Friday, August 12, 2011

A post on the account of Independence Day.

Thanks for the cursing. I'm back with this post. I think I always begin my posts this way. Should change them from the next post. (Grrrrr! Its never ending)

Okay. Here is another post on Independence day. Here is another nostalgic incident I wrote on the account of Independence Day four years ago.

People who are loathsome the whole year, become alert in the second week of August just like Kannadigas get alerted on the first week of November. Independence strikes their mind like how a mouse gets alerted seeing a cat. Patriotism rises from all the molecules of their blood.

Politicians talk of the trio Gandhi, Nehru(?), Subhash Chandra Bose. How we gained Independence picking rare incidents from their history texts. Some of these Rang De Basanti patriots take the name of Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad & all the British branded extremists; Taking a void oath of re-iterating the drama to abolish today's political condition in India.

Poor kids (so called future citizens) are made to toil in schools with weird aerobics exercises to entertain the politicians and the chief guests. They're also made to hear the bi-anual patriotic speech of how Gandhi led the freedom struggle. How Subhash Chandra Bose formed the INA, etc of which many of the kids are in no mood to listen under the scorching sun.

Check out the parody, we snatch the independence of the kid and force them to attend the school (first half). I still see many preferring to be at home if not attracted by the sweet/confectionary distributed at the school.

For many of us, who passed through all this and are now working, we enjoy the holiday and never bother to think anything about the independence struggle. We'd rather bother discussing our office chores/ share market trends/ real estate ratings rather than discuss independence. Thats the liberty we get gaining the independence.

Again for some fraction of us who work for IT/MNCs we do not have a holiday and are forced to work. Some of the benovelent, do declare a holiday with a catch of getting paid in double if somebody supported the clients abroad during the holiday. People do get attracted for the extra money. (I'm not saying you should forcefully take a holiday on I-day, its your wish)

Some of us plan to go for an outing, getting embarassed by the beauty of nature not forgetting to describe the same to the collegues with a pinch of ego. Some of the married couple take this chance of a long weekend and head to their natives.

Some of the poor chaps who do not have an option, toil at their workplace. Many of them do not know about I-day, even if they know, they hardly care for it. Its not that their insulting it, they simply do not have an opinion about it.

Some of us who believe in Karma, are indifferent be it, I-day, any festival, their own B'days, anniversaries & what not? They just live their life as it is.

Sometimes I feel its a shame to have an independence day for the country but at times I'm glad we finally had one after all that happened through these years.

Even the freedom fighters would laugh at us celebrating this day if they know the reason.

Many of us post on social networking sites that we celebrate Valentines Day, Friendship day etc etc but why not Independence day? Well thats the state of the country today. Its with the generation. Can't really help it.

There are more amusing behaviors which I haven't listed too.

Again to quote myself ironically, all of this is the liberty we get with the independence we gained 64 years ago. This is the only reason why I can write such a post. Its again the bhikshe of the freedom fighters.

Sometimes I feel like

If you want to celebrate something, celebrate it every day, every hour, every minute, second, milli, micro, nano, femto.... any goddamn unit of time.

If you want to change this, you need to change it from the grassroot. Rather than preaching kids about independence, create interest in them regarding the same. Share stories of small incidents which would act as seeds of patriotism in them. Explain them what the real India is. They would be surely keen on listening to all of them. After you've sown the seed, you just need to provide them with the manure of more resources to learn like library/movies. They surely would cultivate patriotism within.

It would rapidly change the condition of the country. It might again reverse the brain drain and hola, we might again go back to the Golden era.

Do this and every kid would be eager to participate in the I-day celebrations. The future generations would also be eager.

You may feel I'm exaggerating (even I feel partially) but I feel atleast some part of it is true. It is worth a try.

Say what?

4 comments:

Navaneethan Santhanam said...

Which is the Golden Age you want us to go back to?

Unknown said...

The Mauryan era can be one of them.

Navaneethan Santhanam said...

Why do you consider the Mauryan Age a Golden Age? Also, doesn't it seem like Golden Ages are always in the past? People don't seem to believe they live in a Golden Age and always want to go back to one.

Unknown said...

Coz you can't consider now to be Golden Age. It can be branded so only because Gold is overrated.