colour

earlier at yoga my teacher and i had a very long conversation. probably due to the fact that i was the only student there at the moment so he didn't really have to teach anyone anything new and so he was pretty free and possibly bored. and maybe it was just the weather you know, a cool rainy (but not too rainy) day (i tend to blame everything on the weather these days, it's just really convenient and sometimes it makes a lot of sense).

it started off with him asking me about my course, how many years til i'm done, and what's it like back home, how's the system there different from here, the hospitals, distance from college to capital city, and college to home, the languages spoken back home - at first they were all general, bearable, pretty decent questions..

and then it got a bit annoying - what language do you speak at home led to where are you from, as in origins, how did you land up there, you don't look like the rest of them, where exactly are you from, are you in contact with distant relatives - - basically to do with race but the questions were direct in a subtle manner.

i'm not being overly sensitive about it, i don't even consider it offensive as a matter of fact. i suppose i sometimes get annoyed with the fact that many people (especially people who barely know you) think it's important to know something which doesn't really describe who you are as a person - your personality, character, what makes you who you are.

i'm not entirely against sharing this particular information regarding myself, i just find it as unnecessary as asking a stranger you've just met what is his/her blood group type.
the type of information not significant enough to be relevant in getting to know a person in the initial stages, but which may come up later on after getting to know the person better - it may come up as a random fact, you'd share it, it'd be acknowledged, and that's it. it shouldn't influence their perception on who you really are. 

anyway.

i answered his questions and i didn't mind it so much because i know he's probably quite bored in life, especially with the amount of free time he has to himself everyday, not to forget that peace and silence that fills the air while the rest of us do yoga, it's probably natural for him to have his mind wandering off to such trivial details about the most insignificant people in his day. 

told him about me, and told him that the world's getting rather mixed now, and eventually it would be no longer significant to know what a person's race or origin is because eventually, everyone's going to venture beyond borders, share and mix colours, and no one's going to be bothered to trace down the details of their ancestors, and the whole concept of racial discrimination would be obsolete. 

i told him i don't expect my great grandchildren to even have a clue about where MY great grandfather came from, and they could be living at any random part of the world.

he seemed to agree with what i said, because apparently he can't really figure out exactly which part of this country his ancestors are from - apparently a migration took place some many years back etc. and then it got a bit annoying because i couldn't even complete 10 breathings per position with a clear mind because he kept interrupting my inner peace with annoying silly questions. so i decided to just finish up the session although half-heartedly and leave asap.

i've known some people in life, who still make it a point to notice colour first and foremost. it's one of those things that get listed under "first impression", it's okay as a simple observational fact (if it's quite obvious, for example, if the person is asian) but then to emphasize so much on it and to classify/stereotype based on race, or better yet, to try to figure out the race (if it's not so clear from appearance) so that they can proceed with the rest of the impression, is rather tragic i must say. seriously. because, beneath all that you see is a person, who might not be so different from you, or from the rest of the world. so, get to know people for who they are, inside. 

i'd like to be discovered, as an individual and not as part of a group or society, and not just based on what i look like, what colour i am or how much money or material i possess, but who i am as a person inside.
there's this bottomless pit and if you stumbled and found yourself in this pit, it'd be a journey of discovery, of a person with a mind full of ideas, a myriad of thoughts, a heart full of hopes and dreams whether realistic or pure crap, a conflicting balance between realism and emotionalism, fact and fiction, yin and yang. it goes on and on (hence, bottomless). not just a person with colour and creed, not just a face, or surface. it may or may not be a pleasurable experience, but then again, to each his/her own. it'd be really good if people were willing to realise these things, and overcome the little differences, in order to enjoy the depth and magnitude of what would bring a lot of meaning into our otherwise ordinary lives. 

the simple things. the big picture. the whole works. you get my point.