Build Bridges, Not Walls

To be able to live in harmony with each other, we must learn to not just contact but also connect, suggests V Anand Kumar.

- V Anand Kumar

Bridges connect people and places. They are constructed to ease movements of people and vehicles so as to save time and energy in travelling. They make people come closer so that they can have good relationships among themselves. This enables them to carry out their business and other activities, thereby helping them improve their wellbeing by becoming economically strong and self-sufficient. All this in turn helps people to improve their social well-being. Thus, bridges are a contributing factor for people to have contacts and connections. Walls, on the other hand, divide people. They take away people from one another and make them live in isolation.

Though walls give protection to them, they hamper free movement and restrict people to live in a limited area, thereby making them feel deserted, secluded and segregated. This tends to make them unfriendly and creates hostility among them, leading to unnecessary misunderstandings and conflicts. Since walls force people to live in a restricted area they are unable to create good relationships and contacts. This spoils their economic and social progress, making them poor and vulnerable. Thereby, poverty makes their life miserable and wretched.