You may say I'm a dreamer

Perhaps the pendulum has swung one way for too long and has started its swing back

My favourite food is salad. I love World Music, multiculturalism and people of varied and different ethnicities. 'Fusion', ' middle of the road', and 'diversity' are some of my favourite words. New and different cultures, opposing beliefs and varied lifestyles fascinate me.

For me, a gated community, extreme ideology, predictable outcomes are all vastly unattractive. Movement, open minds, open spaces, the unconventional, the atypical are qualities that I am instantly attracted to.

I guess I exemplify that cliche doing the Internet rounds: "Your car is German. Your vodka is Russian. Your pizza is Italian. Your kebab is Turkish. Your democracy is Greek. Your coffee is Brazilian. Your movies are American and your tea is Tamil."

Add to that a taste in Russian literature, a fondness for New York breakfasts, a penchant for Japanese fashion and a love for Balinese furniture and you would have me down pat.

How do people like me respond to hints and forebodings that diversity and multiculturalism across the world are under threat? What do we baby-boomers do when we are faced with extremism, dogmatism and unilateralism?

Where do we, who have taken the words of John Lennon and Bob Dylan to our hearts, go when we face narrow mindedness, insularity and parochialism?

I often think that there are just two types of people in the world: the progressives and the reactionary. Through these two qualities flows a universe of ideologies, beliefs, behavioural patterns, values and lifestyles.

An extreme at both ends of the progressive-reactionary spectrum is unhealthy for any peoples, organisation or country. But of course, all of humankind's evolution has occurred through the tension between these two opposing dynamics. The pendulum swings right and then it swings left and while it does, governments, fashion, cultural movements and forms of creativity emerge under that swing.

Perhaps that is why India has witnessed such a decisive swing in its recent elections. Perhaps the pendulum having swung one way for too long has started its swing back and this was only in the order of things. Perhaps balance and temperance and moderation are moments that exist in the brief space between the pendulum's oscillations. And perhaps their briefness is necessary for progress to occur.

Hence, I stand against status quo and as an embracer of change. Water still breeds mosquitoes, circulation is the lifeblood of existence and if you look into the eyes of those who cling to status quo you'll find no one home.

Some of the greatest architecture, the most exquisite music and dance, the most delicious cuisines have been born due to the confluence of different religions cultures beliefs and ideologies. Children born of racially different couples are known to be stronger, brighter, healthier. Students who travel abroad and imbibe newer ideas and teachings go further. Cities which boast a cultural mosaic are more interesting. And kites that wrestle against the wind fly higher.

These are not learned beliefs or borrowed truths, just the canons of human existence. There is a universality that connects all human life and enough high-minded United Nations mandates to protect every citizen's birthright. A butterfly flapping its wings on one continent can create a storm in another. We are all descendants of the same two parents and no man is an island. Or in the words of the late great John Lennon: You may say I'm a dreamer/ But I'm not the only one/ I hope someday you'll join us/ And the world will be as one.
Malavika Sangghvi is a Mumbai-based writer malavikasangghvi@hotmail.com