Of late, everybody seems to be a Patriot, at-least when watching a movie in theaters. Supreme Court made sure that we are so by passing on a landmark judgment about what are the 'do's and 'dont's when our National Anthem is played.
Now people expect (rather, demand) even quadriplegics to stand!
Love thy nation, thy nation loves you back...so goes the adage.
Many of us poor souls do not have time to think about our nation except when catching news bytes that highlight the conflict in our borders (see, we are neck deep in the daily grind of trying to lead a sane day in the chaotic world all around us, day in and day out).
For, a bribe taking, rule flouting, unethical, irresponsible tribe like us need to be united somehow by law at least for the duration our Anthem is played out.
Our Anthem extols the virtues of a metaphorical ruler whose praise we all sing and whose blessing we seek for a harmonious, bountiful living. Actually this song ends with a chant 'victory to you the greatest'...
So, for nearly seventy years we are singing this song praising a king and seeking his blessing while conveniently forgetting that we the people are the actual kings that makes this great nation sing!
Is it time to adapt to a new, bolder anthem that depict truly who we are (a tireless nation that WORKS in-spite of all spanners we ourselves throw into its wheels) and what it means to be an Indian (that the divergent colours, all of them, come from the same ray of white light, this intangible, unquantifiable, remarkable spirit that connects all of us from all corners of this great land mass)?
In other words, can we define the INDIAN SPIRIT and come up with a new ode to this?
A truly patriotic government must limit its consumption to what it produces locally, period! Are we really free to do this in this ever connected, ever demanding world around us?
Do we really need foreign exchange to 'move' India forward?
Do we really have the guts to cleanse India of the various malaise that drills holes all over our patriotic fabric?
Are we making our flags only using Hand spun Desi Cotton cultivated locally and woven locally using local machines?
(The rules stipulated by Supreme Court that govern anything and everything about our flag does not mention anywhere that the flags must be produced locally using locally grown Desi cotton. Go read!
http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/flag%20code%20of%20india,%202002_3.pdf)
Are we really making conscious, selfless effort to stick to what the colors Green, White and Saffron truly represent in our flag?
Farmers are dying.
Crops are wilting.
Rivers are disappearing.
Green cover is shrinking alarmingly.
Water tables are depleting rapidly.
Air is becoming unbreathable.
Soil struggles to breathe smothered by the violent kiss of plastic.
(Quality) Education and Medicines have become inaccessible to many.
And so on...
Honestly, we don't even know what we are losing because we are too busy fighting to live our daily lives in the best possible ways we can.
We can get MNC soft drinks in our village shops but the local tender coconuts? - sorry they occupy too much shelf space, they are not uniformly glossy and you know? they perish too soon!
We get Pizzas and Burgers in the Land of Spices where a million local cuisines survived the onslaught of so many years of invasions, suppression and oppressions.
Huge factories exploiting local resources and minting money on us day in and day out...
A healthy nation that was made sick and then treated with exorbitant 'solutions' thus robbing us twice (many times, for that matter).
Unhealthy (physical as well as mental), immoral, unethical, corrupt, greed,...words are inadequate to outline the extent of decadence this great nation has been subjected to, in the name of development, not just in the last 70 years but for the last few hundred years...
What is actually happening in our country is that all our 'localness' are getting overrun by 'foreignness' at breakneck speed and it has already seeped into our patriotism itself (National flags manufactured using BT cotton to say the least). How long we can hold fort?
Can we force patriotism to a kid that loves anything and everything about American and dreams of leaving our soil for good at the drop of the hat given an opportunity?
A great nation this old and vast still has to import food grains for its people. Soon we would import water, air and what not?
A time to grow must be followed by a time to reflect, make course correction and grow again. This is the perpetual balance that is missing in us.
Patriotism must be superseded by an all the more important quality - LOVE. Actually, patriotism is a subset of this!
A revolution can be started with one straw. It maybe our vote, our voice, our choice or, simply, a straw!
Jaihind.
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