Simply put, I hate it! I hate it when somebody sends me mails saying "Happy Independence Day"! Does that make me unpatriotic? Am I being disloyal to my country if I say I hate being reminded that its one year more and we haven't done anything at all for the improvement of the country? I know I'm pointing one finger towards all of the other Indians and 4 of the other fingers are pointing towards me...
All of 363 days in a normal year, nobody thinks about it. Nobody even bothers standing up to the national anthem (yup, me too) or nobody salutes at the national flag. On 2 days, suddenly, our so-called patriotism emerges from deep within our hearts and you see the tri-colour flags fluttering everywhere from house tops to car antennas. If this is not a show-off, what is? Oh its republic day, oh its Independence day, we say. But do we ever think about what we have accomplished in more than 55 years of independence? I know many of us do think about it, I have seen some really good thoughts in some blogs.. Our greatest achievements to-date are a huge population explosion, all-round corruption and more quality-of-life degradation. Am I also responsible in some way for this? Yup, sure I am. But I am not sure how to rectify it. No Indian does and that is the problem.
There have been other countries who have got their independence much later and are so much better compared to us. Take South Africa for example. The country has shown a lot of progress. Why? What's the difference? Sometimes I feel, we should have let the British rule us for about 50 more years. We should have waited until they introduced monorails, improved the roads and the communication channels. We should have schemed and taken our independence after achieving a really better India. Sure, we'd have been looted of probably each and every one of our natural resources, but we'd really have a very-clean looking country ;-) Other times I feel, I ought to take a gun and shoot each and every one of these politicians who only think of themselves and their profits than doing something for the country. I am sure many of us would have felt the same. But politics is a disease. You manage to kill one cell and there are two more generated with immediate effect.
So don't the other countries have any problems at all? Thats not true. Corruption is everywhere, politics is as nasty as it can get and India still isn't the highest population-wise (a measure we may correct very soon ;-) ). Then what the heck is my crib about? Just call it a post from a frustrated Indian who wants her country to be the best of all the countries in the world. But do I want my India to be an US? NO, thank you very much :) I am happy with my India as it is. Mass of contradictions, amn't I?
One of my fellow bloggers Gaya also has something to say about independence in her usual style here. As I commented for her post, about 10 points mentioned in her article apply to me. Does that make me a good Indian? Well I don't know. All I know is that I hate it when I get "Happy Independence Day" mails...
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