Tawang was recently in news because the Tibetian spirutual leader Dalai Lama visited a 500 year old Buddhist monastery located in Tawang, a mountainous region of Arunachal Pradesh and the Chinese across our border objected to this visit on the grounds that parts of Arunachal Pradesh belongs to them and that the much respected leader [inIndia as well as inthe world] was visiting the place with the intention of fomenting trouble amongst the Tibetians living there!

The T.V. news channels showed previously recorded pictures of people standing in long queues to cast their vote during parliamentary and legislative assembly elections.It also showed Indian tri colour flags fluttering in every building as also on the entrance to the Buddhist monastery and Tibetian Lamas clad in majenta robes speaking in fluent hindi !

One look at the population smiling at the T.V. camera's makes me wonder.Most of them look like Chinese!In fact most people in the north eastern part of India have Mongolion features and one can seldom distinguish them from the neighbouring South east Asians .

Deep down south of our country there are people who are as black as the inhabitants of the dark continent.

Yet we have the Irula's the snake catching tribes of south India, one of the lowliest ,dark skinned and poorest castes, conducting week long festivals with the sole purpose of staging Ramayana the great epic of all Indians.

In Manipur a remote Indian state buried in the confusing conglomeration of the seven states of the north eastern part of India , a section of the population are strict vaishnavites who recite the 'Gita 'as devotedly as their counter parts in the cow belt.

In the far flung mountainous regions of Ladhak and Arunachal Pradesh there are numerous Buddhist monks chanting prayers and meditating on Lord Buddha who is revered throughout India India as the 10 th avatar of lord Vishnu.

Despite glaring differences in our physical appearances, colour,and language there is a invisible thread binding us all into the notion that we are all Bharatvasi's, namely the collective memories of our ancient epics and legends, the inborn feeling of pride at the sacredness of our land-i.e. 'Punnya bhoomi' as it was trodden by hero's like Rama the ideal for a perfect man [Purushothaman] and scores of Rishis and seers through the centuries and the unshakeable belief in the principles of Karma , gives us all a sense of belonging, in which ever corner of India we live or whatever colour or features we posses!