Republic Day Celebration – another Festival in the making

 

Our beloved country recently observed 65^th Republic day recently. What does it really mean to us?

Children at the government school

I asked this question to 4 people today.

The 5^th grader from a private school, the new age citizen hardly having about inkling about India under British subjugation, shrugged his shoulders with a puzzled look questioning if I am sure about my question. The art, writing or speaking competitions are the things that adorn the day. What else to expect?

The 7^th grader from a government public school was ecstatic about the early morning function in the school where the scout kind of dress is allowed to be put on along with the marching band-sweets and snacks being icing on the cake. He was giving me a suggestion if lunch could be also arranged for the children. The day could be spent like a picnic kind of a day.

             Preparation for March Past

To the middle aged gentlemen from the middle class common man family, it makes him realize that another year went by without really anything much but life as usual.
The daily labourer – 4^th one in my list, not necessarily in that order, had a day break; this time 26^th Jan coinciding with Sunday. Otherwise to him, it would have been another working day trying to make both ends meet.

It gives me a sense that apart from re-affirming about our constitutional sovereignty in our own mind and to the whole world by the gala display of the procession on Rajpath of national capital, Delhi - with a foreign dignitary presiding over the function, there is nothing much to it. In most of the places where this day is celebrated, the platform is used to express thanks and gratitude to a lot of folks providing services to us. During the function in our apartment complex, the plan was to hand over gifts to the security guards and the maintenance staff; at Delhi, the same happens through the Padma awards.

                                                         Girl Band at the school

Another Republic day went by - there is no measurement of country progressing on any front against any kind of benchmark. None bothers much about these and there is no accountability either from anyone.

I see the day not far away that this day will be celebrated in similar vein like any other national festivals like Diwali, Durga Puja, Eid or Christmas. In the cultural program in government public school, students enacted a dance sequence from a local hit movie after all the heavy staffs (lectures, national anthem, parade so on and so forth) were over.

What does it mean to me?

As part of my involvement in Rotary, I make it a point to take part in the program of our adopted school and later in the day, get to introspect about the progresses we made in different social areas and issues around. Though we have failed many times in the past, on this day, we take another vow to contribute somewhere someway to improve the situation of lives that need it most in an inclusive societal structure. Am sure there is nothing unique about it and do hope that all my conscious fellow citizens are doing much more to give our country a little more push to progress.