Idea #20- Unique ID or No ID at all?

Today I went along with a few people to see a friend’s site (a piece of land not a website!!) in a ‘gated’ layout. I remember when I first saw this site a few years ago at the time he had purchased it. We could see all corners of the layout standing at any corner and this layout is spread across a good 20 to 30 acres. The place was barely recognizable for me today with dozens and dozens of houses having sprung up in seemingly no time at all. Forget about seeing all the corners I was wondering if even the corners have been used up to construct houses because it seemed like an endless sea of houses of all shapes and dimension. I mean the place was looking so packed that the stark contrast between the images of a peaceful and vast expanse of land that I had in my mind to the change I saw today was hard to digest.

Anyways, my friend has recently put a barbed fence around his site to protect it from trespassers and that was the primary reason for the visit today. We wanted to take a look at how the fencing has been executed.

My earlier memory of this site before the fencing was that of a corner plot situated at the intersection of two roads and has 3 similar sized empty plots adjacent it. I remember the first time I saw this place without the fence and when the overall layout was far emptier I had this major sense of space in my mind. There is something about space and vastness that creates a sense of awe and tranquillity in my mind. Alas, today amidst the clutter of the layout and the barbed fencing of the site I felt something missing, as though the size of the site had shrunk and as though it was feeling pretty caged and lonely. May be the barbed wires were adding to the drama of my thoughts.

Anyways after this visit we returned home and when I was doing my 9pm prayers this thought about the fenced site came back but led me into a different direction. I began to wonder if human mind is a victim of such boundaries that it has created around itself and how these boundaries are limiting its perception and sight of what may be a different reality if the mind had no boundaries at all.

Ultimately the question is about individual identity. The fenced site because of the fencing around itself had successfully created its individual identity but in the process had become limited, small, isolated and somehow felt like a less happy entity. Similarly I feel our individual identities as human beings gives a sense of ‘I’ness, pampers the ego and probably makes us feel great on some occasions and miserable on most other occasions but more than anything identities limit us.

I don’t know how we would feel if we lose this individual identity, but surely it ought to be different but then how would we ever come to know because “I” don’t exist at that stage.

On a lighter note, perhaps Mr. Nilekani should rethink before giving us all a ‘unique ID’ and should instead try and get rid of all identities that exist today. My guess is that the latter is much harder to come by and Mr. Nilekani has chosen the more doable one :)

What do you think?