invisible walls

I have observed that people studying/working together in any college/establishment, usually group together based on some criteria or the other… maybe caste (sometimes even sub-sub-caste) or language or region or habits (smoker/drinker) or maybe project, etc. This is perfectly fine and only natural; but the only problem is that in many cases, they are open to only members of their own group, and start building invisible walls to everybody else outside it. In other words, all other non-group members are mostly ignored as if they didn’t even exist, and are only spoken to out of professional obligation or courtesy. Friendship and openness is mostly restricted to those within the group.

I think that if everybody (needless to say, to begin with, each individual including me) were to slowly and gradually start demolishing the walls that they have built around them, the world would be a pretty cool place!

As an engineer, if the problem is to be understood before thinking of a solution, then I found the following excerpt from HHGTTG* a fairly good problem description:

“in one corner of the Eastern Galactic Arm lies the large forest planet Oglaroon, the entire ”intelligent” population of which lives permanently in one fairly small and crowded nut tree. In which tree they are born, live, fall in love, carve tiny speculative articles in the bark on the meaning of life, the futility of death and the importance of birth control, fight a few extremely minor wars, and eventually die strapped to the underside of some of the less accessible outer branches.

In fact the only Oglaroonians who ever leave their tree are those who are
hurled out of it for the heinous crime of wondering whether any of the other
trees might be capable of supporting life at all, or indeed whether the
other trees are anything other than illusions brought on by eating too many
Oglanuts.

Exotic though this behaviour may seem, there is no life form in the Galaxy
which is not in some way guilty of the same thing”

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* = Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy – a science fiction triolgy, the best I have ever read!! (since it also happens to be the only science fiction triolgy I have read)