August 15th, 1998, Stanley School, Nampally. Backstage, I wasn’t nervous, but I was very angry that they had put lipstick on me. When the teacher moved on to another guy, I wiped off the lipstick, got on stage, and danced, one hand holding my dhoti and the other hand doing the moves to ‘Mere Desh Ki Dharti’. I realise now that this was a true picture of the independence movement: just a lot of dhotis fighting for dharti.
I don’t know what songs people danced to on Independence Day before 1967, but until I finished school, every August 15th, that song was played without fail. I thought Jana Gana Mana was the national anthem, and ‘Desh Ki Dharti’ was the national dance anthem. After a few more performances, the flag hoisting, and the anthem, they would give you a veg puff, a Perk chocolate, and a Frooti.
This setup created a very good image of our country: a good feeling, a good song, a good day. Plus, you went home early, and you didn’t have to carry bags. Looking back, Independence Day is one of the very, very few things our Indian education system got right.
Then you got to college and it’s all gone, and you realise Independence Day now has no perks. (pun intended) You simply sat at home and watched patriotic movies like The Legend of Bhagat Singh starring Ajay Devgn. That is his best work ever. The movie is so goated that I became a fan, so much so that even today I don’t skip his pan masala ads. As a college student, the day was now just a holiday, but when it wasn’t, it was a pain. If Independence Day came on a Sunday, everyone in the country wore a frown. You couldn’t even blame it on Pakistan or the British. We would still see the tricolours everywhere, but our hearts were grey.
Once I started working, Independence Day was definitely not a holiday. Why would a US company care about Indian Independence Day? They are already in the pursuit of enslaving you, so they keep you away from any memory of freedom. This is where HR, those modern nation-builders, step in. They send an email asking you to dress in tricolours and participate in a rangoli competition, all while you are talking to clients in the US at 12 am. You feel bad, you miss school days, but you get over it by thinking, ‘Even Nehru celebrated freedom at night and did not have an off that day’. So, no complaints.
Conversations have changed over the years. Earlier it was ‘Happy Independence Day, Mama!’ Now it’s, ‘Arey, it’s a dry day ra’. We are grown-ups; patriotism has been taken over by alcoholism. You buy booze in black, turn white money into black, participate in an illegal activity, and then wish your bootlegger ‘Happy Independence Day’. Next time you do this, think of all the freedom fighters watching you from heaven.
Now, a lot of my Independence Day happens on Instagram. People change their DPs to the tricolour and post pictures with flags and patriotic quotes, while tagging their location as Seattle. On the other side, people fight and discredit freedom fighters. Some even argue about the actual date, whether it’s 1947 or 2014, the content you see is totally based on your algorithm.
All in all, no matter what you do or don’t do, you take some time out and just think about our country. Whatever you think, that is your freedom and that is the reason I really love this day.
Sandesh
@msgfromsandesh
(This comedian is here to tell funny stories about Hyderabad)
(The writer’s views are his own)