I was sitting next to my sulking husband in the car. There is nothing new to it. Whenever we have to go out, he sulks. He feels I waste his time and money going to malls, where I window shop or buy some trifle like soap. I retort saying I would have bought many more things, but I know he would not agree. But if I give up and we stay home, he will stare at some Bachchan film after crime patrol after CID after Savadhan India after some other film. And I will be forced to watch these. instead of Big bang theory or GA or How I met your mother. So, if we stay home....... he will be sulking, may be a little less. See I don't get to sulk, because we need a viewer to sulk, and he can not see me, as I do not appear on TV.
So he was sulking and driving and I was seeing vehicles and people. Suddenly the FM started the song "It happens only in India". I woke up to the fact that the day was Independence day. The day when our forefathers released us from the foreign rule and made India a sovereign country. There were no other signs on the roads, no "prabhat pheris", nothing else. Prabhat had passed us long ago when we were busy - he in his puja-vidhis and me in my sahasranamas ;) (Prabhat in Sanskrit means morning. When we were kids, we used to go for prabhat pheris - parade in our pretty little uniforms to watch our teachers hoist national flag )
Then something unusual happened. I saw a rangoli of Indian flag. Not in front of a school, nor a government building, but in front of a shop in busy majestic area. And now comes the better part. A Sardar, presumably an ex-soldier stood there for a minute and then saluted it. That moment made me proud to be an Indian. It happens only in India.
We, post independence generation have not seen freedom struggle and hence do not fully realize its significance. And our children just say "whatever". So where is our patriotism?
I have also observed that the tricolors will be seen on autos than cars or two wheelers. How come auto drivers feel more patriotic than us? As we become richer, do we feel everything is unimportant than ourselves? Or are we so impressed by our branded materialistic things that we feel Indian and India is cheap? If we don't value ourselves, who else will?
And the freedom which we gained, is not a small thing. Look at our neighbor Pakistan where every few years, military coup takes place. Look at Afghanistan. The girl children there can not even attend school. Look at China, even today I suspect people can not criticize the government. We are an example stable functioning (to whatever extent) democracy in the neighborhood. We need to celebrate this fact and honor our people who gave us this beautiful democratic country.
So he was sulking and driving and I was seeing vehicles and people. Suddenly the FM started the song "It happens only in India". I woke up to the fact that the day was Independence day. The day when our forefathers released us from the foreign rule and made India a sovereign country. There were no other signs on the roads, no "prabhat pheris", nothing else. Prabhat had passed us long ago when we were busy - he in his puja-vidhis and me in my sahasranamas ;) (Prabhat in Sanskrit means morning. When we were kids, we used to go for prabhat pheris - parade in our pretty little uniforms to watch our teachers hoist national flag )
Then something unusual happened. I saw a rangoli of Indian flag. Not in front of a school, nor a government building, but in front of a shop in busy majestic area. And now comes the better part. A Sardar, presumably an ex-soldier stood there for a minute and then saluted it. That moment made me proud to be an Indian. It happens only in India.
We, post independence generation have not seen freedom struggle and hence do not fully realize its significance. And our children just say "whatever". So where is our patriotism?
I have also observed that the tricolors will be seen on autos than cars or two wheelers. How come auto drivers feel more patriotic than us? As we become richer, do we feel everything is unimportant than ourselves? Or are we so impressed by our branded materialistic things that we feel Indian and India is cheap? If we don't value ourselves, who else will?
And the freedom which we gained, is not a small thing. Look at our neighbor Pakistan where every few years, military coup takes place. Look at Afghanistan. The girl children there can not even attend school. Look at China, even today I suspect people can not criticize the government. We are an example stable functioning (to whatever extent) democracy in the neighborhood. We need to celebrate this fact and honor our people who gave us this beautiful democratic country.
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