What do I call myself ? A tired Indian who is in her 40’s fighting to tell that her country is great . She is still fighting strong. Why do I want to write about a gheesa - peeeta topic ? Why do I constantly harp about something that is a dream? I talked about it yesterday but it doesn’t seem to make a difference. The only thing the next generation is sad is that it falls on a Sunday .
My country is 75 years old , so many sons and daughters lost their lives liberating it from the Britishers , fighting the World Wars , to be killed in unknown lands , buried in unmarked graves , and then the gradual slow building of a country that at one point did not even have enough food .
Revolution , after revolution and fighting wars against China , Pakistan and the new turmoils , we started out great . No one bothered that a Punjabi was fighting alongside a Chatterjee or a Bishnoi. We take pride in our identity but we are a part of the nation .
Someone said there is no unity in diversity , that we have not been given our due , why don’t we all walk off into the Indian Ocean and go find our own place? Imagine all of us as small countries , we would all get annexed ! A country that struggles with independence to its women , basic rights but can you imagine where we started from?
Do you want to go a country where one religion is divided and kills the other minority? Or do you want a Talibanised state where women are packed off as sex slaves? Where men are killed if they shave , or the maximum number of boys are maimed ...
I don’t want to bring any comparison , but sometimes brutal facts need to be told. Why do we do arm chair intellectualism? Why do you always want to look at the bad side? If you have so many answers and can bring about your change , what are you waiting for?
We voted for our leaders, they are human after all , why do we put them on a pedestal and start worshiping them as Gods? Even the Gods we submerse in the water annually so why not change the thought process?
Imagine if Bhagat Singh or Sukhdev had said we will not fight for a Madrasi because he is not a punjabi ? Or when we were fighting in Kargil , they chose to not fight as India but as states?
Why has the pride gone ? Why is the next generation so jaded? Why cant you move your patriotism to real life rather than sharing it in Instagram, just when India wins ? How many of you would leave india and move to another country ? You think you’d have it easy there . Yes , sometimes the journey is hard , it all looks bleak but there is always light at the end of the tunnel . I am a patriot , yes it seem stupid , you will constantly mock me and my ideals but all the stories of bravery and the fact that our Gurus told us to do seva and to help all without discrimination , imagine if the Hemkund Foundation or Khalsa Aid didn’t help all?
We are better than this , yes we are Punjabi or Rajasthani or Muslim but we are Indians foremost .would you not call Tagore yours ? The pride in the flag is what we need , claim that .
Happy Independence Day !
