Take a step outward or inward and look - really look - at me.

Dr Roshan Radhakrishnan
20

Stay still where you are and look at yourself.

You are you and that is truer than true. 
You are your shade, your nationality and religion & in your mind, it defines you. 
It is your pride and differentiates you from the others - 
the ones of a different race & religion; from different mothers.

Now take one step outward and look from above. 

Soar with the birds and stay still in the winds. 
Use a telescope if need be but look at yourselves. 
You are you and that still remains true. 
But there is no difference from up above. 
For from the skies up yonder, you are all the same. 
Your religion and nationality do not define you; nor does your name.

Take one step inward and look from beneath. 

Ignore the proverbs and indeed go skin deep. 
Use a microscope if need be but look at yourselves.
You are you and that still remains true. 
But there is no difference from deep within. 
For beneath your skin, you are all the same. 
Your colour and religion do not define you; nor does your name.


Yes, you are Hindu and Christian & Muslim and Jew. 
Yes, you are black and white and yellow too.
You are you - one of God's blessed few 
But so are each and everyone - all seven billion - of you. 

Below the skin and above the ground, 
you are separated by birth, land and name, 
Yet every other living animal on this planet knows it... 
the simple truth that you are all the same. 

So take a step outward or take a step inward. 
And look - really look at me.
Because if you change your view for merely a moment, 
perhaps you will see - finally see 
that you are but me and I am but you 
and above all else, that remains truer than true



Authors note:
It is hard to watch the news today. 
People kill strangers and kids and say it is because they are different. Innocents are forced to suffer the hatred for being the same religion as these monsters. Millions who had a home at the start of the year are turned into immigrants and refugees, victims of the hatred burning within despots and people blinded by bloodlust. 
Even today, innocent people are being killed by policemen for being the 'wrong colour' in USA.
Eating the wrong food, wearing the wrong clothes, reading the wrong books... everything is an excuse to end a life. Educated privileged young men with their whole lives ahead of them choose to become terrorists in Bangladesh and kill strangers just because they perceive everyone different from them as vile. 

The key ideology is always the same - that others are different from us. And that is such a wrong notion.

At any other level, microscopic or macroscopic, when you just look at it, we are all alike. Every other creature on Earth sees it, except for us. The only difference arises from how we teach the next generation to hate based on our biases instead of working towards loving everyone equally.

Stop allowing man made boundaries and century old ideologies to make you hate someone you have never met. 

Don't hate me because you are taught the lie that we are both different.
Love me because you finally see the truth - that we are both alike.

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20Comments

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  1. If only. But the hatred continues. Two deaths of dark skinned people at the hands of police in the last few days in my country. One committed the crime of driving with a taillight out, and was killed in front of his girlfriend and her young child after the police stopped him. On a video shot by the girlfriend as he lay dying, the young child is seen trying to comfort her distraught mother. Just another day.

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    1. Yes, those two deaths were what got me thinking about writing all of this. Sadly by the time I reply to your comment, things have only gotten worse with a sniper taking revenge on others in the police department. An eye for an eye, tragically, still remains the dictum.

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  2. I love that Nelson Mandela quote. If people can learn to hate, they can be taught to love. If only. If only..

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    1. You would think more religious people would want to showcase that instead of accentuating the differences based on religious values.

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    2. Exactly! People completely lose the plot when it comes to religion.

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  3. Right message for the troubled times of today Roshan....if only everyone followed "live and let live"....

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    1. You would think it were as simple as that! Just live and let live and everyone would be happy. That is unfortunately too tough to do!

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  4. Right message for the troubled times of today Roshan....if only everyone followed "live and let live"....

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  5. Roshan, it's such beautiful poems. I am trying to focus on more positive website such as Good News. You've put it so well.

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    1. That is a splendid idea and something I too had asked for in my first 1000Speak post... a site or page in everyday newspapers dedicated only to good news.

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  6. I have never read a poem from you:) And a very relevant one at that especially in the present times. The killing has got to stop and when more and more people think likewise, one day or the other it would happen(hopefully). The descriptions in the end elevate the essence of the verse.
    Congratulations on being featured in the Manorama Arogyam magazine. More such intitiatives are needed from the side of the press. The voices of doctors are fast being suppressed in the changing world and there should be someone to let the people know that we are not joking around when we treat a patient. It is a serious profession and it deserves every ounce of respect that the society can give it and not prejudiced glares(that we know is the height of ignorance, for what would a common man know what we have been through all those ten years in medical school) and inhuman beatings.

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    1. You aren't wrong. I don't think I have written a poem in Godyears over 11 years and it obviously shows in the lack of structure or format! :)

      And thanks... I wish more people would speak up and get the thoughts of doctors across and somehow get it into people's minds. Because I am still not convinced that the incidence of violence against doctors in India is decreasing

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  7. Heartbreaking to read the news these days and if, through our words, we can help change the world one person at a time, how wonderful it would be. Thanks for this beautiful poem, Roshan.

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    1. Thanks Shailaja. It is really heartbreaking. I usually read the news after coming back from work and its always demoralising... death, hatred, corruption. REPEAT.

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  8. it's sad to see violence around the world ... not just one country ... powerful and very thoughtful words. If only people would start understanding that we all belong to the same species!!

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    1. At what point does it begin... this indoctrination to children to start hating someone who is different because of their colour or religion? And what does it say about us? Does it make us better parents because we support our cause or worse ones for insulting other causes?

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  9. Love for all fellow beings is the answer, but not many are interested.

    Damyanti

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  11. It is hard to read the news.It's very sad to see violence around the world. Please we have to tell & aware our country people to stop the violence

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