Happy Independance Day

I am an abstract person. I love abstract people.

I have recently opened another secret blog, far far away in another corner of cyber space and it thrills my senses, this other hidden existance, this wonderful extension of myself, and I cannot wait to see what this chance to freely discover myself, might reveal to me.

It has been over two months since my lost post here, and I see no point in trying to keep it up to date. Even my own head is not up to date with what is happening in it, a blog can have little hope.

College has started again, and I'm satisfied for once, with the way I'm handling it so far. Remains to be seen how long I can maintain it. Hope for the best.

You see the problem I'm having here right now? you don't? well, you see, the problem is that having not written a blog for so long I have lots of various different things I can write about. And I'm trying to think and choose one of them as I type, which is why I'm making such a hash of this whole thing and blabbering. I have to write about Harry Potter, debating, gurgaon police, indians nri's etc, George W. Bush....the list is long and as each of these passes my mind, I'm flooded with things to say (read write). and why ever should I not write about all of them. Just because other blogs I have read till now like to concentrate on one thing per blog? Or because no one will have the patience to read all of it? since when have I been writing for other people anyway!....

But time is short( gosh! i didn't know I was such a pendulum) and I have suddenly decided to write about something totally different, but not all together surprising.... patriotism.

Recently on some web based community we were asked to define patriotism, the definitions were often varied and sumtimes overlapping, but I realised once again that I dont know what it exactly means, but I am deeply patriotic. I went to see Mangal Pandey on 14th of August. As a movie it was quite disappointing but sitting in the hall in the last 5 mins, tears rolling down my cheeks, I realized what a sucker I was for patriotism. All they had to do was finish the movie with some rushes of the independence movement and footage on the unfurling of the flag on the 15th August 1947 and there I was bowled over, something awakened deep inside me, something that was proud and happy to be an Indian, even though when I say that, I little know what I mean by it.
On the way back home, I wondered to myself if I had been born a 100 years back, how would it have been? (apart from the fact that I would have been dead right now). I wondered if I would have had the courage to endanger a cushy life if I had one to fight for an independance that I did not even know would come in my life time. I thought no, ashamed as I was to think it, I thought it. Surely I love my life too much to give it up on any one given random protest march, knowing that no one would remember my name like they did a nehru or a gandhi.....
Then I thought again.
It happened, people in thousands willingly risked their lives, jobs, courted arrest, did everything in their power for their "cause", now 60 years after independence ebing a second generation free india child, I feel I may not have done that. But if so distant from the freedom struggle a flag can bring tears to my eyes and strike a chord in my heart I am sure that if I had lived in those times I would have cared not for the comforts that I hold dear today, for I would have known something much dearer and done for it what so many did before me. And I am happy. I dont know why.

It infuriates me when I hear people say that since independance our country has gone to the dogs,it was much better during the british rule, we have no security, no progress, why do we even celeberate. I think they dont realise that what we celeberate is not our economic progress or standard of living etc etc, what we celeberate on this day is freedom, is a chance to run our country the way we want, to be sovereign, democratic, to not be second grade citizens in our own land. There is something deeply precious about these things and the really sad day would be when we forget what that is.

I love my country. I love my freedom. I love the democratic chaos ( when compared to superficial dictatorial stability)

But then again, a new thought enters my mind. This nationalism we speak of, is it not slowly becoming redundant. Are we not (and should we not) move towards one big country- the world and let nations move into the status currently held by states. More on this in my next blog. Got to rush now.....

Happy independance day