hand, it is only this nation where its citizens are indifferently left exposed to various imperils like terror attacks by not deploying any security systems at even the most busiest of Mumbai local trains get-ins. Is the life of a common Indian so valueless in comparison to a different kind of Indian- the so-called “VVIPs”?
Another difference which has more or less attained immortality in our country is the huge financial difference between any two Indians. Not only is this difference constantly present holistically in India but worst is that it’s burgeoning at a rapid rate with every tick-tock of the clock. One of its grave ramifications is the ever increasing gap between the rich and the poor of the country.
So, all these prevalent differences are not strengthening anyone in any way. Rather, these have been insidiously doing the work of enervating millions of Indians and their entitlements. Differences look rich only in their cultural forms. One must never embrace the creation of even amoral differences within a common blessing of God given to us: Life and the standard of living it. So Stephen’s quote would have become universal and immortal if it had been “Strength lies in sanguine differences, not in similarities”.
