Long live the freedom!!!

Today is when you recollect the national anthem piled in parts in corner of your memory. Today is when you remember again the likes of Gandhi and Nehru. Today is 15th August, Independence Day. This day fills you up to the brim with pride and self-respect for being a true Indian. The flag hoisting pulls the patriotism out of you which was stashed in the corner of your heart. It reminds you how great your India is. The chauvinism, for a moment, overshadows poor governance, poor health, poor education, poor facilities and working environment, poor this, poor that. It was something that irked you throughout the year, but not today. In fact, all the visas and passports should be issued on this day only. This one day would remind how great your country is than the one you are going to. This would do away with the brain drain trouble. Long live the freedom!

How do you best remember Independence Day as? Well, this day fondly reminds me of a ‘peela packet of 2 motichoor ladoos’. Orange coloured ladoos seem to be flavour of the day. This must have been the initiative of the astute hardliner Hindu organisation, to clad the ladoos in the colour of Hindutva. The Christians and Muslims couldn’t see it coming. They blithely accepted this tradition of giving ladoos, oblivious of the veneer of Hindutva on them. The convent schools, however, have now woken up and the new tradition of ‘white’ coloured barfis and cake is on roll. Unfortunately, the Islamist couldn’t find a Quran verse urging for green sweets on I-Day (for they managed to find one for terrorism and killing people).So, they still go with the orange ladoos. Long live the freedom!

Surprisingly, Indian flag is the only thread of unity running along the country. No ideology, no religion, no party or sport or culture could unite it; even the national language fell flat in its attempt. When it comes to dignity of our flag, we stand together, we fight together. Neither Sachin nor Sania or Mandira could escape the brunt of this one-time-united Indians when they played with the sentiments of our dear flag. Long live the flag and long live the freedom!

Actually, these three days (I-Day, R-Day & 2 Oct) are assigned public holidays so that you can sit back and certify your patriotism to country. The entire country is closed; every Indian is made to do this compulsory exercise. They make you watch the flag hoisting, the parade and half a dozen patriotism soaked Bollywood films so that you can reaffirm your Indian-ness and loyalty to the country. The whole time in life is given to you on this day to proclaim or avow your allegiance to the country. Long live the freedom!

But now it is done with a flavour for youth in it. Our grandfathers freed us from the clutches of Englishmen, but we in turn freed ourselves from their clutches and started running hard, fast from them. Today, we have run quite a distance from their morals, culture and blah-blah. Failing in their endeavour of bringing us back, now they have starting changing themselves to our tunes. Markets have paved way for malls, dhotis for Capri, Hindi for Hinglish. TV channels now show ‘Lago Rahe Munnabhai’ instead of Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi, ‘Rang De Basanti’ for ‘Tiranga’ and many more. Just waiting for the day when Britney Spears or Shakira would be performing on Republic Day at India Gate. Long live the freedom and long live India!