Independence Day!

15th August is approaching, and India is going to celebrate her 65th Independence day. The country, although got freedom from the British rule in 1947, is yet to get freedom from many other things: poverty, illiteracy, insurgency, unemployment, corruption, illegal immigration are few of them. Specially the people of rural India are yet to understand what independence or freedom actually means. Situation is even worse in North East(NE) India, an alien land to rest of India as well as the central government. All the above listed parasites are there in this part of land since the day India got her freedom. The step motherly attitude of the central government as well as the lack of good leaders from this region are possibly the main reasons why NE, a paradise on earth so to say, has always been affected by the above mentioned problems. There are huge number of articles or books related to NE India and its problems which I am not going to repeat here, neither I have studied enough to suggest effective solutions to all these issues. It's just that I feel very nostalgic as this day approaches. Although I have been outside NE India since 2003, yet I come to know from my family and friends there about the celebrations, fears, anxieties in the minds of people there as the Independence day approaches. Things have not changed there, Independence day means a holiday, a holiday of a different kind when people prefer to stay inside home, shop owners never open their shops and car owners never hit the streets. Few government officers come to their respective offices for flag hoisting amidst tight security. Even the Indian railways cancel their trains for around 1 week fearing attacks creating lots of problems for common people who have to travel everyday. I am sure most of the people would even wish if this 15th August day had never come to their lives, they would have probably lived a better life. I wonder how soon these things will change there, I haven't seen any change throughout my life but still hopeful of seeing some changes so that people can come out of their homes to celebrate Independence day without fear but with the pride of being an Indian. Jai Hind!

Another Independence Day, 15th Aug'2010

So here comes another Independence day for us. Sitting inside my room also I can see the "virtual" celebrations through forwarded mails, social networking sites like facebook and all. Someone has put a tri-color in the profile pic or someone has uploaded a video which shows India's economy growth rate, number of Indians in NASA, India as largest democracy, India has x number of supercomputers, India has y number of CEO's in MNC's and so on. I get so much pissed off with such videos. I do not understand what these videos are meant for, and why these videos come at the time of Independence day or Republic day. I do not think people will forget the importance of the day if such unnecessary videos are not made. I am an Indian and I love my country and I do not need any reason to love my country. Even if my country has none of the "plus points" which these videos show, I will continue to love and respect my country. The worst thing about this videos are that they do not show everything. They show less than one percent of India just to win people's hearts and to gain popularity. They don't show the situations of millions of people under poverty line, common people who get killed by extremists, naxalites or security forces in various parts of the country. They don't show the civilian human rights violations in many parts of the so called "largest democracy". They don't show how much pride/shame India has earned hosting the Commonwealth Games which has been severely hit by large scale corruptions delaying all the preparations. There are many more things to be shown to the people about this country. If someone makes video showing India as a whole, he or she should include all such things. But they always put 10 bright things in the video and neglect thousands of dark sides of the country. India will change only when there will be enough awareness among the common people. The media, social networking sites should be used to increase the awareness, not to flatter the public to gain some cheap popularity. Happy Independence day to all, Jai Hind!

Another Independence Day...

Today its the 63 rd Independence day of my country. India became a free nation from the British colonialism on this day in 1947. It's been such a long time till today, but I am yet confused about the meaning of independence. It hardly makes any difference to me. I have grown up in this country with a perception that 15th August is a holiday. Not just an ordinary holiday, but a special one when it's not only that people don't go to office and schools but all the shops, markets as well as vehicles on roads come to standstill. That may sound too weired to my fellow Indians, but that's what the scene I have witnessed in North-East India. Most of the extremist groups there who are fighting ( or spreading terrorism ?) for the so called sovereignty call for boycotting events like Independence day, Republic day etc. They don't even bother to blow a group of kids celebrating Independence day in their school. I still remember I used to play cricket with my friends on the national highway. You can just imagine how deserted the public life there is on this day. It's been more than 6-7 years of my stay outside Assam as well as North-East, I don't know what people's perspectives are nowadays about Independence day. May be people nowadays dare to come out of their homes to celebrate I-day. But for me the reminiscence of I-day during my childhood days still make this very special day for Indians just a holiday. Anyway I wish the people of our beloved country India, the largest democracy in the world a very happy Independence Day. Jai Hind.