“At the stroke of the Midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.”…

These were the first words spoken during “Tryst with Destiny” speech delivered by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India, to the Indian Constituent Assembly in The Parliament, on the eve of India’s Independence, towards midnight on 14 August 1947.

Now we have come a long long way and each individual’s perception about freedom has changed drastically considering various circumstances that we have faced especially in the decade. There is JNU’s  version, then you have the feminism and LGBT being the face of the right and real India and the list is endless. I really dont want to discuss these incidents and state the right and wrong about the way we are approaching these issues and hence I wish to keep it simply broad and straight forward.

You will find 4 kinds of people especially during such days like 15th August or 26th January. The first kind of people are those who worship the motherland, talk great things about the country’s progress in the past as well as present, chant the morals and ideals left by our forefathers, and admire the contributions/struggle of our freedom fighters. The second set of people are those who drive so many initiatives and campaigns to change India for better and are influential enough to take a large chunk of supporters along with them to continuously improve and fix things to start a process that will become a habit for our future generations. The third set of people are the ones who will always be unhappy with the things and will eventually point out defects in anything that they can easily target. They openly criticize the political, social, economical and every other possible scenario of the Nation at any given point even if there is effort being taken to transform to something that’s desirable. The last group of people includes those who don’t really care about nation or issues and are living their own confined lives. These people treat such important days as an opportunity to either doze off or relax and they get really excited if its a mid-week occasion.

We were looked down by other nations as a dependent entity. We failed to create Identity for ourselves for a very long time and no one really gave importance to our existence. When the British left us, everyone thought that we will end up being a country that will be led by goons. We lacked a lot of qualities that would showcase our confidence and attempt to become one of the larger forces that existed then. We were known as a land of snake charmers and rope trick enthusiasts. Slowly and steadily we picked up and just look around and see where we have reached.

Here is a video talking about facts that we Indians should proudly remember to understand the progress and know that we are uniquely marvelous.

We all are in one of above mentioned sets and its important that we try and belong to the first 3 at least. The face off between the 1st and the 3rd is important so that there is high chance of conversion from 1st to 2nd. You need not do great things if you want to be a part of the second kind. There are big influential characters like celebrities/politicians/leaders/specialists who take charge to do substantial amount of work and channelize all their energy and time but you can do simple things as well. For example, one thing I am really happy to see that on certain days when the traffic police is away or is not able to manage, there are noble souls who help out and clear the traffic systematically. Only if you feel within that you must contribute to making this country reach where it was believed it could reach, then get going.

Lastly, I wish you all a very Happy 72nd Independence Day. We should not restrict ourselves to think proudly only about the Indian Army or our Culture but also celebrate other aspects that unite us and make us stronger.