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Season of freedom

Hi all,
Thanks for the invitation to be part of this wonderful blog. I went through some of the contents of this blog and was impressed by the intent with which this group is functioning. So, I am starting off today with this small piece of writing. A special thanks to Gauri Mathur, who invited me. Read on..

Its that time of the year again when we all send messages to each other with all patriotic fervour. Our minds are full of thoughts about our country. The streets are filled with flag vendors. Almost every passing vehicle has a tricolour at the front. We even hang the flag in front of our houses. The internet is full of forwarded messages about the long struggle for freedom and the greatness of our country. The political parties are not far behind, conducting meetings with fanfare.

But, beyond that are we doing anything worthwhile? yes, we do sit in front of the tv all day and enjoy all those film based programs and independence day special movie. In the olden days, atleast those movies used to be classic patriotic movies. But, now we get to see some crap romantic movie or maybe some steamy hot movie featuring the latest hottie in town. And if you are politician, you will be busy hoisting the flag and taking the customary salute. The salute may vary from politician to politician, from 5 outstretched fingers to 2 finger salutes. For the policemen, independence day eve is the busiest time of the year, searching the nook and corner of the cities for bombs. For the government servant, I day is the one as described above, best spent in front of the idiot box. For the Gen-X, its a day to hangout with their buddies or catch the latest release at the nearest theatre[even am no different].

We remember our great country only twice in an year. And that day too is spent like this. Our patriotism is all about phoney forwarded messages and all that stuff. Come August 16th and we'll ask, ''what India, what independence, i got better things to think about''. We are not bothered that our bloody politicians looting our country in a bigger way than the british did. We are not bothered that by playing according to the whims of the US, our leaders are making our country more dependent than ever. We are always ready to vote the leaders who stunt our developmental policies, again to power. And most of all, we gave an Italian jughead, a place among the greatest leaders of our country. So much for the great Independent India.

We should be doing something more worthwhile like charity work or community service, atleast on this day. We should get outside our comfort zone and travel to see the other face of India..the ugly underdeveloped side. You may not believe that there are many people in rural India who donot know India's independnce day. And even more, there are some who don't know the name of the country they live in..Yes, its happening in our India...For all this to change, we should act...We, the more privileged should be there to help the underprivileged and help them to be self dependent. Only then will the word independence achieve its true meaning......

But, even me, who has blabbered this much is doing nothing...... Thats the sad part of it.....
yours truly,
Praveen

Comments

Si_Lee said…
"We should be doing something more worthwhile like charity work or community service, atleast on this day."
he he .. this is the precise reason why we suffer from the illness you have tried to highlight.. You look forward to doing something for the country as a formality more than that as a duty ..Anybody who is making a living in this country is serving it ...considering he pays his taxes.. every person who creates employment for a fellow citizen is doing his duty towards his country ..
The idea is not about being altruistic ! people need to realise that. Patriotism is not measured on the benchmarks of how many impoverished have I empowered...
The idea is about doing your work whatever that maybe in the right way and follow your duties as a citizen without exception.. That is all we really need to do..
As far as watching movies or sitting in front of the idiot box goes ..whats wrong with tht ?? The days are supposed to be mark freedom and are supposed to be a day of celebration and enjoyment ..
And people are free to do what they want to do on that day ,what they deem as their enjoyment .... Formalising a course of actions to be performed on these days would defy the very spirit with which these days are celebrated..
How many of us stood up in the theater , while the national anthem was played in the movie krazzy4 ?? do that first ..
I appreciate the emotion behind the article ... but nevertheless I feel its misguided .. sorry to be so crass in my reply
August 12, 2008 at 11:02 PM
Tushar Mangl said…
You have highlighted a very valid and a very important point but the solution is just not done.
If we do charity work only on one day that itself is a bad idea.It will again be like limiting yourself to charity for 2 days a year.
Siddharth is right somewhere too
Anyways a great thought shared.thank you.Welcome to the blog.
August 13, 2008 at 1:51 PM
Praveen said…
@siddharth
agree with what u said..
but the point is what I said is we should do community service 'atleast' on this day...I dint mean to 'limit the commitment to our country just for this one day' by this. most of us are so busy serving ourselves that we dont have time for the country and the times we remember it are on days like this.. so 'atleast' on this day, they should be ready to do something...
and yeah, we r serving the country by paying taxes but the sad part is most of it is being used for the wrong purposes..
abt the national anthem played in theatre, I, for one, has stood up each and every time I heard the national anthem and have seen most of the people doing that..there are only a few exceptions..

to sign off, thanks for being frank in your reply...and it was never crass:)
August 13, 2008 at 3:49 PM
Si_Lee said…
@ praveen .. u r lucky to have seen many stand .. i was not .. anyways yaar .. u are nt wrong with telling people that do it atleast on one day ... and yeah welcome here ..
August 13, 2008 at 5:54 PM
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