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The first Independence Day that I remember was when I was in 9th grade and was in a new school. One of my classmates was pretty vocal about his patriotic sentiments and insisted we declare our loyalties right then. It would be pretty bad to disappoint him by not screaming Jai after his extremely loud “Bharat Mata ki…” Someone finally managed to calm him down but not after a wild fight when some smart ass completed the chant with an objectionable invective. We all were herded into our classrooms and given tiny paper flags, which unfortunately always fell by the roadside after the ceremony. But the moment of truth came when I had to try hard to avoid the jabs of my classmates at the Chief Guest, who incidentally was my dad. Finally after the hundredth “When will he shut up and let us go home?” comment, I finally said aloud, “I had asked him to keep it short when he was writing it last night”. Everyone froze and one brave soul managed to ask me, “What do you mean?” I repeated myself again until then the smarter ones in the class managed to guess that the boring speaker was my dad. No one spoke for a while but I loved it. Everyone waited silently for the speech to end, which thankfully ended in a short while. Trying to make up to me, the vociferous patriot from the bus said that my dad’s speech had changed his life and he was going to devote his life in service of the country. I laughed out and said that it was alright and I didn’t really mind the complaints. He heaved in relief and said, “Gee thanks, I was planning to become a money-hoarding, labor-exploiting bania anyways”.
The second Independence Day was the 50th anniversary, circa 1997. I was in third year of my undergraduate college and everyone’s idea of a holiday was to head the nearby village resort and drowse themselves in alcohol. A teetotaler then, I was dragged along in the glorious role of a designated driver. But all I remember from that night is singing the national anthem with my drunk friends; some swaying wilding and singing out of tune at the stroke of midnight. Poor Nehru must have turned in his grave at such blatant disrespect to his tryst with destiny. No one remembered the incidents the next morning. Such patriotism but then slogging our butts off for sixteen hour workdays trying to complete the so-hated submissions gives you that need to party harder. All holidays are just the same.
This year, I finally dragged myself to the local Festival of India organized by the Indian-American association. As expected, the show was full of classical Indian dances. I don’t have anything against the traditional form of Indian dance. But sitting through more than ten different forms, involving three Bharatnatyam performances, two Kuchipudi, and host of other Odisi, Manipuri, Kathak interspersed with Bollywood dances performed by weird sounding troupes like Silent Killers (where did they get that from?). But anyways, a little touch of India doesn’t hurt much on the Independence Day.
by Patrix | on Monday, August 30th, 2004 at 11:10 pm | 
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August 31st, 2004 at 4:40 am reply
Better Late than Never!
By the way, what is with this blog? To read your post completely I have to click on “To continue readin…”. Do you realise how many calories are spent doing that? Besides I got a muscle pull with all that clicking. Now you better award me the best click award for faithfully reading the whole post and making the first comment :)
PS: The award can be sent to Billa No.420, Cell #3 , Kalyan Police Chowky.
August 31st, 2004 at 9:34 am reply
Never too late… Jai Hind.
August 31st, 2004 at 9:36 am reply
Seema - Oops! I am sorry for exercising your fingers more than they are used to. But that “to continue reading..” thingie is to avoid one post from hogging the front page. But I sent your award but it was returned saying that the occupant is absconding after a jailbreak last night and there is a man..err..womanhunt on right now.
Toinks - Tum ek sacche bhartiya ho…jai hind! :)
August 31st, 2004 at 10:40 am reply
Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people, dispenser of India’s destiny.
Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sind, Gujarat and Maratha, of the Dravida and Orissa (Utkala) and Bengal;
It echoes in the hills of the Vindyas and Himalayas, mingles in the music of Jamuna and Ganges and is chanted by the waves of the Indian Sea.
They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise. The saving of all people waits in thy hand, thou dispenser of India’s destiny.
Victory, victory, victory to thee.
August 31st, 2004 at 10:44 am reply
Funny, Festival of India has remained to be unchartered territory for me after all these years, albeit after much planning to attend every year! Glad, you got your dose of India on I-Day…Jai Hind!
August 31st, 2004 at 10:45 am reply
I listen to patrioric songs from bollywoodmusicindiaonline.com and i make everybody who comes home listen to them… ‘dekho veer jaawanao apnee khoon pe..’
or the famous Chitrahaar favorite ‘nanha muna rahi hoon’
wah wah..Now I better switch to ‘Behena ne bhai ke kalai mein..aaaaa…
My dad was worse. he would watch ‘Gandhi’ every independence day without fail. the cassette still survives.
Your dad was a chief guest? show off!
August 31st, 2004 at 11:40 am reply
I read someplace that “Jana Gana Mana” was actually written to glorify whichever British lord was ruling over India at the time, and not India itself. All the provinces mentioned are the ones that were under the British raj.
Jai Hind indeed !!
August 31st, 2004 at 11:48 am reply
Alpha - Thanks for that cut-paste exercise. We all had our fave patriotic songs..heck, even DD had that cassette somewhere in their archive and brought out each 15th Aug…and how is my dad being the chief guest letting me show off?? I should actually doobofy in chullu bhar paani.
Spaceman - A lil extra dosage of classical dances but one time doesn’t hurt..you should see it next year.
Cheiron - i read that in one of the email fwds..so I have my doubts..just like the fact that Taj Mahal was built on the ruins of the temple and the moon landing was hoax.
August 31st, 2004 at 3:55 pm reply
your blog is a mini magazine……..now if you could cut and paste and present it as such you could actually sell subscriptions……….hmmmmmm……remember that i get royalty for that idea…….btw- this is a compliment.
August 31st, 2004 at 4:32 pm reply
cool ! patrix….was ur dad in the govt ???or a governor ???
August 31st, 2004 at 5:38 pm reply
M - I guess the ads made the picture complete, eh? BTW I hope you are clicking away to glory and making me rich. Thanks for the compliment, you will receive your royalty at the end of the month :)
Lamya - Neither. He just is a simple consulting engineer and an architect…I dunno why my school had called him as a chief guest. Guess they knew him more than I did :)