Spread it around

Instead of one parade, January 26 should be a day of a billion festivities all over the country.

Republic Day commentators, take a bow. It is an art to be able to make the somnolent procession floating down Raisina Hill sound like the Mardi Gras. As you read this, you are probably watching the microcosm of the republic as encapsulated in a series of floats, each more aesthetically challenged than the other. So, there will be the village belles from Rajasthan, a Kerala tourism brochure gone mad, the intellectually inclined Bengal offering, the gay abandon of Punjab and the tribal glories of the northeast, to mention a few. Has all imagination fled that we need to see this celebration of India through the prism of the films division?

HT Image

If we can force ourselves to get away from concentrating all our patriotism on the promenade stretching from the viceregal ramparts to the emotive environs of India Gate, we should be able to celebrate our republic anywhere. So, why shouldn’t this day be one of a billion festivities all over the country? We should allow people to get a real taste of our smorgasbord of cuisines, our resplendent textile heritage, our energetic regional film industry, our unmatched arts and crafts, we could go on. These could be in different places and you could pick and chose which you want to sample. There is a certain je ne sais quoi to seeing the jets screaming overhead and the mighty tanks rumbling down which arouses the machismo among many of us. And we can live with that.