Celebrating Independence Day

India celebrates 60 years of Independence in two days from now. There are loads of 'Independence day' sales, music concerts, roadshows .. even special DJ events happening across the city celebrate this event! This brings me to think what Independence Day really means to us?

I remember when we were in school (KV, to be precise), Independence Day celebrations used to be such a big event. We used to look forward to this day and start preparing for it 2-3 weeks in advance - patriotic speeches, cultural events (patriotic songs, folk dances - the works!). Hoisting of the tricolour followed by singing of the national anthem used to fill our hearts with pride. We used to feel fortunate to be part of such a great nation. At home , we used to put a tricolour on the rooftop, watch 'Gandhi' or some other patriotic movie on DD (that used to be the only channel in those days). My mother used to get emotionally charged each time we saw Gandhi and used to sadly remark - so many people laid down their lives for our country and what have we done to it. If those people were alive today, they would be so ashamed of us.

To most of us, Independence Day today means another holiday on which we can get up late, go out for movie or shopping (there are so many special sales any way), hang out with friends. Do just about anything without even sparing a second thought about our country, the people who gave up their lives so that we could live in a free nation. It all seems to us like another time .. another era. One TV channel (I think it was MTV) was showing a a programme last year where they were getting hold of some youths in a shopping mall/multiplex theatre and asking them some very simple questions about our country (like what is our national anthem, who was the first prime minister/president etc) and to my horror most of the people did not know answers to these questions!!

A great article by Amit Varma on changing face of India and meaning of Independence Day in today's context which voice similar sentiments in far better way than I ever could - The Republic of Apathy.

In today's India, we always need a Munnabhai or an RDB (or more recently, Chak de India) to teach us the meaning of patriotism ...