True Independence

Yeah, everybody is talking about it. Whenever I switch to the news it has essentially been the same catchphrase - "enough is enough!" (One realises that in three days, the news persons have not had anything else important enough to mention. So it dawns upon one that their normal reporting is so pointless!) Enough is enough? I'll tell you what there is enough of in this country - Hypocrisy!

Everything that we commemorate in the name of national pride, and hold high (except the national flag, song and emblem) are but shams. Why even the national anthem makes little sense to me. 'Thou art the ruler of the minds of the people.... ". It is often reported that the anthem was sung to mark the arrival of king George V, which it definitely wasn't (in the words of the great poet himself). However, it is not Jana Gana Mana that echoed in the hearts of people when they fought to free the country from enslavement. It was our dear national song that was adopted by the great martyrs to honour mother India. Vande Mataram should become our national anthem.

In addition, celebration of Independence in this country is hardly justified. When our great forefathers envisioned independent India, it was not one of mere self governance. They were against the British rule because it did not tender the interests of the Indian populace at large. How then have the politicians of today done justice to that pure vision? They have abused and ravaged the nation to the worst possible depths, making her diseased to the bone with the pestilence of dishonesty.What we have done is replaced corrupt British officials with locals who are even worse. Our Independence is the highest form of glorified and latent racism that I have heard of.

And coming back to the bomb blasts, the Pakistani government, having nurtured terrorism to such an extent, is as helpless about routing its proliferation as the mumbaikars are of the underworld in their city. The mafia has done enough and more damage to the city of Mumbai to have cried and protested like this a thousand times over. The people seem mute to these unscrupulous criminals in our own soil. Why? Because here, like the politicians of Pakistan, they are as much a part of the system. Now there is hardly a difference between a terrorist and the underworld - both of them exploit the poor to loot our nation. And at the helm, the underworld and the terrorists are closely knit, which becomes very evident when you think of Dawood's connections.

And finally, the root cause for all this remains to be the common man, who is ranting and wailing with card boards screaming, topped off with lipstick and make-up! In a state where the citizens are honest themselves, there can be nothing that can shake their status. I am reminded of times like the Salt Satyagraha, where the British were absolutely helpless in the face of righteous struggle. The non-cooperation movement went to such an extent as to reform the British, who saw that there can't be anything achieved out of fighting a force so righteous. So think twice before you bribe the next cop on the road. Stand up for your rights at the RTO and get your licence without subscribing to bribe. Realise that the root of all evil is deep within the common man; within those people who are protesting its very existence on national television so that people who have nothing better to broadcast can make a pretty penny out of the glorious display.

True Independence shall that day be achieved, as described by the great poet himself in Gitanjali, -

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

I continuously look forward to that dawn which shall see this vision being realised.

Vande Mataram.