So many times, you will hear from someone that they are so and so. They are from the xyz family. They would say. Their family is famous for this and this, they would add. Family and a strong sense of belonging to our last name is important to many of us. Even if someones great great grandfather/grandmother was distantly related to the monarch of that country or a very rich family, ages ago, one remembers that and recollects that fact with pride. Common blood stream coming down the ages makes a big difference to a lot of us. Leave aside common people, in this modern age, even kings and queens are decided by heredity and not by qualities.
I will talk of an imaginary situation. Say, I have a cousin, who I meet once a year. And I have a friend, with whom I share all my successes and failures and meet at least once a week. If a quirk of fate is drowning both and I am given the choice of saving only one of them, whom shall I chose? My decision will be dependent on my sense of belonging to common family and the value I put to my friendship. This decision may be tough to make, but I will have to make it and live with it for the rest of my life. What would you do, if such a...