"Our realities do not match"

 Yesterday, I watched the movie "Homebound". I had heard it was in the Oscar conversation a while back, and curiosity finally led me to it. I must say, the team has done a remarkable job of stripping away the gloss to show the raw, uncomfortable reality of our society.

The Great Divide

Modern India is a land of paradoxes. Unless you see it through a lens this honest, imagining the depth of another person’s pain is nearly impossible—whether that pain stems from caste or religion. One line from the film stayed with me, where the lead character tells her partner: "Our realities do not match." That is the crux of our existence.

A Tale of Two Indias

We are living in two different centuries at once. On one hand, parts of India are so Westernized that the older generation struggles to keep up with the changing cultural landscape. On the other hand, an India still exists where your caste or religion is your primary identity—a label that determines whether you are worthy of respect or destined for daily humiliation.

We want everything to move faster—deliveries in minutes, high-speed internet, and global recognition. Yet, our mindsets are dragging behind, shackled by old behaviors we refuse to leave behind.

We want to surpass the West in technology and innovation. We will worship a figure like APJ Abdul Kalam for his brilliance, yet in the same breath, we might pass a cruel remark to a "nobody" named Shoaib, simply because of his faith.

I look at my classmates and see a spectrum. Many of them entered inter-caste, inter-faith, or inter-state marriages. Perhaps, for them, the gap was bridged. Their lives represent a thinning of the walls that have divided us for so long.

But then, I think of the others—those who were rejected. Those who failed to bridge that narrow, invisible gap that ended up parting them forever. It is a reminder that while the world moves forward, for many, the "homebound" journey toward dignity and acceptance is still a long, exhausting walk.