I was a young one of around 6/7 years of age when I had the glimpse of the Independence Day for the first time.I was escorted (not as a dignitary obviously, but due to me tender age) by my father at Garrison Ground at Shillong, the then capital of Assam, where all celebrations were held during that time. The funfair at the surroundings I watched with my surprised look and I noticed a person far away from my reach stood on a makeshift podium busy in delivering an oration that was Latin and Greek to me. Lots of small vendors were making beeline near Red Cross as well as on the small connecting bridge over river Umsirpi with colourful balloons and cheap plastic toys to lure young future citizens like me.Father used to buy toys or balloons for me and about an hour later I would happily return back at my home holding my father's strong hand.
Those were the days people around us were more patriotic and that was inborn instinct of those people. I remember anyone visited to any relative's house during those days, one would definitely find photograph of, Gandhi, Shubash, Tagore, Nehru, Vivekananda, Azad and Aurovindo etc hanging on the wall of sitting room. Our house was no exception till my school days.Patriotism and love for the country was inborn quality among our elders and no one was needed to teach them.Country was already divided in the name of religion and no one wanted to make fresh division in citizen's mental set up.All the theaters in the town had compulsorily played national anthem after the show and all used to stand up spontaneously to show respect to the anthem.
Years passed away and when I was high school going lad I was more interested to watch free movie they used to show in all five cinema halls on that auspicious day. Those were generally decade old black and white print patriotic movies like 'Bharat Ke Sahid' and some others that exactly I do not remember,Never the less I was happy that I could watch a movie free of cost.Meanwhile time changed. Theater hall stopped playing national anthem because new generation had no respect for the anthem and they started leaving the theater once the anthem started.
Much later, the year after year passed, the country became stronger both economically and with military might.We became nuclear super power, but sadly enough we descended from ideal character and became weaker socially.Citizens gradually became netizens. In the present day, people do not get time to celebrate the day in the way their predecessors used to spend. To most of the netizens it is now another paid holiday to enjoy with family members.We are smart people use smart phones. We will either market plenty of food items through app to cook and have with relish in our home or we will go for a day out to eateries around our city, and thereafter we will go for popular movies and spend the holiday not Independence day.
Television channels are showing old hits like, Attenborough's Gandhi(Hindi version), Teranga, etc every year with repeat telecast to garner patriotism from public but that also became a farce. No one is knowing who is real patriot in modern India. .Media hype of course create patriotism among mass for very temporary period. Millions of likes and posts, tweets, re tweets for Deepa Karmakar will move into oblivion within a span of a month or two because public memory is always short lived.But,
they have not heard the name of Satyendra Dube who was killed by land mafia in Bihar, because he informed Atal Behari Vajpayee, the then PM regarding misappropriation and diversion of funds from his dream road project.They are not interested to hear about Durgashakti Nagpal, the lady IAS who alone fought against land mafia in western UP and had to bow out for her honesty and patriotism.There are many more silent patriots who are fighting regularly inside the country against the system. There are, Govind Poneser, M Kalburgi and many gave their life fighting against our system.
We are selfie crazy. We keep no stone un turned to get a selfie with people and place of prominence. But,has anyone ever taken a selfie with our national flag? At least I am not aware.
Meanwhile, many of us will buy a national flag as fashion for one day, clip it on the dash board of our SUV and in the afternoon we will sit together with our friends along with whiskey on the rocks poured in costly cut glass tumbler from sliver decanter and a bone china plate full of chicken drumsticks or minced pork fry and shout in unison Cheers! HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!
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