Ok …. so its 15th August 2022 – India marks 75 years of being independent or maybe what is branded as “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav”
So what changed or improved in those 75yrs? Or what new have we developed to brag about? NOTHING. We the people, we the people who call ourselves INDIAN won’t change for good anyways. Be it 25, 50, 75, or even 100 years of Independence. The country’s independence age increases but that have nothing to do with the people’s maturity or their civic sense.
2 incidents happened leading to this special day and both related to events around the celebration which reinstated the faith in my mind that our people won’t change and will never change.
Story 1:
A school in my neighbourhood did a massive celebration parade involving all the teachers and students. Some dressed up as freedom fighters, some dressed up as military personnel, some in cultural dresses ( not sure why ). And many in their school tracksuits and each of them holding flags ( each of them because we are taking Har Ghar Thiranga to the next level ). And many forming a line to hold what I can call a massive flag running the length of the road. The parade stops in front of the temple next to my house and the percussion folks leading the parade start playing and then all the students run ( with probably some instructions from the school authorities ) and come to dance to the peppy grooves. The excitement is so high that they even decided to fold and keep aside the huge flag that they were carrying all the while. If you want to keep this sanity on one side then what catches everyone’s attention after these students have left is a huge trail of litter in the form of plastic water and juice bottle left on the road. Again we are talking about students who are youngsters, these folks need to be thought how to keep their city, their state, and their country litter free and make way for a better future. But here forget the students even the teachers are not bothered.
Story 2:
Indira Gandhi Musical Fountain Park in Bangalore is pretty famous not just because this place houses the war memorial or what we can call a massive India flag that one can imagine, but also as a dedicated musical fountain area. Twice a day in the evenings there is a musical show or what one can term a light and sound show involving a water fountain. Everything is good here except for the people (maybe some of them ) who visit this place. Today being a special day it was more crowded than other days. On other days maybe it houses people on the gallery-style seating but today many including me were seated on the floor ( with no complaints whatsoever). The lights were turned off and the music started to play and the show began. Out of nowhere, someone ( a kid ) throws an empty water bottle into the seating area and everyone in the family is amused by that. They don’t bother to go and pick it up. But many from their community keep jaywalking in front of the crowd and obstructing their view while the show is going on. And some even took it as a challenge to kick the bottle here and there as if the crowd has come to see the visitor’s talent of the bottle being used as football! It doesn’t take much more than a tiny bit of civic sense, but still we the people. It doesn’t end there when the show was almost about to get over many decide to get up and walk towards the exit and they see the bottle right in the middle of the area where the show is happening and dump or discard their used bottle there itself. I don’t think I want to say anything more than this.
Did I mention anything about the families who were busy taking selfies when the national anthem was being played?