August 15 , 2007

10 years ago I was in my 7 th standard .

It was the 50^th Independence day. It was a happy occasion. There was celebration of patriotism , freedom, Indian ness. They served payasam and ladoo in school. My school Kendriya vidyalaya. The school to which I am indebted for imbibing in me all the values that I hold close to my heart. We students had the feeling of patriotism to our heart’s core.

My History textbooks gave me the first glimpse to our freedom struggle. My teachers who had this unfaltering love for the nation and those values flowed into us.

The books presented to me a fairy tale which ended with ‘India was independent’. I don’t remember whether the books mentioned the tales of the bloody partition. There were stories of courage, valor which I completely drank in. My perspective I knew later was so limited. (Maybe its only better by a minute degree now..but that’s another topic.)

Later years I began reading more books related to the struggle, it opened me to another India which I had missed between all these ‘feeling good’. Its not that I didn’t know of the challenges the new India faced. But I had never given much thought to the religious clashes that had happened. Thinking of which today I am not able to understand them, I am not able to accept them. I learnt about the Indian birth pangs, the partition, the gory massacre, the tribulations. The more I read the sadder I became. On this day a channel aired 1947 earth. A movie which is set on the day. In Lahore. It showed neighbors killing one another. Massacres, rape and what not, there is a scene which almost took the last straw from me. Some villagers are gathered around to here panditji’s speech on a transistor as the world sleeps India awakens to a….:. One villager remarks na jane yeh neta log kya keh rahe he”…he shakes his head in despair and disappointment. He switches off the radio.

I couldn’t sleep at night. Suddenly I felt as if I could see the whole truth. Not just about the past. We lost much at the cost of freedom. I am not blind to the contributions made by many to the growth of our nation But we could have done better in the past 60 years we could have made the cost of freedom more meaningful. And today what do we see around us corruption, Politics………It is not that there is no hope. I have hope.

Today we have brought our country to a point were we need to begin a new freedom struggle. To fight all the evils that has infected our nation.. a freedom struggle which requires the same courage , vigor and valor its just that the face of the enemy has changed from imperialism to our own mindsets.