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    Categories: Opinion

Few things to ponder on the eve of Independence Day

Wah! What a sight it will be tomorrow , we will see ourselves in school uniforms, office suits ,saris , khadis, some in salwars, some in dhotis and traditional wears , but most of us will have one thing in common, a tricolor flag or an emblem with flag embossed on it .

We will be shouting vande matharam, from the bottom of our hearts, we will be singing our national anthem , wondering why we always get Goosebumps when we sing it, feeling great joy to be born in this nation , remembering all those martyrs who gave their lives for the sake of independence ,say that they were noble souls ,tell that we need to realize the importance of the independence that we have, hoist the flag ,salute it , when the bands will rhythmically beat to create that aura of patriotism, say that we will work hard to make this county a leader for the world to follow, A true VISHWAGURU, eat sweets, go home, watch TV , they will be having all those action movies depicting patriotism , sacrifice, soldiers, war , and our favorite hero will be fighting with a bullet in his leg or chest , he will have seen his friend die in war , his mom’s letter in his wallet, or his girlfriend’s picture  ! He will finally hoist the tricolor on some mountain,

 Oh god! wonderful nation we live in, wonderful we are, patriotic, if this nation needs my life right now, here you go, I will give it, Mother India will be truly proud looking at us, she will be very happy to have children like us, she will be in tears just thinking how many of her sons and daughters are ready to sacrifice their lives for her …Did I miss anything, Hmmn ya!! Most important thing, since a year or so, we make national flag as our profile pictures, and display pictures, just showing how much we really love her…

Is that it , no , the important thing is yet to follow safely remove all the emblems from dresses without tearing them , remove those khadis ,give it for a dry wash ,lower the flags fold it and keep it inside for the next year and sleep, change our profile pictures back to normal, and then go to normal life next day ….The next time we will have this patriotism spurting in us is during, the next Indo-pak encounter in cricket or hockey. Or when a terrorist attack takes place , or when we are on the verge of a war, or the worst case scenario is the republic day, or the next independence day , till then we are the people who will sigh at the problems that we see and say THIS IS INDIA DUDE, it will never improve , It’s just that we will be idealists on august 15th and realists the rest of the year, I just believe that we do this because we have not been in that world where independence was a myth and we never fought for it, we just do not know the importance of it.
Well, let me ask you a few questions on the auspicious occasion of our 69th independence day. Do you know was the name of the soldier who died in Kashmir on with his pet military dog? , I am googling it, but even it doesn’t have any information, it gives me search results of USA and UK, search for “Yeh Dil mange more”, you will not find Captain.Vikram Batra’s name, you get a movie from 2004. Do you how much “Bahubali “earned? 550 crores isn’t it, But do you know what the size of our defense budget is this year??. Counted the number of ducks that Virat Kohli had this season right?? Or did you count the number of soldiers who sacrificed their lives since January 2015?? Remember when is Valentine’s Day?? Remember when is Kargil Vijay divas?? Went mad when Sania Mirza was called “The Bahu of Pakistan”? and when there were rumors that she would be denied of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award? Or did you really care when Pakistan continuously violated cease fire… Do you remember which is Sunny Leone’s last film?? Or do you know, when is the last time Poonam Pandey went cozy on her webcam? And ya lost mind because of porn ban? Well, they are the hot searches from India on Google. Let me ask you another question You remember the remark of Maria Sharapova about Sachin Tendulkar, well we all booed Sharapova for that, let me ask you, you know who Bashir Ahmed War is ?? or do you remember who is Brig. John .p.Dalvi??? Do you remember Tukaram Omble? NO right?? They are not popular like the God of cricket!! Why would you know!!! But remember a Russian not knowing an Indian is not a crime, but an Indian not remembering a war hero is a crime!!

Do you know who Riyaz Bhatkal is ?? Do you know who Ajmal Kasab is? Do you know what is happening in GAZA? Or are you the one who signed the mercy petition for Yakub? You may have done it!! But do you the count of the number of people who were killed in Kashmir since 1990. Do you know the exact number of Kashmiri pundits who migrated from Kashmir?? Do you know what the status of “Nirbhaya”, rapists is?? What’s happening with the trial??No you wouldn’t, in fact even I don’t know, and no one cares?? We all want to look cool!! Today talking about India and calling it HINDUSTHAN makes you a saffronizer, but supporting GAZA, makes you secular, Well saying a Sanskrit verse makes you a saffron terrorist, but raping a girl in Uttar Pradesh, doesn’t Really count, Secularism is a fashion, Scolding god is a fashion, condemning India is a fashion, following western culture in the name of development is a fashion. Saying that Sunita Williams is an Indian born is a fashion , saying Manjul Bhargava is an Indian is a fashion, shouting
about India being a dump yard is a fashion… Rejoicing when an iIndianborn becomes the  CEO of Google is a fashion, whether or not he still thinks himself to be an Indian now is not a question at all….Media is behind breaking news and people are following Big boss !! Controversies make you a celebrity! And being a porn start gets you 1000+ retweets in a matter of 10 minutes! Sadhvi Prajna Singh Thakur, blamed of terrorism and suffering from breast cancer is behind the bars for 6 years without a charge sheet being filed, and there is no judicial representation for her, we don’t care, that’s not a fashion

Well let me address a few more issues
• How many of us respect traffic signals when a traffic police is not stationed on a signal??
• How many of us Dump wastes in just waste bins
• How many of us travel with a ticket in train?
• How many of us pay our returns??

And now well, let me put something which is really very important! The future of the nation, where are we heading??? What are our goals??? Talking about nation is not cool, but talk about English premier league that would be great, speak about NASA , that fascinates , But why isn’t ISRO able to do that , we don’t care , ISRO does mars orbiter mission at 452 crores and we say that could have been used on poverty prevention

Well before we just blame our politicians and their policies , let me just say ,50% of the blaming population didn’t vote , our voting rate this time was at 66% , out of which may be 30% of people voted ,because they were payed to vote , which makes the rest 36% as the real voters, if you say that a politician is corrupt and the politics is corrupt , you are equally corrupt in electing him , because you are the same person who just stayed back in home not voting , when you had the power to decide who would rule , yes you are right ,so are the rest 32 % of the people who didn’t vote, What can your “just one vote” do??

Well a few very concerning questions , Let me put it after this , I want to quote something from Ramayana , “ JANANI JANMABHOOMISHCA SWARGADAPI GARIYASI”,this means mother and motherland are greater than heaven , well do you really think that we are thinking that way , we are lost working for some MNC, marketing globalization ,Following fashion, we haven’t had time for all these stuff , at least now we shall think about it
1. Before fighting for Gaza, don’t you just think, the problems of India need to be addressed, wasting time making our Dp’s colored in Palestinian flag, writing “I am an Indian, I support GAZA”, don’t you think a girl child raped needs support, a guy with dreams of flying high unable to do that because he was affected by malnutrition needs support

2. Before we say that Our GDP is falling from 7 to 5, we should realize we are the reasons behind it. We need basmati rice for Pulav; an agriculturist who grows it has still got tears running down his cheeks, the back bone of the nation!
Huh!! He doesn’t get a bride for marriage, funny that, people want their daughters to marry an engineer who is lost in the cubicles of an MNC, trying to identify himself in the huge crowd of a metropolitan city, agricultural land is converted to apartments no one cares

3. We say Sunitha Williams makes us proud, we say Manjul Bhargava is a gift of India to the world, we talk about Ajaypal Singh, Sathya Nadella, Shantanu Narayen, and new trend Sundar Pichai .Have you ever wondered what they feel, why had they had to go to the USA to achieve that, why isn’t India which once attracted students from all parts of the world, The Universities like NALANDA which once were pointers of civilization, able to provide the quality research facility that they needed

4. Have you realized that out of the 200 top universities of the world India hasn’t had one university to represent us

5. Have you wondered why a burnt IPS official isn’t called a martyr, why doesn’t the family of a soldier who sacrificed his life for nation are not treated well??

6. How independent are we who celebrate it in the shadow of guns?? When are we going to respect our nation more than our religion??

Well if you now have read so much and if you are a normal Indian you will just read it and forget it, But remember what Our president  Pranab Mukherjee , once  said , “Yadhrishi bhaavana yasya, siddhir bavathi taadrashi”, Which means “ Whatever are one’s thought’s, so will be the outcomes”, he asked for active participation for youth in Indian politics , we should be the ones taking a lead , we should be the change that the nation deserves , this is the change that would make India a developed country a super power by 2020, That would be the tribute to the Soul of APJ Abdul kalam , not writing RIP APJ on our walls. So at least from now on , let patriotism be a passion rather than a fashion it is now. Happy Independence Day!!

Ashish Saradka

Ashish Saradka: I am a debater orator and luckily an engineer. I work for HP, Writing is a passion .my principle in life " LOVE CAN CONQUER ANYTHING AND ANYONE ". Electronics computer and nature pull out the child in me
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