Caste, society, upper and lower section of society, rich and poor, and so on. We have divided our society into different sections and now, we are expecting our country to develop? We don't even support each other, competition goes everywhere and we are dreaming for digital developed India? A state cannot be great until it has social gap. Our country India is known for its diversity in religion, its culture. It is the only country with different religions, castes, tribes and cultures in one frame. Sometimes, India is also called "Unity in Diversity". But this is just the outer beauty which looks beautiful if seen from distance. Once we get closer, we can see the dark side. We live in a society where poor are being suppressed by rich, lower sections are suppressed by upper sections of the society. We live in a society where even after 75 years of independence, there exists mentality of upper and lower caste, brahmin, khatriya, vaishya, shudra and not only caste discrimination but also religion discrimination. We live in a society where still exists some sorts of Untouchability. 

Still remember an incident of my life when I was just 17 years old. It was the occasion of Chhath Pooja, all the family members were gathered at my home. I lived in Varanasi with my parents. All my cousins and I with my sibling were playing truth and dare. In that game, I gave a dare to my younger cousin to touch the feet of each and every elder one present at our house at that time. He did so. There were around 25 people at that time, of which, 13 were from my family and the rest of the people were belonged to my landlord's family as I lived on rent there. My brother touched the feet of every elder person and the game continued. The day went nice, we enjoyed very much. But the very next day, my aunt called my mother and said that she was angry with me. She was yelling at my mother, and really was so much mad at me. My mom asked the reason so she said that I have made fun of his the only son i.e. my cousin in front of my landlord's family. I let him touch the feet of them on the occasion of a holy festival of Hindu mythology, who belong to a lower caste family. She said that we are Brahmins, and because of Ayushi, my son had touched the feet of lower caste people. I was literally shocked at this. I said to my mom that is this the kind of education, the moral value they are giving to their child? I mean is this a crime to touch the feet of people who belong to lower caste? What rubbish is this! All of them were elder than my cousin, so what's the big deal if he touched their feet? They would bless him of course, he would get their blessings only not curse! My landlord and landlady are very old that they are even elder than my grandparents. Even I and my parents always used to touch their feet as a mark of respect for them, keeping this Caste things aside, even they are the respectful citizen of our colony, all the youngsters respect them so much. My mom was also shocked at their thinking. 

Then I really realized that why is it necessary to give reservation to the weaker sections of the society. People belonging to general category always complain that the competitions are unfair nowadays because of the reservation given to the lower sections of the society, which I also thought was correct, but  now after this incident I realized that it is still necessary because still the mentality of upper and lower caste exists in our society.

There is one more incident I remember. I have a friend named Mahima Shree. A girl asked her name, she replied Mahima, so she asked again, Mahima what? Title? Mahima said, Mahima Shree, so again she asked, Shree what? What is your caste? I have a question, What is the need of telling this thing to a random girl who don't even know you or even to a known person. I am a girl, a human, moreover, an Indian, is it not enough to know about a person?    

I have seen various examples in my life. Like we have separate utensils in our home for people belonging to weaker section of the society, separate usable things like if they come to stay with us, we need to separate each and every things of our daily need. I think that this is also a sort of Untouchability. Why do we need to do this? Are they not human? Do they not have right to live their life like us? People even keep dogs as domestic animal and they get so much attached to their dog that they even sleep with their dogs. I am not saying that this is wrong. It's completely fine. But the why in case of people they go for their caste before sharing their personal belongings? Are they even more rubbish than those animals? On one hand, you are showing your extreme love for someone, on the other hand, you are showing you worst side by doing this. Which one is real? I think that's why only human beings are said to have two faces. 

The freedom fighters who sacrifice their life for the sake of our motherland, who sacrifice their life for our safety and security, who leave their family, learn to survive in the coldest and hottest weather during festivals just so that we can celebrate festivals with our family happily, they never ask us that from which caste do we belong to? Just imagine what if any soldier put forward a condition that he will protect you only if you belong to a particular caste or section of the society? What would you do? The country's life would be in threat. If they don't make difference between people, if they treat everyone equal, if they consider everyone wholesome as an Indian only, so why can't we do that?

Keeping this mentality alive in our mind only increases the gap in the society which creates disputes and lead to movements like Dalit Andolan. This social gap between the various sections of the society is somewhere being the obstacle in the direction of development of our country. This will end only if we start to think in a new direction. We should see the common point in between us that we all belong to one nation, we all are Indian and this is the way we all are common. So in spite of looking at the differences, we should go for common things between each and every member of our society then only we would get a country of what our freedom fighter dreamt of.

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