E-Paper
Days are ours, celebrate them
OF ALL the comments that we heard on the growing disinterest of Generation Next in our movements and moments of pride as a nation like the Independence Day and Republic Day, I found Lt Col Rajvardhan Singh Rathore?s observation most logical. Retaliating to a suggestion that Republic Day celebrations should be wound up as they entail huge expenditure and lack public participation, Rathore had quipped, ?Don?t we spend money on celebrating our birthdays, our marriage anniversaries? Why can?t we celebrate our country?s Independence?? Rathore echoed the sentiments of the man on the street. They love to hum patriotic songs of the bygone days like ?Aaye mere watan ke logon? with the same patriotic fervour as the contemporary numbers like ?Chitti aaye hai?.
OF ALL the comments that we heard on the growing disinterest of Generation Next in our movements and moments of pride as a nation like the Independence Day and Republic Day, I found Lt Col Rajvardhan Singh Rathore’s observation most logical. Retaliating to a suggestion that Republic Day celebrations should be wound up as they entail huge expenditure and lack public participation, Rathore had quipped, “Don’t we spend money on celebrating our birthdays, our marriage anniversaries? Why can’t we celebrate our country’s Independence?”
Rathore echoed the sentiments of the man on the street. They love to hum patriotic songs of the bygone days like “Aaye mere watan ke logon” with the same patriotic fervour as the contemporary numbers like “Chitti aaye hai’.
And believe me young and old alike get equally emotional hearing these numbers. And the response to films like ‘Shaheed Bhagat Singh’, ‘Border’, ‘Kargil’ is further proof of the fact that age is no factor at all. Agreed the Generation Next may not enjoy Mughal-e-Azam , even in colour, but they did queue up for ‘Border’.
The need of the hour, perhaps, is to rewrite history of the country in a more lucid language.
What is being taught today in schools is indeed boring, whether it is about country’s freedom movement or of the Mughal period. The schools may have to find more innovative ways to involve students in these functions instead of forcing their participation. One can hardly expect school students to first wait for hours and then bear the politicians’ speech on such days!
It won’t be utterly wrong to admit that a class eight student would not have interest in a speech that offers little for the younger generation, who are caught in the rigmarole of competitive exams and fewer jobs.
However, there is certainly one element of the entire debate that we need to focus -- public participation. And for this perhaps there is a need to look for an answer, “Why people don’t budge out of their homes till late afternoon, or lets put it straight till the parade is over? Why do they prefer staying home? Why the two most important days are considered more of a holiday than for celebration?
It is primarily because little has been done to modernise our parade. The same old jhankis, the same old folk dances and the same old politicians! Can the brains behind these gala events decide to change them, both the face and the content? It is just a thought, but can something be done to glamorise it, to make it more attractive? Can personalities be drawn from certain fields like music and films?
Secondly, the problem is also due to heavy traffic restrictions, the security bandobast. No Indian would want the government to relax security, but ways could be found to make the visit of the commoner to India Gate in Delhi and Vidhan Sabha Marg in Lucknow a little more convenient.
Question still remains on how to build a climate for celebrations on these two pious occasions -- paint the city in tri-colour by using the young force, make it compulsory for all Indians to illuminate their homes and hoist the tri-color (when we can decorate, illuminate our homes for Eid, Christmas and Diwali, why not for the Independence Day or Republic Day), play patriotic songs at every nook and corner of the cities ... and so on. As of now only government offices and buildings are illuminated, as if they – the politicians, the bureaucracy -- got the country its freedom.
No it was the people of the country who fought the British and it is the people of the country who should cherish and celebrate the days that are perhaps more important than many of our festivals if we talk about our nation as a whole.
Perhaps these are very simple measures, but can evoke full public participation and in fact create a festive mood for all of us. There may be many among us who may even want to be the first in this endeavour; only someone needs to take the lead. One person can make a lot of difference. Recall the Republic Day/Independence Day celebrations held in Lucknow a year back. One district Magistrate Aradhana Shukla had the entire city drowned in tri-color – there were illuminations all over the town and the music one could hear in every nook and corner. Not that the government had spent more money. She only activated the influential lot of the city. The traders association, the school managements and many others had joined in decking up Lucknow as never before.
The traders’ association had picked up threads from there and celebrated the Republic Day with the same fervour this year too. May be next year would be different?
As an optimist I am sure sometime, somewhere in India people and not politicians would celebrate the two national festivals to be followed by others till the country joined in the celebrations.
