Thoughts unleashed: A tribute to Independence Day

As I retired on the eve of 65th Independence Day, I wrote a small prayer –

“Give me freedom Lord

From this insane world

Today, I celebrate India’s independence

But am still bound

By the chains of desire that this material world bestows

Give me freedom Lord

When I still realize its true meaning

For later it may be too late

As I succumb to inebriations

And start appreciating the imprisoned freedom around me.”

I was not very happy with this prayer because it sounded like a loud cry of distress. And I hate being distressed 🙂

But when I woke up today and flipped through the newspapers, I felt jubilant.

The Times of India had given the readers an exclusive peep into their August 15, 1947 coverage of  Independence Day.

The headline read – Birth of India’s freedom and went on to speak about how Bombay was in a frenzied festive mood, how the entire Delhi kept awake to witness the historic event of ushering in the freedom of India at the hour of midnight.

Somehow, one gets transported to that era – people were actually celebrating independence despite the grim facts that India’s economy was not worth talking about, 90% of the population was illiterate, there was fear of corruption and anarchy everywhere. In a column, Dr S. Radhakrishnan had made an appeal that every Indian at this hour should pledge himself to purge the society of corruption and intolerance. Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru’s message contained snippets of the huge responsibility that lay on infant India’s shoulders to survive and gain a foothold as an independent nation.

What is the difference between now and then? Today too, we are equally worried about various issues that India is mired with – be it rising inflation, bloating corruption, or unexplainable terrorism.  The worries now and then seem to be on similar lines, except for its varying degrees.

But today I feel, as human nature goes, we have grown so used to the idea of freedom that it no longer appeals to us. We are constantly striving for something better, in the process giving negative sentiments a larger than life image. Can’t we for once look at just the “freedom” like they did years ago and be jubilant about it? Can’t we look at only the positives for once?

With this thought, as I flipped Mint, I came across an article by Anil Padmanabhan, where he writes about five reasons to be positive about India. Here is a gist of what he has to say about the India today:

a) India has still maintained its democratic framework

b) Sixty percent of India’s population is below 35 years. This means our future representatives of modern India, who come with no colonial baggage unlike our previous generation, is more equipped to exploit the opportunities of rapid economic growth.

c) India is undergoing an amazing social change. Today, employment pattern has become a lot more representative of the entire country. Our colleagues at work places today are not from just urban areas, but come from all parts of India and even foreign countries. This is going to bring in lot of creativity and bonding among people, among nations in the future.

d) Every passing crisis – be it terror strikes or corruption – are making Indians incredibly resilient.   They bounce back to normalcy every time a crisis takes place. Here, Anil is focusing on the resilience bit and not justifying anyone’s role – be it the government’s or people responsible for the crises.

e) Corruption may be rife but Anil claims it involves a minority group, while the majority is those who go about life and work in a quiet diligent manner. This majority will eventually prevail.

Now, these are some reasons to be positive. If Anil can point out five reasons, I am sure each one of us can come up with five reasons to feel positive about India, to feel proud to be an Indian.

With this, I change my prayer,

“Give me freedom Lord

From my insane despairing thoughts

Give me wisdom Lord

To choose positives over negatives

Give me  power Lord

To appreciate what I have today

And not long for illusions trapped in the future

Give me strength Lord

To be happy and gay

And to be proud of everything that is there

Amen.