Disparity

Almost all the major languages in the world have a common idiom: ‘two sides of the same coin’, ‘dos lados de la misma moneda’, ‘deux faces d'une même pièce’, ‘हर सिक्के के दो पहलू होते हैं’, ‘একটি মুদ্রার দুটি দিক’, the dictionary meaning of which is two things which are seemingly different yet closely related. Two sides of the coin coexist yet in a toss only one side wins. Standing on the top of a mountain one can choose to look at the greener side where everything and everyone is happy and lively or one can change perspective to stare down at the glaring disparity and the deprivation of the other side-the losing side. Every time I see a skyscraper my heart cringes a little because I know on the other side of this giant beautiful architecture lies the society’s open secret. Well, one might think it’s just how it is, for someone to win someone else has to lose and this very thought so deeply embedded in us is the root of all inequality. Here is an alternative thought: maybe this whole life is not about winning, not about showing off. not about raising walls, not about heads and tails. Maybe its about time we see a coin as whole and not as something with two sides, maybe it's time to just stop building skyscrapers and start building bridges. Looking at this picture I want to remind everyone, it’s not always shiny and pretty, sometimes things are difficult and tiresome, but we need to work towards our goal and if no one else is helping, maybe it’s time for us to take things into our own hands and start breaking down old and obsolete norms and build new bridges to envision a world where two closely related parts of the society will no longer be seemingly different. If we forgo the concept of the losing side, then everyone just wins. Beautiful, isn’t it?