66th independence day celebration was celebrated in high spirits and with so much of bliss. But somewhere down the line there is something which keeps me aloof of these things. The so-called JASHAN and MUBARAKBAAD for India getting her reigns back from Britishers was on but the most imposing question which towers over me is that: why doesn’t these occasions fills me with bliss, why doesn’t the patriotic songs makes my adrenaline go pumping as it used to be in my school days, when unfurling those paper made tricolour meant freedom to me and would charge me up with enormous amount of energy so much so that even the wrath of sun was not enough to bog down my morale and prevent me from standing in those long queues until I collected my share of refreshments which comprised of samosas, little, Rasogollas to name a few.
Come today a 15th august or a 26th January is just another day in the calendar for me, which, of course, grabs my attention, for these are gazetted national holidays. Those days soon after coming from school we would leap towards our television set to get a glimpse of prime minister addressing the nation and more over the cultural programs, parades and presentations that followed delighted us and the days’ schedule would be so jam packed with the patriotic movies that used to be aired for the entire day, tiranga, and roza were two movies of that lot which every youth in the 20s would remember to their full length with every scene in sequence. In short our eyes would be glued to the television sets until the series of programs ended or worst the power connection betrayed. Today I hardly feel there is anything which needs to be given attention to. That is when I ask myself why is it so that these things don’t bother me anymore or for that matter why don’t these occasion fills me within. Is it that I don’t have that patriotic corpuscles being pumped in my vein anymore. 'Why'? Then I suddenly confront an ugly duel deep within me, and I realize that this is not a one-day affair, it is a slow process which has taken its own sweet time to build up.
I might sound insane but when I along with my college friends would gather over a cup of coffee in college canteen then we converse in our own way by addressing, abusing and teasing pranks on girls, any girl for that matter. It indeed cuts a very sorry figure about us when we become one of the same lot who goes on for candle light march at India Gate making peace protest in the wake of rape incident that stirs our own conscience.
We talk of social inequality, casteism and corruption, but we are the first ones to demolish the rules. Not so long ago I would quote an incident which took place couple of days ago when I was on my way back to my hometown after making an unsuccessful attempt at SSB Bhopal. Time was somewhere around 9 am in the morning, atmosphere was calm, and fresh with nature being at its best as it usually happens during the month of monsoon in this part of the world. Train was half vacant and I was busy going through the day to day happenings from one of the editions of Hindustan times, that is when two RPF men clad in khakis with their rusted and dull looking LMGs(I wondered if it ever fired bullets) came into my compartment and comforted themselves on the adjacent seats. One of them being on the right and the other being in front of me. They started off well with usual chit chats and soon switched to one of the most prominent and talked about topics of today i.e politics and corruption. Soon they moved ahead with their tongue lashing and blame game had already begun, all those talks of corrupt politicians, inefficient system and poor mentality of people were being talked about. Amid of all these policeman sitting next to me tried to drag me into the discussion but I showed no interest. In the meanwhile he helped himself with a few packets of gutkhas from a vendor kid without paying him in lieu of that. To my utter surprise he tore the packet open, ate it and threw the wrapper on the compartment floor. A wicked smile ran across my lips and I gazed at him accusingly. Even he read my intentions but was quick to leave the place. Intentions were loud and clear, people are good till blaming other helps but in the fray most importantly forget their part. And there are many of us unlike those RPF men. We throw garbage on roads and blame municipality for not doing their part, we chose these thieves and murderers and blame them later for not being honest to us. The million dollar question which arises here is: “are we honest to ourselves ?”.
We talk of humanity and unity, tell me how many of us ran to rescue the girl who was eveteased by a few of those road side romeos ? how many of us rushed that man to hospital who was languishing helplessly on roads post accident, just because some silly questions were to be thrown at us at police station ? C’mon give me break, we unfortunately have become part of the lot who loves crying foul everywhere and at the end of the day needs someone like anna hazare and arvind kejriwal to bail us out of this predicament and become our messiah. We have somewhere become a mad dog chasing cars who doesn’t know where is he heading towards. Our concern and responsibility is limited to a comment of facebook and interest is limited to a tweet on twitter. Pakistan breaks the ceasefire and behead our soldiers and we cry foul by posting and sharing their photos and posts. The day is not far when war will be fought online and the winning side will the one with excellent wit. And the government elected by us waits patiently for the next series of unpleasant events to unfold.
But why am I talking about all this. By now most of you have would have made up your mind about me being an arrogant, shrewd or stupid kind of person. But somewhere deep inside these series of incidents have made me numb and that is why august 15th is just another day in calendar for me.
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