ASSIGNMENT ONE (1)

What does independence mean to me?

I don’t know what to write under this question, which happens to be my assignment. Maybe tha is why I am submitting it so late. But all this while I have been doing this- long and silenced thinking. But it’s today that I realized, many a times, I don’t believe in what I ‘have’ to say, but I believe in what I feel. Maybe that is how I will go about explaining what I am trying to say.

• On Independence Day, there is nothing known as “ Happy Independence Day” (it has much derived from the American culture, but due to the RED-ALERTS that keep making their way into the news on such occasions, a-lot of people do believe in saying it). But, on this day what I genuinely feel is to thank the people in my nation, for giving me what I completely have for my self- a nation, an identity and a passport.

• On Independence Day, it is believed to sing the national anthem at least once and that to under the national flag. But, on this day I feel like wearing a small flag on my shirt pocket and feeling proud to be an Indian. Because I feel not everyone should sing the anthem (it is meant for the choir. The beautiful song unnecessarily gets croaked mercilessly and forcefully). One should just feel proud of the nation and not impose that feeling on one-self if ultimately one is brain –drained.

• On Independence Day, one is supposed to have an ‘off’, it being a national holiday. However, I feel the holiday should not be an ‘off’. All citizens should compulsorily meet up in their nearest and dearest NGO and discuss how India could be made a better place to live in. While the later completely brings out the meaning for Independence to me, the ‘off’ is just a way out for all escapists.

If I were a PM for a day I would…

Call for a meeting with all the employees of the Government of India and make a speech to make everyone realize how proud we all are and should be of such gorgeous a nation. By this, even though I would not be telling each and every member of how they should/shouldn’t do their duties, I would just sensitize them on who they are doing their duties towards. I would thereafter give away a khadi kurta colored in our national flag, as a memento, to all those who attended the meet, from the PM’s fund.