Mine is better than yours!
An acceptance that something exists or is true, especially one without proof. Well this is the dictionary definition of a ‘Belief’.
Last month, I visited Kolkata. It was my first time there and I went with a couple of my friends/colleagues.
We had just visited Rabindranath Tagore’s home and were on the way back to the hotel. Everything was fine till, one of the friend I was travelling with opened his twitter feed and read out a trolling tweet about the then National debate of ‘Standing during a national Anthem in Theatres’. I should have fake laughed and kept quiet. But me being me I did not, which resulted in a conversation (argument) in which he tried to explain why India was a great country and one ought to respect it, not standing during the rendition of Indian national anthem is ‘disrespecting’ the country. What he was walking was just an opinion, a feeling at best. There was no fact to support his conclusion.
I like living India and I try my best to be a good citizen. That is it. I’m not patriotic. According to me patriotism is an outdated concept, not valid in the age of global citizenship. How can I be proud of or respect something just because of geographical coincidence? One can only be proud of a thing that they achieve. I’m an Indian because I was born in India and my parents were born here. Nothing to be proud of these facts. Patriotism on the other hand is just a bag of emotions and is a kind of an obsession, its the easy option one can take. Where as being a good citizen is much more difficult. I try to cause no or minimum inconvenience to my fellow human beings. I follow the rules of the land, pay taxes and do not commit any crime. This is my definition of a good citizen or more importantly good human being.
I like living in India because my brain and body have been conditioned to live here. The brain is conditioned to language and culture. The body is used to the climatic conditions. So, I find living here more convenient than anywhere else. For that matter, leaving my current city and moving to another place in India would itself be an extremely uncomfortable thing to do for me. Does that mean my country or my city is superior? Absolutely no. Imagining things is fine but asking others to do the same is unfair. I’m sure if I wrote this on any social media forum, I’d be trolled, insulted, threatened and any other verb that the ‘civilised’ human can think of.
Speaking of forcing opinion? If someone else does that he is a bully, if a organisation does it its radical, if a leader does it he is a dictator. But if you are being a dick, then…. well in this case you are patriotic. I may have crossed the line of decency here but the only ones who would have been offended by last few sentences or my ideas as whole. And the reason I was more aggressive in my wording was to show how it feels like to be insulted just for not agreeing on something.
I believe this ‘Mine better than yours’ is a primal instinct, a way to lie to oneself that they are in a better position than others.
Random thoughts of a confused primate 
