Independence Day.......really???

To all my fellow Indians, a very very Happy 61st Independence Day.
So guys what did you guys to for 15th August this year? I know, I know, it was a holiday, a 3-day weekend, so it was time to chill out, have a good lie-in and then just relax, right?
Its 61 years since we awoke to "life and freedom" in order to maintain our tryst with destiny. much has surely changed since then, except for one singular feature, that being the hoisting of the Tiranga, in offices, residential societies, where-not. My building had that function too.
The scheduled time was set for 10:00 AM, and the flag hoisting was to be followed by a cultural programme and "light" snacks. I make it a point to attend the flag hoisting ceremony every year, so I went down at about five minutes to 10 and big surprise, there were about only 50-odd of us gathered for the event. Now my building has 10 blocks, around 700 flats in total. Considering an average of 4 persons per flat, there are around 2800-3000 people in my building. This means that only 50/2800 i.e 1.78% of the residents thought it was important it was necessary for them to come down for the flag hoisting ceremony. Now I am not a big statistician, but I do know that the subject is based on the fact that you take a small sample, analyze it and expect it to represent the larger whole. If we apply this principle to my case, give a additional +/- 5% for errors, the result is pretty, well, shameful!
In a country of over 1.1 Billion people, only 2-7% people come out to salute the National flag?
OK, maybe that sounds a little far-fetched, but the point at issue is not my statistical analysis, it is the FACT that most of us really don't think it is important enough to get up early, have a bath and come down to salute our National flag, on our Independence day. And this fact is not limited to our National holidays. Consider an everyday scenario, you are going to watch a movie in a theater, where it is mandatory for the owners to have a rendition of the National Anthem. Tell me, truthfully, how many of you sing the National Anthem the way it is supposed to be? FLASHBACK, std VII, Civics class, the paragraph stating the way the national Anthem is supposed to be said - "The body should be erect, hands at the sides, without any movement, the National Anthem should be sung in aloud and clear voice, clearly reflecting your pride in it". I do not think that any of you ever think about these things whenever you go to watch a movie. Did you guys know that it is violation of law, not to sing the national Anthem in such a manner? Also that the National Anthem should be sung for exactly 52 seconds? If you are in class, and an NCC parade outside starts the National Anthem, would you in the middle of the class stand up and recite the Anthem? Think about it.Coming back to my local issue, what really hurt was the fact that the moment the flag hoisting was over and the snacks were announced, the number of people seemed to treble! So their patriotism was only restricted to their gastric calls?
Every Independence day we read innumerable articles about how India has progressed, how the Nation is an emerging superpower, blah blah blah.... There are so many feature films storied around the Patriotism theme. In this moolah of patriotism, have the normal citizens of the country lost the true sense of national fervor? Everyone need not be an Indian army jawan in order to show his/her patriotism. Like charity, patriotism too begins at home. The small things that I mentioned above go along way in showing how proud we are of our country. Cynics might argue that just by saluting the flag and singing the national Anthem doesn't prove thats you are a true patriot. Bingo! You do NOT have to prove your patriotism to anyone, it is for yourself to realize why you love and respect your country. There are many reasons why, here's probably the most mundane of them - Imagine if you were living behind the Iron Curtain in USSR and on a National Holiday, you never got up and saluted the flag, do you realize what would have happened? The KGB would have branded you an American spy and probably jailed you. You live in a country which gives you the freedom, if I may use the word, to NOT show your love and pride in it!
You know what I really hope for? The next time that old uncle who raised the tiranga in my building yesterday, raises it again, there should not be that look of suffering in his eyes when he realizes that today's generation doesn't seem to care about all the sacrifices that our forefathers made so that today we could sleep peacefully in our beds.
I think its time to end my post here, I take your leave with a sonnet that is as true as it was when written.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow
domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the
dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought
and action;

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

-Rabindranath Tagore

cheers,

JAI HIND!

moksha

PS: for all those doubting Thomases out there, I do observe the rules while singing the National Anthem and yes, once during an IMS lecture at RUIA college, I did get up midway and sing the National Anthem when the NCC band played it under our window.
PPS: This is not an idle boast, I am proud that I could muster up enough courage to do it.