Kinship

Kinship is affinity. It is a feeling of belonging to something or someone and hence, the liking for the particular thing/entity. It exists within all of us; the reflection of this inherent feeling is situational, in my opinion. We, as schoolchildren, have had disputes with our friends from other schools as to which school is better. We have often given our inputs about our own community during a discussion about the traits that different groups of people possess. We have represented our school and college during a ‘higher level’ competition – or the firm we work for among a group of peers at a conference. The more lucky ones have had the chance to represent the country.

 Does being proud of one’s school, family, community, workplace mean being self-centered? Most definitely, not. Pride does not imply supremacy. Kinship – this feeling we experience, is in no way connected to denial of virtues of something/someone else.

 Kinship exists at different levels. The term ‘team spirit’ is closely linked to kinship when you are a part of some team. ‘Communalism’ (often used in the negative sense) is at the community level. The generic term ‘love’ is also a form of kinship. ‘Patriotism’ lies at the national level – which most of us fail to experience in the truest sense. At the topmost level known to humans till now, is ‘humanity’ – belonging to the human race that believes it dominates the world.

 Affinity is the most natural thing in the world. From the electrons that move around the nucleus of an atom to the planets that do something similar around the sun, there is some affinity, some kinship (which Physics terms as ‘force’) involved. The world is composed by  this kinship that we is all-pervasive.