Diversity

Diversity raised me to value every human
Diversity raised me to believe in our power which unites us.
Diversity raised me to accept 'WE' instead of 'I'
Diversity raised me to accept our differences and be proud of them.

It all started as a college assignment with the task of creating a blog on cultural diversity and fusion. However, as I dwelled more into it, it made me genuinely think about my experiments with life and how I culturally evolved over a period of time. 

Being born and brought up in a country where religion plays a central and definitive role in the life of many of its people. Being a part of this diverse cultural nation with some of the most deeply religious societies makes you witness different languages, different culture and different ideologies. We use our own culture as the standard to judge other cultures; however, passing judgment could reach a level where people begin to discriminate against others whose “ways of being” are different than their own—essentially, we tend to fear that which we do not understand.

Here we evaluate everything around - what is proper or improper, normal or abnormal basis our perspective. If we are immersed in a culture that is unlike our own, we may experience culture shock and become disoriented when we come into contact with a fundamentally different culture. We can learn from one another, but first we must have a level of understanding about each other in order to facilitate collaboration and cooperation. 

Learning about other cultures helped me understand different perspectives within the world in which we live, and dispel negative stereotypes and personal biases about different groups. Initial few years of my life, I worked with a big American bank opened a different perspective altogether. Traveling also gave me an opportunity to gauge the knowledge about different lifestyle. Taking the plunge of career change from corporate banking to fashion industry makes you see life in a different way. Diverse culture and surroundings helped me recognize and respect “ways of being” that are not necessarily our own. As we interact with others we can build bridges of trust, respect, and compassion. Furthermore, this diversity makes our country a more interesting place to live, as people from diverse cultures contribute language skills, new ways of thinking, new knowledge, and different experiences

I will be sharing my experiences with life as we move forward in this journey – watch out this space! 

-Khushboo Sachdeva