Exploring Identity....

Identity - a word, a question, an answer, a factor, a debate or a crisis.

Identity can take so many forms in our single span of life. Identity is one word that differentiates me from thousands of Hariyanaites, lakhs of different Sikhs, millions of different Indians, billions of different human beings. When put across table it takes the form of debate, when expressed to somebody it takes the form of answer, when conveyed to somebody it takes the form of factor and when thought about it in the subconscious mind it takes the form of crisis.

When I was in Delhi, my identity was by my birth religion, then I shifted to Mumbai and my identity shifted and it became by birth region and now when I am in France I am known by my birth country. How come my shifting to different places keeps on shifting my identity? Out of all these questions, the million dollar (or I should start saying million euro) question is ‘What is identity’

The virtual identity starts forming when the baby is in the womb of mother and real identity of the kid starts forming the moment it comes out of the womb. The baby born to the queen would always be a prince or a princess. The birth place, religion, caste, surname, date, time of birth etc forms the basic foundation of the identity and later on as the kid starts growing then his behavior, his choices start taking shape which further defines the identity. During the growing year the kid starts to have his own likings and dislikings, his own thought process and the implementation of these thoughts start defining the character of the kid who now has capability of listening and judging.

So he starts shaping his identity by accidental or unaccidental exposure to his/her surrounding. Identity formation in earlier years of growth is undeliberate attempt and in later years takes a form of deliberate effort. In years, when our conscious starts forming, we start idealizing few figures and this idealization makes us change our thoughts, our deeds, our actions and our reactions to other people’s action.

Identity - As small this word is, as big its meaning is and bigger is the list of ingredients that form this word. We all, at some point of time in our lives, have always searched the answer to one basic question – Who am I? This soul searching exercise, no matter how long it takes, always changes the direction of life. Recently I was seeing one serial in which a person, who used to be a real estate agent in US, just left everything one day and became a coin searcher. He said mid-life-crisis was the reason of this change. I always feel that in middle of life, when we start feeling voidness, we start searching the reason of existence of ouselves as an identity and this is termed as the more commercialized term mid-life-crisis. This real-estate person was one example but there are lot many where soul searching drove people to explore all-together different aspects of life. Loneliness(and hope not the mid-life-crisis  ) was one factor that aligned me to this direction and I am still not sure that where am I on this road but I hope that one day would be bright sunny day, unblocking all ways and that day I will know answers to all my questions.