INDEPENDENCE DAY- A formality or Real PATRIOTISM

Happy INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

       So tomorrow Whole country will be celebrating 63rd independence Day with great enthusiasm and joy. people will lounge over their roofs flying colourful kites and enjoying this day but  this leave me with a intriguing question  that no 1 is willing to answer -  What does independence mean to you? And when I say intriguing, I mean the same Damn question every news and entertainment channel asks its viewers in a poll on 15^th August,   I decided to give the question some thought. What WOULD independence be for me? Would it be being able to spend a day without taking a dig at Rakhi Sawant or Suresh Calamity?   A day without being told to buy the Slim Sauna belt, Get admission in various downgrade engginering college and make friendship with Shilpa, Pooja or Dimpy?  Be on Twitter without having to figure out my ever increasing no of tweets and taunting my friends about it?
So what I have for you instead, is not my list – but stuff India needs independence from every year on 15^thAugust. 


 MEDIA FRENZY :
“Global dominance in software exports”,  “Wax statues of SRK at Madame Tussauds” , “Bollywood” , “Brain drain/gain” , “21^st century superpower” , “World’s largest democracy” , “Billionaire’s in Forbes List” , “Seat at UN Security Council”…  that’s ALL I’ve been hearing about. It’s like every bloody newspaper and TV channel has an intern pouring over  with the latest CII statistics to display how India is “poised” to take over this MAD world by 2020, become the world’s second largest economy.

At the other end of this annual report of a news story lies the shock and awe. This is also a country where  we kill our girls before they’ve a chance to be born, Where 60% people Struggle for two time meal and their Grains rott! where  land reform sucks,  Where women have no rights, Where  our people face worse poverty than Congo, how access to Basic needs is a distant dream for half of our population..List is loong!  After watching Peepli [LIVE] yesterday got a rude jolt about the pathetic condition of our farmers which are our feeders and every hour 8 feeders commit Suicide and millions have left farming since 2001. In this way India is Shining ?. But like the great Indian philosophy – it’s just more of the same. 

I don’t see how any of these media organizations are different from Bollywood flicks. Same old story, buzzwords and  self-referencing stories tinged with a “fresh new look” which in this case would be a photo-layout . In short, I appreciate the sentimentality you’re trying to add new things in the same crappy annual report of a story, but it’s as effective trying to Clean down a blocked toilet with a toothbrush!!..

Disgusting measures to make us "kewl":

Our young People are massively  energetic and entilted .

Thus, I find it ridiculous that we have to turn to Gimmicks for awakening of our patriotism. MTV India is one such channel – and this year they launched the “Asli Indian” campaign which includes, amongst other things, the national anthem being remixed. Really? This is what shit has come to that you’re giving the national bloody anthem a “new sense”?  That is what I think of your new god damn sense – where I click on a Like button on Facebook to express my outrage over a particular social issue or i have to tweet about it and then expect my friends saying me a bore! I know MTV and every other channel has already thought up an excellent tri-coloured logo and sent people out to interview youngsters on what “independence” means to them. I’m expecting answers such as “being rich”, “driving a fast car”, “not having to answer to your parents” among some of the answers. And yes, I’m 18. But I’m not stupid. Not stupid enough to know what independence means 2 this Country! So please – atleast this Independence Day, Be real independent..

Changing of DPs and show off

I’m sorry – but I don’t give a Calamity about putting a stupid flag on my Twitter DP,  Getting tagged by Friends and then getting a notification overload about people expressing their Love for India Like they give a damn to it in rest of year, whether 1 million Indians get on a Facebook page before 15^thAugust or create a hashtag where I express my love for my country to get brownie points in front of everyone who is watching. For me it is utter Show off. The thing is, me and my generation haven’t had to make ANY sacrifices to get the kind of freedom we have. We can’t claim to understand the depths of what it means at all. . Most of it, like this piece, is pure opinion – and though I’m all for emotion, I think we almost cheapen the day with some of our  social media displays of Independence celebration and completing our formality. Some fucks still have flags of European teams from the football World Cup. So seriously – don’t get excited about your pages and DP s  because that shit is stupid. .

INDEPENDENCE DAY FLICKS

 The 15^th August movie list will also remain the same as it does every year and include Gadar, Border, Bhagat Singh, Rang De Basanti, Lakshya, Mother India, some more shit by Sunny Deol, Indian, I – Proud to be Indian and the dubbed version of Will Smith’s Independence Day. News Channels will be showing A.R. Rahman’s soulful rendition of Vande Mataram and some Incredible India commercials whole day. Needless to say I will not be watching any TV. Instead, I will spend the day venting my ire on Twitter and Facebook about CWG, kalamdi etc.. Enjoying Delicacies and Silently remembering the heroes of Independence and  finally dig up a hand pump while shouting “Suresh Kalmadi Zindabad Tha, Zindabad Hai aur Zindabad rahega!”

I can go on and on  but then this will never end. So to conclude, I also think 15^th August is one of the few days politicians might feel guilty about slacking off in Parliament.  So maybe let’s just all enjoy Holiday and get independent of things mentioned above! Everyone  knows we have way too many holidays because of random gods who no one gives a damn about anyway. So in shame enjoy another holiday  and in a country where the sky is a fan and we the shit, it really shouldn’t be a dry day. People should be allowed to do some spontaneous drinking and drown in their Own World,

Till then

Cheers :)

JATIN PANCHHI aka JATIN JP