Independence Day - its sights and sounds

I bathed early for a change, and opened the windows of my room. Down below, school children were walking in their clean white uniforms, holding, not national flags, but saplings, in their hands and screaming "Grow more trees". The sights and sounds of our 60th Independence Day enthralled me. The tiranga coloured the streets and distant sounds of the anthem being played filled the air with the sweet melody of Rabindranath Tagore's immortal song. (I personally feel that Vande Mataram would be a more ideal song for us, as the original Jana Gana Mana was written honoring King George V and not for the Indian masses)

Dressed in a white kurta and a blue jean, I sped my bike towards the Sai temple and prayed there for some time. There was a more than usual crowd on occasion of I-Day - women in lovely sarees along with their families, students, the elderly, everyone was there. One would think that with so many people praying, we should not have half the problems that we have now.

As I came out of the temple, the real India hit me. Scantily clad children, with matted hair, imploring the public to give them something, literally tugging at their shirts, and figuratively tugging at their hearts, trying to cache in on the I-Day 'Iam-a-proud-Indian-and-I-will-help-my-fellow-citizens" feeling of the people. and it worked. People do donate more on I-Day than on normal days. In a strange way, the flag also helps in earning some money for these poor people. Old women clutching bunches of plastic flags (which i thought were banned long back in India), thrusting them in my face, asking me to be a good citizen and stick a flag to my bike, can be found in every street corner. Starting a few days before I-Day this sales is brisk, only to peter away from D-Day.

The amazing self-start of my Pulsar kicked the bike to life and I saw a man standing near his bike outside the temple and praying. The only time he turned his head away was when he had to spit, the nasty red paan, the element that has pervaded most in our lives and that which belittles any vestige of decency or civic sense that we might have. As the red droplets spattered the road inches in front of my bike, he turned to me and muttered a 'sorry!' and turned back to pray.

"Arrey! Be sorry for spitting in front of the temple, and that too while praying. Dont be sorry for spitting in front of my bike. Some guys dont even know what to be sorry for." (No! I didnt say that, though i wanted to)

I had to brake at the traffic signal and though the timer showed that there another minute to go before the lights turned green, motorists starting inching forward, way beyond the stop line, and by the time there were another 10 seconds left, everyone had zoomed ahead, and, pressurised by the constant honking of the car behind me, I too followed the crowd nervously looking left and right lest i be picked up by a cop. But such things are so normal that the cops almost dont consider this an offence.

While returning from the store, I saw some sights which, for a change, showed the brighter side of our country. There were blind men manning PCO booths given to them by the government, groups of school kids walking on the streets for some cause or the other, old women proudly adorning their duppattas with the colors of the flag, another guy refusing to be pressurised by the loud honking behind him when the lights had still not turned green (thus effectively putting me to shame), a girl in matted hair and tattered clothing rushing to the middle of the road to pick up a puppy which was lost in the medley of traffic, and many more. These gave me the faith that ours is a nation which will, if nurtured honestly and with sympathy, do immensely well, ours is a nation which can achieve the greatness which was assigned to it by our yesteryear freedom fighters, if only we the citizens could do simple things right - be it follow traffic rules, or refrain from spitting on the roads.

At first sight these suggestions might seem to trivial to be considered solutions for nation building, but once everyone begins to be conscious of their actions and the nuisance that they cause to the society, their visions will widen, they will see the bigger picture, and do greater things that will defintely lead to nation building.