Day #31: Diversity (100 days of gratitude)

Day #31:     Diversity
(100 days of gratitude)


Good morning! Bon jour! Vanakkam! Namashkar! .... These are four of several thousand languages and dialects to wish you in the morning. India has hundreds of them. Similarly, there are many religions and faiths around the world. There are people with different orientations and dispensations to ours. When we meet someone who speaks a different language to ours, we need to struggle to get ourselves understood. This struggle ends with elation if we succeed or laughter or despair if we fail to understand each other depending on the gravity of the conversation.

Similarly, when we meet someone of another faith that we are not accustomed to, we are curious to understand what they believe in and why they believe in it. This exchange gives us a larger perspective to our world and enriches us if we are not stuck up with our own beliefs.

Boredom comes when we do the same thing over and over again or meet the same people over and over again. When we meet someone new, adopt a new habit, visit a new place, meet someone with a radically contrary belief system to yourself, our life becomes richer and more exciting. Variety is the spice of life, nay, I would say life itself. The clash between what we are used to and what is in front of us is very interesting and exciting. 

To be alive, you need to embrace diversity. Uniformity is boredom. Uniformity is static. It is death itself. Diversity is dynamic, unpredictable, exciting and rich. Our natural state demands predictability and uniformity. That is the amygdala portion of our brain that ensures our survivability. The amygdala controls our fight or flight response. When it notices anything strange in our environment that we are not accustomed to, it triggers an automatic response. When our intellect or willpower overcomes that and takes time to examine and accept the new in our life then magic happens.

I’m grateful to the diversity in my life. I’ve not been in the same job or same business or same city all my life. I’ve moved a little, changed a lot and accepted new habits, new belief systems, new people, new businesses and new cuisines in my life. Life is varied and large. One lifetime is not enough to come face to face with even one-millionth of the variety available in life.


Let’s keep our mind open, our hearts open, our businesses open, our neighbourhoods and our clubs open and our homes open to variety.  Who knows it may form a new reality that could be even more meaningful and rich than what we are currently experiencing.

The world is today what it is because of this diversity.


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