A happy 68th I-Day?

Posted on by Parul Thakur
Selected as a WOW Post!
Selected as a WOW Post!

It was an encounter I had never expected. A little after mid night when I was fast asleep, I felt someone was sitting by my pillow. I woke up with a jolt and to my surprise, Mother India had come to pay me a visit. She said she met Mother Pakistan and had a good dinner and now she wanted to spend the rest of the night at my place before the 68th Independence Day flag is hoisted in the morning. I was more than happy to have her as my guest.

We had coffee, chatted a little when the conversation took a different turn. She had a lot of questions for Indians and I had almost no answers. I made a note of our conversation so that someday we will be able to give her answers and challenge her conclusions about us.

Question: Non-violence was how you fought for my freedom and independence. Yet, so many riots and clashes are prevalent. Thousands of innocent lives are lost in bomb blasts and communal violence. Why?

Deduction: You are a bunch of violent people!

Question: You talk of peace and love but do you really believe in the power of love? Why did you kill your own son in the name of honor killing? Why can’t he marry and live happily with the girl he loved?

Deduction: You do not believe in love!

Question: You call me Mother but do you really respect women? For the last 68 years in this motherland – many daughters, sisters, wives, mothers have been raped, assaulted, molested and even murdered.

Deduction:  You do not respect woman!

Question: When you go abroad for work or on a trip, you follow traffic rules, you do not litter, you wait patiently in lines, you smile and talk to the waiter who got you a wrong dish, you nod at the guy next door and you even smile at the receptionist. When you are back to home, you do not exhibit the same behavior. Why so?

Deduction: You are a hypocrite!

Question: You worship Durga, Kali, Saraswati, Parvati, Sita yet you terminate a female foetus. How can you say children are a form of God and then conspire to kill a little girl?

Deduction: You don’t practice what you preach!

Question: Moral policing is so common – people judge each other for holding hands or hugging in public yet these moral policemen never slap eve teasers. Why?

Deduction: You are amoral!

Question: You use Facebook/Twitter comments as proofs and you put people behind bars for saying that is against your good will.

Deduction: You do not have freedom of speech!

I was speechless at the end of this conversation. What I assumed would be a well-rounded discussion and around how much we have progressed as a country in the last 68 years turned out to be a monologue. She left in the wee hours of the morning but she left me thinking and worried about the condition of our country. Does celebrating Independence mean sharing messages and FB posts? Is Independence just about a day off that we get? What are we doing to improve and this country? We are responsible for the current state of affairs because we have let things be as they are. It is up to us to start taking baby steps right now to get free from the shackles of the evils that surround us and make India an independent country in the true sense. Only then it will make sense to wish each other a “Happy” Independence Day!

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda. 

16 thoughts on “A happy 68th I-Day?”

  2. A very nice article, Parul. Its time that we start taking responsibility for every action & make this country a better place in the world.

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  3. Wonderful one buddy! Loved this read a lot and hoping to take “BABY STEPS” which at the end will make the wish “HAPPY” I-Day a meaningful one! Thank you for posting this!

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  4. It is v true . But I still believe India is India . I agree all the points raised by so called Mother India but shortcomings are every where . It can be more or less . But what the today’s youth is doing for his country ?

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  6. well I do think that independance is just as a day off as We have failed miserably in what those who gave their life for this day had thought or dreamed ..

    LEts see how much money was spent in the celebration of this day.. how can we celebrate it when there are millions who slept hungry that day .. just a thought …

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    1. I agree Bikram. We did fail but the only way to get up and pull our socks up for a better India is to contribute at the most basic levels. If we also give up, what will the coming generations do. We will have to lead by example here.

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  7. You have asked some pertinent questions here Parul. Loved reading this. But, I just wanted to add something that I have realized pretty recently. Now that I live far away from India in Europe, I am pretty close to extremely painful humanitarian crisis across Syria, Iraq, Israel, Palestine etc.. The stories of human conflict and hatred are baffling. But, when I look back at India, I feel, it is incredible that irrespective of our differences in terms of numerous languages, culture, costume, religion, caste, we can still coexist as one stable political and economic nation. That’s something incredible! Though there are issues like ‘violence against women’, corruption, ‘dirt and filth in public spaces’ that disturb me immensely.

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    1. I totally agree! Though this post was written on a different note, I love the diversity of our country. I am one who has moved from east of the nation to the south and during this journey of close to 15 years, having pit stops at so many cities, I never felt I was away from home. There is so much love all around. Even in Bangalore where I find it hard to converse in the local language, I have made so many friends. Love belonging to this country!

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