'Origin' question or 'identity crisis'.

Many have said that all of us are HUMANS first and HUMANS last. Once political borders/boundaries come up, then the first level of 'classification' comes up in the form of citizenship. Taking into consideration the eventuality of nomadic culture or migration, it is hair-splitting to talk about history and geography of any individual. If we take Europe, most people would have multiple 'origins' as Eric Hobsbawm observed in his books, say 'The Age of Extremes'. Such people as he observed have an 'identity crisis' - born in Bulgaria, brought up in Austria, worked in Germany and so on.

One of the winners of Nobel Prize for Chemistry is Venkatraman Ramakrishnan. His citizenship says that he is American and I think it should be stopped at that. Hair splitting in the form of 'origin' or 'language' is not necessary. Yes, it may please some Tamils to know that a person with Tamil 'roots' has won Nobel Prize. Yes, it may please some Indians to know that a person with Indian 'origin' has won Nobel Prize. I expect media to be more pragmatic and not cater to this section of the public by playing to the gallery. When an American astronaut Kalpana Chawla died (she had become an American citizen, rather renounced her Indian citizenship much before), Tamil Nadu Government instituted the "Kalpana Chawla Award" to be given annually on Independence Day for bravery and service and I find it ludicrous. Apart from the fact that there is nothing 'brave' or 'service' about a PROFESSION, giving it to one who is NOT Indian and who definitely had nothing to do with Tamil, has simply NO BASIS. I am sure America referred by some as 'land of immigrants' with have n-stories of history and geography for every Nobel Laureate having the citizenship of US. It is childish to take pride in 'German-American' or 'Italian-American' etc.

Within India, Tamils have moved to every nook and corner. Even in this case of Venkatraman Ramakrishnan did mention, he had moved to Baroda when he was three and barring some OCCASIONAL visits may have nothing to do with Tamil or Tamil Nadu. I wont be surprised if he cant read Tamil. As of now, classification theory can stop at 'citizenship' and if some scientific or biological analysis needs to be done, then dwelving deeper into the 'origin's and 'identity' of a person may make some sense. We see that even citizenship is an issue. Quite a few Indians would have been born and lived many years in Pakistan, Bangladesh etc. My mother was a Sri Lankan citizen, my sister was born in Sri Lanka and I shudder to think of someone saying that I am a Sri Lankan-Indian :))