First I came to know about this I-Day only yesterday. I read somewhere "The PM's address to the nation". Although its the same old flour ground by "old" men time and again, thanks to the media. Every year I gather that August 15 is approaching only from them. They have a dedication to national service. They always publish this speech, come what may.
Every "proud" Indian wishes a "Happy I-Day" on FB, Orkut and wherever there is social networking. Isn't it rather an irony that Happy and I-Day are next to each other in the same sentence? Even more irony follows: those who wish on FB/Orkut are non-resident Indians. Of course they are happy abroad enjoying the western life-style and start cribbing about India as soon as they land here on vacation or for permanent settlement after being sent back by their adopted countries. This "Happy I-Day" from NRIs seems a little sarcastic to me. I am reminded of Cartman's "Screw you guys; I am going home" in Southpark.
Feeling independence is rather tricky especially when we don't actually know what independence means. But we can always list what happiness means to us in a typical Indian way.
Things make us happy only when:
- people from outside our state do not settle down in our state
- we steal jobs in other countries while we support the above point rigorously at home
- politicians loot as much as they can and on retirement pass on their power to their children
- there is a tax reimbursement for everything we buy including condoms and sanitary napkins (after all we spend a lot on the former only to help government tackle growing population)
- the elected members discuss important issues through their footwear
- media confuse us to the most possible extreme that we do not even understand who they target
- vote for color TV-sets
- we talk for hours about Indian democracy abroad and take pride in it without fail when we have not even voted once in general elections
I would like to extend my wishes on this day: Screw you guys, Happy I-Day!
1 comment:
I too get a very strange feeling on these patriotic holidays like I-day and R-day.
Integration and democracy has to arrive in completeness before we can stop yearning for improvement.
But, I can see cause for hope. When we look towards places where freedom is taken away from people, only then can we appreciate what we have. I agree that corruption is rampant and we distrust our own compatriots from other regions, but this does not take away that we still have a better functioning democracy than most countries that achieved independence between 1947 and 1960. So, there is a lot to do, but there is cause for hope. We need to channel this annoyance into some sort of positive action on chance.
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