Another Tryst with Destiny

येह सदियों से बे-खौफ सहमी सी गलियाँ

ये मसली हुई अध्-खुली ज़द कलियाँ
ये बिकती हुई खोखली रंग-रालियाँ
जिन्हे नाज़ है हिंद पर वोह कहाँ हैं?

On 15th August 2007, India celebrated her 60th Independence Day, and every blogger worth his salt, wrote a blog on “what have we achieved, do we deserve our independence, India’s degradation in the last 60 years” and so on. Since there’s no use of flogging the dead horse, let me switch tracks to the other trend currently on – that of every Tom, Dick and Ravi jumping into the celebration bandwagon. Our team in the office was no exception – though some people felt we were perhaps a trifle late in catching the bus.

An enterprising soul by the name of Ramkumaar Shanker dreamed up the idea of ‘celebrating’ Independence Day. For starters, I didn’t know what one meant by that. For me, Independence Day was a painful memory from past – getting up early in the day, and being pushed off to school to attend the compulsory flag hoisting ceremony. During college, the day used to be sandwiched between the papers of the semester examinations. It was only off-late that independence days have been a pleasant experience every year, with a couple of us, 'good-for-nothing-so-called-brainies' heading off to Chennai for the Landmark Quiz (with success too – as I’ve already boasted an umpteen times on my blog). It was a disappointment to miss the opportunity this year, hence perhaps when a chance came begging to participate in the Independence Day celebrations, I decided to jump in. As they say, beggars can’t be choosers.

On Monday afternoon, we received an “Independence Day” e-mail that instructed, among other things, that we need to change our wallpapers, put up flags, dress up in ethnic clothes and whatever else। Changing the wallpaper was the easiest thing. The others, I was sure, would require some amount of coaxing. In spite of calls for volunteers for decorating the workplace, the team cubicles looked positively bland on Tuesday. A couple of us decided to take matters into our hands. Discussions started on where to buy flags from – whether to try the ITPL mall or Cosmos Mall. The objective seemed to be suspiciously on personal shopping rather than “Independence Day” shopping. Finally I, Venkat and Pragati hit the road in search of the flags. Within a few minutes, we had laid our hands on a huge cloth flag and a few plastic ones. The big one was hung up from the ceiling for everyone to look and admire, and the small ones were put up on all the cubicles. By afternoon a similar flag had come up in another team somewhere on the opposite. Those who couldn’t bother to do the same chose to shout “sour grapes” with their holier-than-thou attitude that hanging the flag from the ceiling was against the protocol (according to some newspaper they kept pointing to). It may not be according to the protocol, but is it a sin to be patriotic?

The biggest challenge of course, was to come on Thursday and Friday – that of cajoling people to come dressed up in ethnic wear। A “reminder” mail was duly sent। Somehow, the poor dhoti seemed to have failed to find favor with Ramkumaar Shanker and was soon discarded for the kurta. Venkat declared that he wanted to purchase a kurta that evening, and we immediately knew that the next he would not be appearing in a kurta. Come the d-day and I was decked up in a gaudy kurta. Ramkumaar Shanker had adorned himself in what (only) he called an ethnic kurta sparking off a team-wide argument about it’s ethnicity. All the ladies had also come decked up in saree and so-called ethnic salwar-kameez (Pragati too).

Umpteen photos were taken – both inside and outside the office (including one of Ram Shanker and Gulam sitting and holding hands like a happily married couple). There were more discussions and counter-discussions on where we should head for lunch. Finally one group headed for Pizza Hut, where as the other headed to US Pizza. How truly Indian! And thus ended the festivities, as we returned with bloated stomachs for what could be perhaps a good afternoon sleep.

So much for ethnicity, but what about the ‘celebration’? One might question why we did not sing the national anthem. Perhaps because someone might claim we broke some protocol if somebody misses a note while singing. But as we like to say, patriotism is all in the heart, and we like to celebrate it in our own way. And what about my Independence Day? I chose to spend it by myself, going on a drive till the Karnataka Border. It can’t get more independent than this.