Come 26th Jan morning and the feelings of the informed Indians staying in India or outside are evoked in a way as Lajwanti the famous touch-me-not plant with the slightest stimulus .
We take a chance to make it a point that we become proud of our Indianness for the whole day.Today the moment I opened my eyes in the morning I found a couple of unread SMS warning me of not trying to be a pro-western and stick less to the upcoming Non-Indian Valentines day,to be shameful for my non conduct and pay attention to my Indianness and spread the message of being a proud Indian to all by passing those messages.
The day began with Lata's voice reverberating on loudspeaker.."wo shaheed tha bharatwasi".Logged on to google and found the Google logo showing the pride of India- Suryakiran Aircrafts flying high in the sky and leaving a trail of saffron,white and green thereby constructing GOOGLE logo on Google India page, Facebook for a change was seen flaunting a lean miniature tricolor flag as the topmost ad in the right pane of ads in place of lean and pretty faces and sometimes skimpy girls promoting shadi-matrimonial dot com, the attractive ads usually constructed out of their album pics without their knowledge (the naive girls wrongly think their fb account to be as secure as a bank vault or even more) and Orkut,the desi version of it, homepage showing "Orkut" in a tricolor shade WordArt.
Turned to the next thing Television: All TV channels logo were found changed appended then by a GIF image of the tricolor, the long teasing trailor finally shed inhibitions of "coming soon at 9 am on 26th Jan" and in no less than a fizzle without a sizzle way "fir mile sur mera tumhara" which was going to sustain for complete 24 hrs on Zoom (the so called historical making of the video included).
DD telecast the republic day parade at Rajpath with the chilling weather indeterrent enthusiastic delhitis assembled at the resplendent India Gate, the sight of which was more beautiful to behold than ever,the historical importance recounted by the narrator on this special day.Generous Prasar Bharti repeated the ceremony in the evening for the benefit of the unawares and Indians like me who gave a precedence today to their sleep over the magnificent parade showcasing the might of the Indian armed forces, the varied culture in the states,the sparkling and colorful regiment and their harmonic march past led by their independent Band masters on the day which marks the Official Birth of the largest constitution in the world and the same in which are somewhere deep buried lie the fundamental rights along with so many esoteric topics: a few popular and sensationalised sections like 377.
Another heartbreaking change: the favorite movie "Tiranga" was done away with by DD with so many new patriotic flicks to broadcast.This and a lot of things came as a revolutionary transformation to a luddite like me who finds change as some thing not very acceptable.
I have every wish to make an amendment to that Fundamental Rights list with the addition of a new right: Right to sleep undisturbed on a holiday like this and am ready to suggest daylight time saving measures to make the sun rise late and would like to invoke all to pour in other thoughts to make this amendment feasible.
However,as I write this, there is a context I really feel proud to be associated with which has little to do with the patriotism and its degree variables like chauvinism or jingoism or merabhaartamahanism and that I am glad is to exist in this age which witnesses the beginning of young Indian cub growing up into an adult tiger, attesting the growing importance of India for the Global companies like Facebook,Google to mention a few and yes we Indians highlighting and celebrating their one of the taken-for-granted National holiday in a "great" publicised way. Great here encompasses feelings of Independence and the indebtness to the martyrs and so many feelings.
It has me left with thinking, how exactly is the day of today different from the other national holidays like Independence day and Matyr's day and Gandhi Jayanti.I would look at the sky or focus at something 5 ft behind you so as to appear contemplative if you ask me the significance of the day in distinct 10 line short article.I cant say about the other well informed pride Indians but I stand most likely to fail to do so here.I pray to God that I remain alone in this court or do u want to accompany your dear friend ?
Celebrations of Republic day is a reminder of the fact that India, a country which was given virtually no chance of success actually converted those chances. It is unimaginable even today to think how India not only made through the colonial rule, partition, 3 wars, political and economic crises of humungous proportions, poverty and overpopulation but is now at a stage where it is challenging the established superpowers. it is indeed a miracle that you and me are writing blogs in an undivided India. This perception of this significance degenerating day by day. It is like a birthday - A child relishes his b'day but when she/he gets older the significance reduces and then birthday is just a number.
ReplyDelete