It was aug15, I woke at 9am and switched on my tv, flag was hoisted and speech was delivered. I saw all that and speech of our Weakest Prime Minister who told us how strong the citizens are, braving all the govt.’s apathy and calamities. Then I switched to the patriotic songs for some time, even that didn’t last long. There was no flag hoisting in my apartment (there is no provision and nobody thought of it). I was left with nothing to do for a day that seemed endless. My roomie woke up and suggested we go out. I panicked, after all there was threat on my life and on everyone else, and who wants to become Shahid on that day, but we ventured out as my roomie hates crowded place.
So, we ended up at a shopping mall which was luckily empty (coz of terrorist threat). I thought, this was the opportunity to do something for nation’s economy – buy something and make it strong (that’s all this generation does in the masquerading for self consumption) - there were discounts and I could have bought something but then I heard something.(No, not sound of a bomb blast). This mall was playing patriotic songs, I wondered why? But after listening “takat watan ki hamse hai” (have you ever heard it?), manoj kumar & sunil dutt patriotic songs, I was finally nailed by “aiye mere watan ke logon”. I didn’t know what happened but I just didn’t buy anything though my roomie asked me several times. Then I realised something!
I don’t know how many people have ever noticed the difference in the way a person’s perception and meaning of days like Independence Day (or national days) change. But I thought about it this time, though I used to remember how it used to be in childhood. I remember that when there used to be holiday on ID, it was celebrated in our housing colony.
I never realised the fact that I used to take bath to go to flag hoisting ceremony. I mean, it’s only RELIGIOUS Festivals when you take bath to purify yourself to go for a ceremony. Our INDEPENDENCE DAY had such significance that it was considered inappropriate to go for flag hoisting without bathing. I mean, mathematically INDEPENDECE DAY = RELIGIOUS FESTIVAL!!!
And you are not worth it if you didn’t do it properly. In those days, I would wake up early and get ready to make sure that I don’t miss the ceremony and specially those Jalebi and Samosas. Yeah, but that was not the only thing, I never understood the rationale why kids used to keep running for hours with national flag in their hands, but who cared, even I used to run. Watching parade on TV was a family affair (tv was new those days and there was hardly anything to watch).
But when such celebrations became compulsory in school, I had to do little more than the usual to get those Samosas, sometimes parade, and sometimes cultural program. But that running with flag thing went off though I used to catch up with the Independence Day celebrations around the country on TV. One thing that added up to my list was the “Gandhi” movie, which was broadcasted every year, no matter how it bored me - I still used to watch it. By the time I was in college I lost some passion about Independence Day, I would wake up but only watch the ceremony on tv (bathing and preparing was gone), only exception was MBA days when I did go to flag hoisting like my school days.
So, we ended up at a shopping mall which was luckily empty (coz of terrorist threat). I thought, this was the opportunity to do something for nation’s economy – buy something and make it strong (that’s all this generation does in the masquerading for self consumption) - there were discounts and I could have bought something but then I heard something.(No, not sound of a bomb blast). This mall was playing patriotic songs, I wondered why? But after listening “takat watan ki hamse hai” (have you ever heard it?), manoj kumar & sunil dutt patriotic songs, I was finally nailed by “aiye mere watan ke logon”. I didn’t know what happened but I just didn’t buy anything though my roomie asked me several times. Then I realised something!
I don’t know how many people have ever noticed the difference in the way a person’s perception and meaning of days like Independence Day (or national days) change. But I thought about it this time, though I used to remember how it used to be in childhood. I remember that when there used to be holiday on ID, it was celebrated in our housing colony.
I never realised the fact that I used to take bath to go to flag hoisting ceremony. I mean, it’s only RELIGIOUS Festivals when you take bath to purify yourself to go for a ceremony. Our INDEPENDENCE DAY had such significance that it was considered inappropriate to go for flag hoisting without bathing. I mean, mathematically INDEPENDECE DAY = RELIGIOUS FESTIVAL!!!
And you are not worth it if you didn’t do it properly. In those days, I would wake up early and get ready to make sure that I don’t miss the ceremony and specially those Jalebi and Samosas. Yeah, but that was not the only thing, I never understood the rationale why kids used to keep running for hours with national flag in their hands, but who cared, even I used to run. Watching parade on TV was a family affair (tv was new those days and there was hardly anything to watch).
But when such celebrations became compulsory in school, I had to do little more than the usual to get those Samosas, sometimes parade, and sometimes cultural program. But that running with flag thing went off though I used to catch up with the Independence Day celebrations around the country on TV. One thing that added up to my list was the “Gandhi” movie, which was broadcasted every year, no matter how it bored me - I still used to watch it. By the time I was in college I lost some passion about Independence Day, I would wake up but only watch the ceremony on tv (bathing and preparing was gone), only exception was MBA days when I did go to flag hoisting like my school days.
Now that I’m working, I do watch the whole Independence Day coverage and the remixed desh bhakti songs on it, but hardly care about going to flag hoisting or even putting effort for that( may be some day I would do that again). I seldom realise how less we care and value our independence - take everything for granted. Faith is probably still alive within coz I still put that tiny flag on my shirt.
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