Ok. First things first. This is not a story. There are no Varun Shyamaks and no other morons out here. I have been too crunched to think for the past couple of month, so I can’t form a story to share my opinions that I have got used to doing. And even though today I am not in a position to sound sarcastic when I want to sound bitter, I wanted to write this. I wanted to write this even though my life is too burdened at this time with the ‘more important’ stuff, the stuffs that you require to do even though you despise them. For today is our independence day, the one of the few days that reminds us that we are Indians and that we are free.
So I woke up today and as a usual routine logged into Facebook and saw a lot of people have waved flags on the facebook, some of them had posted poems and some due to maybe a lack of time to google such poems or anecdotes had just posted a “Jai Hind”. I just pondered over it, as to what I should do to show that even I care about the Independence day. Unable to find a way I decided to not do it, as I logged into office network to do some pending work even though it was a Sunday and there is no way an Indian employee will be paid more for putting in an extra day or even an extra hour. But there was no relief as people kept pinging me on gtalk wishing me happy Independence Day and then suddenly I started getting a hollow feeling. I started feeling that I am not a ‘true’ Indian for I have neither updated my status, nor have I joined a page asking facebook to delete the page “Fuck India” created by “true” Pakistanis, nor did I joined a page promoting a social cause, and till then I haven’t even ‘waved the flag’. I waited for the feeling to go away, but it didn’t. So I decided to walk out and go to a restaurant alone, even though it felt awkward. When I walked out I saw a biker standing and having a tricolor flag made of paper installed just above is headlight. I wanted to point him that this is a disrespect of the tricolor and if you want to have a flag on your vehicle, it must be hoisted on a stick 1 at least one foot above your headlight as the rule says, but then I did not. As I moved further I saw a car which had a tricolor spread like a mattress on its bonnet. I thought it was ridiculous but again I didn’t say a word. Then there came a procession of pampered ‘dudes’ who till yesterday could easily be seen around wearing a English football club jersey and shouting ManU, Chelsea, Rooney and Barca shit, who were driving a car probably gifted by their parents, and shouting ‘Bharat mata ki jai’ and waving the tricolors some of them even holding it upside down. I wanted to ask them do you even understand what three colors symbolize, but again I didn’t.
When I reached the restaurant, the ever polite waitress told me that they have a special Independence day buffet, and looked at me slightly incredulously when I told her that I wanted a table for ‘one’. However, before starting I just wanted to see what was special about that buffet. So I browsed over once, and just when I reached the desserts section I saw a large cake which was formed like the tricolor and also had the chakra in between and some parts of it had already been eaten and then I saw that even the pastries had three colors same as our tricolor. I wanted to shout, I wanted to tell the owners of that Chinese restaurant to fuck off from my country if they cannot respect our symbols. But then I simply walked off the restaurant (after considering taking a pic and posting it on facebook so that there is a discussion) and went straight home and didn’t leave till now, planning and plotting how I too can show that I am a true Indian. Just then it dawned upon me that I have just done that what most true Indians do. We just see things and talk about them and do nothing about them. I could have got the biker or the car owner to correct things. I could have pointed the disrespect shown by the Chinese restaurant, but I didn’t. So now the feeling has slightly evaporated. Tomorrow, I will again go to office and work for the Americans and I might totally forget about it until maybe republic day, so I decided to post this today.
I have still not ‘waved the flag’ on facebook, but as long as we have the great Indians who wave the flag on facebook, join patriotic pages and invite people, tweet what great leaders have already said and people who write blogs about it (Chetan Bhagat has solved all problems of India in one two thousand word long blog post!!!!!) we don’t need to worry for things will correct itself when it wants to.
10 comments:
Well nice words can't hide the malice within you, its simply your way of drawing attention. You blame people of being hypocrites, but what about you Mr. Abhishek, what have you done till now about it. Playing around with exemplary words is fine and though this post makes an excellent reading it is just your insecurity with people who are more popular than you and is another method of attracting attention. At least others showed some respect for the Independence day by wishing you only said, but what did you do apart from writing this exemplary piece of work. Losers like you make me sick. I am sure you will delete this.
"as I logged into office network to do some pending work even though it was a Sunday and there is no way an Indian employee will be paid more for putting in an extra day or even an extra hour."
So true btw well written!
@Sonal thanks :)
@Annonymous: I have an idea who you are and which family you belong to. So you tell that I am a loser, but the simple fact that you post as anonymous shows who the bigger loser is as you don't even have the courage to voice your opinions with your name. Regd. your comment, if in anyway you feel offended by my post, I don't care. I never claimed that I ave done something so probably you need a pair of reading glasses along with some training in English. So you think that somehow I am insecure of you because you are more popular, then I pity you, for you have also lost your sense of reasoning. And I don't need to delete it because I simply don't care. Enjoy your fantasies.
Off course, I cannot fight you with words, you are good, infact too good at that. But then any sensible person can see through your cheap attention seeking methods.
Blaming anyone or everyone and simply criticizing others just gives you a feeling of being important.The fact that you criticize even the best contemporary writers of India clearly shows this
It is lamentable if I cant care abt my country without posting stuff at facebook etc..
but to each his own, I guess.
an interesting piece of work indeed!
leaves us with many things to think about...
cheers!
Very true indeed.I can't agree more to everything pointed out here.A lot has changed in the way people think, and remember the way our independence was actually achieved.Our nation is flooded with people like Anonymous who indeed get content by liking status messages on facebook and thinking they have conveyed their share of respect for the country by wishing independence day on SMS.
Anonymous argues that wishing independence day is enough an effort on his part, but then this is the fact that tells me why achieving independence in real sense is so goddamn hard.
I do not intend to educate anybody, because there is no point trying to make people understand when they have decided not to.Also, I do not say that I am an exception to all of this but I do feel the way we have started taking our independence for granted needs a thought.
well a goood article.Thou have stated true facts.We do that everytime.We see but we dont take action.We simply dont want to get in trouble so we dont react.Also we think that wat difference one single person can make.The problem is that everybody thinks same and nobody reacts.But the hope should not die.We should always hope for better future in country.
@Diwakar: It was not about the facebook or anything, my point simply was the way we generally do, we simply like to show that we care but when it is the oppurtinity to speak out, we withdraw with tails between our legs. And I too am one of them.
@Sirjee: Nice words and thanks for pointing things out to anonymous who feels he/she/it is the only sensible creature on the earth.
@Anonymous:
>>But then any sensible person can see through
Let the sensible persons decide that
>>Blaming anyone or everyone and simply criticizing others just gives you a feeling of being important
It applies to you too then
>>The fact that you criticize even the best contemporary writers of India clearly shows this
Whom are you referring to as the best contemporary writer? Please clarify.
Last but not the least. Blog is my opinion. If you don't like it, you are not forced to read it. Criticsm is welcome but not when it comes from ppl who can't even identify themselves.
Awesome dude ...When you saw that there was no one writing against my view you have yourself posted as Shashank. Excellent!!!!
And if you don't know who is the best contemprory writer of India is you should not be blogging
Hahaha..Have seen many losers but I must admit you are the biggest of them all Mr. Anonymous! If you have the balls to voice your thoughts, make yourself known, else have pity on yourself just like every single person who goes through this blog has.
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