This went on till higher secondary, along with these visible symbolisms a sudden surge of patriotism with passionate speeches and patriotic songs with no “sur” (Hindi Sur-Taal one) whatsoever were integral part of celebrations, All this used to start with first ray of light and by the time the sun set everything would be called off, erased from our memory and life got back to the usual business along with some trophies and medals to put in our showcase. By the time I reached college, 15th August had changed quite a bit and became just a holiday where the most we would do was play a cricket match, even that single day of patriotism was out of the mind and replaced with romance of cover drives and square cuts.
But this year, 15th August, 2011 came in a different shape, size and vibrancy. I was in small village in Madhya Pradesh where I could see no development whatsoever since immemorial. Early morning I woke-up to tunes of ‘Jab “ZERO” diya mere Bharat ne’ and immediately the thought came to mind on what a song to start an Independence celebration only because the irony is perhaps that this village is biggest testament of this song with its “ZERO” development J . In last 20 years all I have been witness just to so many cases in courts on land disputes and on the hindsight I believe, “land Acquisition” bill perhaps the government can consult these undesignated, argumentative talented law experts who are fighting these cases with their own fathers and brothers for ages. Midst of this sheer disgust we still get together every year on 15th August to epitomize our freedom, unity and brotherhood. As the day progressed some eminent citizens voiced their opinion about dismal state of schools, teacher’s, and absenteeism in the most ritual manner as they had been doing for decades with zero follow-up and action afterwards. Then the drama begins as one of them came onto the dais and proclaimed that “I’ll ask a question and no teacher will have answer for it. Tell me a state which has 7 letters name?” After a deathly silenced he said “I told you no one would know, now do you know what kind of future our school and kids have?” He was not the first one of his kind. My cousin told me that last year this school organized an inter block Volleyball tournament and the local MLA was invited as Chief Guest for prize distributions , in his post match speech he said , There are 3 most popular games in the world “Balebaal, Footebaal and Tournament” J.
I believe my brush-up with patriotism is not an aberration and most of us if not all have had similar experiences unless you have had the privileged to go to Don Bosco’s and Saint Mary’s only. But all this changed on August 16th 2011, by the time clock turned dawn a man from a small Village in Maharashtra walked to the political corridors with his white dhoti kurta and Gandhi Topi. At first glance he looked like just another NGO person who wanted to take head-on the issue which had been a discussion point in this country. Some predicted this to happen and thought that it will chew away all the hardwork and goodness gone behind unshackling the grip of the East India Company. The predictions turned out to be true and a silent menace against corruption started towards some greedy self centered power abusers who have gradually intoxicated whole system. Midst of the ever growing GDP and the dream of becoming an economical super power this issues has been part of AC drawing room intellect for a while but it was limited to that only without any substantial action at the ground to change it.
But it again took a village patriot to come forward, like all other people movements in our history, to galvanize the nation on this issue as well. The Gandhian, Anna Hazare has history behind him from being rampant fiery young guy who didn’t hesitate to beat the hell out of a police man while he was trying to overpower him on behest of his positional power, to a WAR solider of 1971 Pakistan war and then on to turning into a Gandhian, social activist in a dramatic style post reading the book of Swami Vivekananda in a train journey, rest is history in the making. Man taught us if you have right intentions and a big idea the sky is the limit. Ramleela ground of this historical city which has seen so many agitations during freedom struggle perhaps would have least expected to be embraced with same sense of patriotism, intense passion for the country amidst modern slut walks and gay parades.
With each passing day that Man captured the imagination of Indians with backdrop of Symbolisms. We as a society always been romancing with “Prateekvaad” and the moment we saw a 74yr old man ready to sacrifice his life and take head-on the paradoxically dogmatic government with a no burning buses, stone pelting and effigies bashing method but, without making any tangible harm to the other side of the table which will awake their souls as Gandhi has demonstrated in backdrop of numerous occasions during communal violence. India has learnt biggest lesson post independence in last 12 days that people hold the keys and each individual is empowered to bring the change provided we collaborate with intense passion rather than thinking what enablement do I need to tackle the problem? We must think of what we can do to make a difference for the problem at the threshold. The forgotten patriotism has an emphatic resurgent which perhaps is a new ray of hope in the looming darkness that our democracy is going through.........
