All men are created equal. Yet no two are exactly the same. That is diversity. The population of the world is around six thousand million; there are as many types of people.

I speak of different ‘types’ of people by their choices and opinions. Who they would vote for, why they find meaning in life, what they hold worth dying for. There are as many different combinations of answers to these as there are people, and that is the DNA of diversity. The realisation that while we are all uniformly equal in our rights, we are staggeringly different in our choices.

Diversity does not depend on it being formally recognised. India is often held up as the epitome of a diverse country, with its twenty-three official languages and multitude of religions. But there are countries that are also similarly diverse, only they seem embarrassed by it.

China stifles its minorities like Uyghur Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists. Turkey has practically outlawed the Kurdish language. France is unique in its uniformity of enforcing hush-hush. It is trying to pretend that no religion exists in France; by banning the Muslim hijab, the Jewish skullcap, the Christian cross and the Sikh turban, all in one swipe. Of course, none of these actions can actually make diversity vanish; only take it away from the public view.

One must not expect any of these to become a fully homogeneous nation overnight because the law wants people to be coloured in the same grey monotone rather than the rich palette they truly are.

India can claim to have a more common-sense policy. Why fight such an obvious, even essential feature of humanity? Celebrate it! If there is a correct way of handling diversity, it is this – cherish it as an asset rather than rue it as a liability.

My own life has been witness to diversity in every direction. The two clichés of being born into prosperity or into adversity would be well complemented by this – one can be born into diversity. I certainly was.

I grew up in a country that belongs to everyone. The Taj Mahal, India’s quintessential poster child, was built by a Muslim emperor. Then again, the Ashok Chakra, our national emblem, was first used by emperor Ashok, a Buddhist ruler. India is a land that lives up to (and by) the phrase ‘e pluribus pluribum’.

I was born in Calcutta. Unabashedly Bengali, it was home to some very distinguished international figures, amongst them Satyajit Ray and Mother Teresa. I lived in Bombay, and here I was first acquainted with the vast cultural confusion of my motherland. In school I had friends from all over India, speaking about eleven different mother tongues in a class of forty students. I realise we could easily be a continent in our own right.

I spent my teenage in Dubai. Islamic and liberal, Dubai sends every ‘clash of civilisations’ scaremonger packing home. Here, I grew in the company of an international group of friends. My social circle extended from the Philippines to Kenya, opening my mind to a world’s worth of understanding at that stage in life when prejudices are best made, or unmade.

I am now in Canada. It is here that I most strongly feel the touch of humanity in all its forms and tunes. In all, my friends must reflect at least half the world’s cultures.

To me, diversity is the most defining characteristic of humanity. How dull humanity would be if we all had consensus on every issue! It is to the credit of mankind that we have been able to nurture our different ways of looking at the world for centuries, and thus have a pool of options from which to choose our next step.

My entire life, and I aver everyone else’s as well, has been one long experience of diversity, and this diversity has affected me deeply. Positively.

Diversity is precious to us as a planet and to each of us individually. With the ability to understand diversity comes the ability to think in different ways to solve a problem. It brings with it the ability to stand in everyone’s shoes and wear everyone’s tinted glasses. I find myself capable of doing this, and thus I find myself being the perfect arbiter. I start with no pre-defined notions.

I cannot help but defend anyone who is being prejudiced against, and often I have found myself defending two different sides of a debate on two different occasions. It is not that I am fickle-minded. I appreciate debate as long as it is logical. But as soon as it slips into common name-calling, I must defend. I am prejudiced against prejudice. I dare say I am the perfect moderator. Often an impromptu moderator, defending each party from irrational parries, and thus defending diversity of opinion.

I have been told that I am argumentative person.

This sounds bad. You wouldn't want to be called a mean-minded, narrow-spirited, miserly old debater, do you? Well, actually you do, minus the adjectives. Debate is what holds the world aloft. People don't like debate. People don't like arguments. They realise that arguments are only likely to burn holes in their already weak belief-systems.

The only way I will permit you to prove me wrong is argument. I am not accepting your absolutes and your fiats. You can believe a book written by cattle-herding nomads who thought every animal from dromedaries to penguins lived within waddling distance of Noah's Ark, but I prefer to look at the data which clearly proves that the Earth is 4.5 billion of years old, give or take. You think the socialist revolution is due next Tuesday at ten-thirty after breakfast. I beg to disagree.

Prove me wrong rationally and I'll take it lying down. Believe what you will and I'll not give a damn. Try and make me believe in something that you do just because you do, and I will logic-katana you.

Yes, I choose to get in your face and be confrontational.

I will debate and argue until the cause for debate is nullified. The fact that secular scientific thought has achieved so much in three hundred years is only due to the fact that we were ready to argue and be proved wrong. If you have an ego, if you are possessive about your theories and views, do not -- I repeat, do not -- become a scientist. Intellectual dishonesty and arrogance has no place in a laboratory, nor in the world at large.

So believe what you will, but do not rub your belief in my face. Or I will make sure to communicate the truth to you in objective terms. You do not want that. It will break your mistaken belief of the world.

Truth bites.

Why do people assume that if you have an definite opinion about something, you are necessarily narrow-minded?

"You have already made up your mind", they rattle off the old mantra, "you haven't thought about it." Well, ahem ... if you're still thinking about something for years and consider yourself a holier-than-thou Confucius for all that contemplation, you need to get a reality check. I thought about it. Deeply. I thought and thought and thought and -- who'd'a thunk it? -- reached a conclusion. Thinking for a minor eternity does not make you the Buddha, it makes you an indecisive bundle of confusion.

You can't make up your mind because you have no principles by which you can judge a situation. You're waiting for someone to make a decision for you. That's not going to happen any time soon. You have to make your own decisions, and decisive they must be. What's the point of thinking if you cannot reach a conclusion and are forever suspended in the no-man's-land of glorious indecision?

Having an opinion does not make someone narrow-minded. Not being able (or rather, not being prepared) to change their opinions, does. Therefore, just because you are still in pensive limbo does not mean that everyone else is standing there patiently waiting for you to take a decision before they can have their views.

If you don't like my view, show me what's wrong with it. Show me the rationale behind changing it, and I assure you, if you are right and I am wrong, I will change immediately. For if someone shows me my mistake, they have done me a favour. If, on the other hand, I do not do so, sticking to my own opinion for some blurry image of morality or absolutes, tell me I'm a bigot and I will swallow it with a helping of humble pie.

Till then, you have no right to pronounce my views irrelevant and irreverent just because I have views, and you still don't know.

Theist : God exists. He is a definite entity who takes a keen interest in my daily actions, rewards the good ones, and punishes the bad ones.

Deist : God exists. 'Nature's God' who created the world and has been AWOL since.

Meist : (My idea, this one) God exists. He alone can change my destiny. He alone can make my life more meaningful and significant. He alone can help me achieve my ambitions. And He's the one I see in the mirror.

Every man his own God.

1. Thou shalt not have any God before me.
I am not having any God at all.

2. Thou shalt not swear in vain.
I swear only for good reasons.

3. Observe the Sabbath Day.
Fine with me. I treasure my Sabbath Day, and also my Sunday after it.

4. Honour your father and mother.
Of course. They're nice people just for having an amazing kid like me and giving me a good life. I don't need a God to hold a lightning bolt over my head to respect my parents.

5. Thou shalt not murder.
OK. I'm not into murder anyway.

6. Neither shall you commit adultery.
I shalt not even marry. It's a very bad idea being stuck with one person. QED.

7. Neither shall you steal.
OK. See 5 above.

8. Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbour.
I'll move to a different neighbourhood if the urge to bear false witness ever arises. I don't think it will, anyway.

9. Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife.
I can live with that. Plenty of fish in the sea. I'll go covet elsewhere.
(Why isn't there a parallel law for women?)

10. Neither shall you desire your neighbour's ...

i. house,
Same neighbourhood. Same floor plan. Why'd I desire that any way?

ii. or field,
No. He can do the farming. I'll just drop in to say 'Hi!' sometimes.

iii. or male or female slave,
Refer Mr. A. Lincoln. He beat You on the morality front on this one.

iv. or ox, or donkey,
I like cats. Much more manageable pets.

v. or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
You could have said that to begin with! Not much for conciseness, are we? OK, refer 7 and 9 above.