Independence Day

We are proud to be Indians ! But Is India proud to be our motherland?

12th August 2009
Time:11:00 p.m

Independence day is coming near, All the school going children will be participating in the Patriotic songs competitions, We also used to enjoy practicing. And today after so many years I feel like doing the same, But can't as there aren't any competition for office going people like us. As I am thinking on this lines I hear my cousin singing, He is doing his rehearsal for the same, I can here him singing:

तू ना रोना, के तू है भगत सिंह की माँमर के भी लाल तेरा मरेगा नहींडोली चढ़के तो लाते है दुल्हन सभीहँसके हर कोई फाँसी चढ़ेगा नहींजलते भी गये कहते भी गयेआज़ादी के परवानेजीना तो उसीका जीना हैजो मरना देश पर जानेजब शहीदों की डोली उठे धूम सेदेशवालों तुम आँसू बहाना नहींपर मनाओ जब आज़ाद भारत का दिनउस घड़ी तुम हमें भूल जाना नहींऐ वतन ऐ वतन हमको तेरी क़समतेरी राहों मैं जां तक लुटा जायेंगेफूल क्या चीज़ है तेरे कदमों पे हमभेंट अपने सरों की चढ़ा जायेंगेऐ वतन ऐ वतनकोई पंजाब से, कोई महाराष्ट्र सेकोई यू पी से है, कोई बंगाल सेतेरी पूजा की थाली में लाये हैं हमफूल हर रंग के, आज हर डाल सेनाम कुछ भी सही पर लगन एक हैजोत से जोत दिल की जगा जायेंगेऐ वतन ऐ वतन …

By the time the third verse is complete, I feel the tears stinging my eyes. All of the sudden, my throat has dried up. Fresh tears have started building up,Somehow the pictures of yesteryear's have started rolling up in front of me, I can feel the pride and the pain both building up within me,By the time the song ends there is a turmoil of emotions going on in my mind. It's crossed bed time now and I am feeling too sleepy and tired but even at this hour I want to figure out why together with pride and pain, there is anger building up in me,For God's sake from where does anger come in the picture. But right now I am not in the state of answering this question as I am really feeling sleepy, I can't do anything else other then going to sleep. I can feel the sleep reaching out to me and capturing me...So I put off the lights and go to sleep...Good night..Sweet Dreams.
The next thing that I see is utter darkness, All of a sudden I am placed in some unknown place, this place is dark and smoky but it is not at all scary, On the contrary I feel as if I am placed in the safest part of the universe , as if I am at a total peace with this world. I can see some light coming from a small opening, I go towards the opening, there is a closed door over here, I try to open it and it opens up It looks as if right now I haven't just opened a wooden door but I have opened a door to reality, As I enter the room I can see a silhouette of a lady, I cant recognize her, She is coming towards me, And with every step that she takes the place lights up and what I see is amazing this is not a room , It is an island on all three sides that I can view at this moment, it is surrounded by a huge ocean, Is it a ocean or a sea ?,The sound of the waves is sort of relaxing me,The beaches over here are so very beautiful, And look over there, there is a river coming and pouring its water into the sea, and over there too, This rivers are increasing my curiosity about the place, I do a turn about just to see the passage of this rivers and what I see is mind blowing, I can see a huge mountain range covered with ice, ooh this is so beautiful, I keep on looking in all four directions again and again, the scenic beauty is breathtaking, This place is not a island but is a peninsula , And look over there towards the North west I can see a desert, A huge desert ,And the best part is that somehow this desert adds to the beauty of this place .All in all I must say that this place is a paradise, It has got everything in it,the mighty mountains,rivers,lakes deserts,beaches, Sea and oceans , You name a terrain and it is present over here, And not to forget the trees, flowers and fruits covering this landscape, This is truly awesome, awesome indeed. As I start admiring my surroundings I feel as if there could never be any other place as beautiful as this one. There won't be any other smell as lovely as the one engulfing me right now, And now I look at the lady standing in front of me, And at this moment I am sure that there won't be any other lady as beautiful as her. The next thing that I find myself doing is I touch her feet and ask her for blessings
I have no idea at all of what made me touch her feet but the fact remains that as she places her hand on my head, I feel as if I have got everything that I was yearning for. I stand up and I say “Bharat Mata, Today I am privileged to be here and take your blessings” . As the words leave my mouth I am stunned to know that the person in front of me is Mother India...But the question remains how did I come to know? She smiles at me..Such a lovely smile, Looks like all the motherly feelings that are present in the world comes from this mother itself. But then why does her smile doesn't reach her eyes ? Why is that I see the pain in her eyes. Why?. I want to erase that pain from her eyes, I can feel my heart breaking into millions of pieces when I look into those tortured eyes. I want to know the reason behind that pain.
As I am absorbed in my thoughts, I happen to look at her again and I can see that she wants to ask me something,
“My child I want to ask you something , may I ?”
“What is it Mother?” I can't say anything other then this as I feel that my voice will crack if I try to speak more then this 'and why is it'? It is because today My mother called me her child, When she said those words I felt my heart pumping faster then usual,I feel the pride building up in me, It feel as if I was always waiting for this words.
“Are You proud to be an Indian ?”
“Yes Mother, I am proud to be an Indian.” There was no doubt what so ever about it. India was my pride , Is my pride and always will be my pride.
“Why are you Proud to be an Indian?”
Now this question surprises me, As I have never asked myself this question before, This particular feeling of being proud to be an Indian came naturally to me, just like breathing, Just like how I am proud of my parents. But I will still answer the questions, Because if reasons are that necessary then I have many many reasons to support my feelings about India.
“Yes at any time I am proud to be an Indian, Proud to be born in the country which gave world some of the best warriors like Maharana Pratap, Prithvi Raj Chauhan, Rani Laxmi Bai, Tipu Sultan and many more ,Proud to be born in a country which is the motherland of great souls like Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekar Azad, Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashpakullha Khan, Subhash Chandra Bose and many many more who were so great and their patriotic feelings so deep that they sacrificed their lives for their motherland. I am proud to be an Indian because of its defense forces- Who are ever ready to sacrifice their lives in order to safe guard our nation. Proud to be an Indian because India is a holy land where time and again Gods have taken Incarnations in order to destroy evil and preach faith and morals of good livings. I am proud to be an Indian because it is in India that people of different religions stay together in peace and harmony. But the most important reason is that I am proud to be an Indian because You have always cared for us and nourished us, You have always protected us to the best of your abilities from all natural disasters, You have always taken care of us by providing us the required amount of raw material required for food, clothing and shelter, You have always gifted the farmers the proper fruits for their hardship and you are the one who have kept us united.. And there are many many more reasons for me to say that I am proud to be an Indian.”
I can visibly see her relaxing now, The smile that she gives me this time brightens her face all together, She is looking so calm and serene. But the traces of pain are still present in her eyes. This time I am not able to stop my self, so I ask her..
“What is it that is bothering you ?”
“Yes My child, I will tell you about it , But not now. Right now I want you to meet some people”
Now this is a surprise to me. There are people living over here? And still this place is so clean, neat and tidy, as if it is untouched, As I am lost in my thoughts Bharat Mata holds my hand in hers and starts walking towards the north. This feels incredibly good , her holding my hand in hers, just like how my mom use to hold it when I was a small kid.
We walk for a small distance and we reach near a lake, At the banks of this lake I can see some people gathered, they are talking to each other, As We reach near the group I can see them smiling and laughing, One thing I am sure of is that they are very happy over here, Somehow I am getting a feel that I know this people, I am sure that I have not meet them before but might be I have seen them before or at list seen their picture before. Just then one of them looks at us and informs others. The whole group comes towards us and one by one they touch Bharat Mata's feet and take blessings. I can see the changes in their facial expressions when they look at her their face brightens up. And then I have a closer look at them and I am sure that they are the once. Yes they are the Ones......
“Yes My child. The conclusion you have come to is right, They are the ones you are proud of. They are the ones whom I am proud of.”
This time I see pride on her face, She exactly looks like a mother who is proud of her children and indeed she is. And as far as I am concerned ,I am standing over there stunned and surprised, I can't believe that I am actually standing in front of the souls of all the great warriors and the great revolutionaries, I can feel tears rolling down my cheeks, I go to each one of them and touch their feet one by one, There are hundreds of them over here and every time I take blessings from each of them my strength increases. Today in real I have attained everything that life could give me How much lucky am I ?
I look at their faces which are full of love ,peace and pride, but their eyes are full of pain just like those of mother India
“Now My child, These children of mine will answer the question you had asked me some time ago. Ask them what you wanted to know.”
After listening to Mothers reply I do as she has told me to do
“Why are your eyes full of pain, What is it that is troubling you all?”
I am constantly staring at all the faces, hoping that one of them will answer my question, But what I can see over there is just pain, So much pain that my heart starts aching, Just then Chandra Shekar Azad ji comes in front and starts speaking.
“All of us being Indians make us siblings of each other. So today whatever I'll tell you will be like an elder brother talking to you,The thing is that during the era of British rule, Many of us came together and fought for our Independence. The reason behind this wasn't just our love for the motherland, It is true that we love our motherland much more then anything else, And given a chance time and again we are ready to sacrifice our life for her. But this wasn't the sole reason for the freedom struggle, Another important reason was that we wanted to see our future generations happy and prosperous. But now looking at state of India after Independence we have a question . And the question is what did we gain through this freedom.? Had we fought so much, went through so much of hardship, did so many sacrifices just to get a tag of free India . Is this what freedom is ? What did our motherland gain through this struggle-- freedom from a rule of foreign nation just so that she could be caught in the clutches of her own selfish, self centered kids ? We had never dreamed about such a freedom .Never ”
Now I can see anger in Azad ji's facial expressions, And the same reflects in other faces too..I can even see traces of disgust in their expressions, No one among them says these words but I can see the question in their eyes. The question is written in bold capital letters and it says “Is this the fruit you people are giving us for our selfless actions and sacrifice ? Who has given you the right to take the freedom as granted. We have sacrificed our lives so that you leave in a free India. And You people can't even respect and maintain that freedom...Shame on you all.”
Just as I am absorbed in this thoughts of mine, Bharat mata says
“My child, See I was hurt even then when British were ruling me, not because I was called a British colony but because injustice was done to my kids, I knew that my kids were feeling suffocated under that rule, There was no one to protect them and their interests, their rights were being robbed, they were not getting the right fruit for their hardship. And all this things were creating a havoc in me. But then some of my brave kids joined hands and did lot of penance for their and their motherland's freedom and got it too, I am proud of them, This is the reason why they stay with me over here in the real true Bharat (India) ”
Now the light has dawned on me and I do understand that the place I was admiring from the beginning was indeed India, My India free of pollution and dirt, free of political and man made barriers.
Just then I heard mother speaking to me again.
“After freedom I was very happy, The sacrifices made by my children had been fruitful, At least I thought so. At that time my wounded heart had started healing a bit from the pain that I had received due to partition, My heart was bleeding as my kids had opted to go away from me on the basis of religion. It was a slap on this mother's face and I knew that this wound would never heal completely, but I will live that was for sure. Slowly I had started dreaming about a better and prosperous future , Of unity and love among my children. But all my dreams were shattered within no time, Slowly some of my children started becoming self centered and selfish,.The rich started getting richer and the poor started getting poorer. Saam , Daam , Dandh , Bedh all this devils started ruling me now. Most of my kids started becoming too ambitious for their own good. Many of them joined National parties just because they wanted to rule and in order to do so they brought into picture all that which could make them victorious may it be religious discrimination,caste discrimination, arm power or money power. According to them everything was fair in the game of politics,They started calling themselves non-secular but in turn started increasing the discrimination by dividing the people into smaller groups, They started using people as puppets just in order to full fill their own ambition, And this continues till the date And the reason behind coming into politics in most of the cases is not social service or that they are thinking about me .the reason is they want to earn money, lots of it or it will be better to say that they want to rob money, lots of it. Corruption and bribery are ruling me right now,The situation has worsened to such a level that justice is done on the basis of money power and name power. There is no security what so ever in the country. In most cases the people who were supposed to safe guard the countrymen are the ones who are exploiting them. The situation is degrading at such a rate that the neighboring countries are trying to get benefited by this, You say that Indians worships goddesses but the fact is in many parts of India it isn't safe for girls to walk on the road, In many parts the girl child born is killed. Is this what is called free India ? If this is so I don't want to be free. ”
I can see tears running down her cheeks, I want to wipe it But I can't as knowingly or unknowingly I am also one of them who made her cry. I can feel tears running down my cheeks too..But I still continue to listen to her
“Child, Listen to me it hurts more when one of your beloved hits you ,rather then some stranger and this is what happening to me . See many people have sacrificed their lives to make you free, and you can't take this freedom granted, Please try to attain real freedom, don't work on making yourself prosperous , work on making your country prosperous and safe, See there are many, many people in India may it be politics or any other field who are good really good, All of you who are good will have to join hands together and save me all over again...Please child, Please”
Saying this Bharat Mata vanished and along with her the others too. There is total darkness all around me now. A chill ran down my spine. I want to call out to her, I am trying to call out too her but can't, My throat is choked. I feel the fear that is creeping below my skin., My heart is pumping fanatically. Just then I hear a loud screeching sound. This sound is quite familiar. What’s it? It is my alarm that is ringing. I try to open my eyes but can't. I open my eyes look at the watch it is already 6:00 in the morning. As I get up, I feel a bit disorientated.I am sweating, As I try to put myself in the sitting position, my palm still feels warm as if some one was indeed holding it. I can still feel the palms on my head as if I have really received blessings from many people. I can still feel the wetness under my eyes. I am left thinking was it just a dream? It wasn't a nightmare for sure. But was it a dream or was it an eye opener?
But the real question that we are facing today is whether it is just enough for us to celebrate Independence day by hosting the National Flag and singing National Anthem together with some patriotic songs or is it necessary that we take a pledge to free India from all the devils residing in it and a promise to maintain its safety and security. And if we are opting for the second option what are the steps that we must take ? So friends the choice is all yours as to what would you prefer living in Free INDIA with full safety and security by demolishing the evil deeds or just singing patriotic songs for name sake, earning money, supporting corruption etc. ? Now the ball is in your court.
I am proud to be an INDIAN and would always fight for injustice done in my country because it’s my duty to serve and make my nation a better place to live. Last but not the least I would just like to convey this message “BHARAT MATA KI JAI! JAI HIND!” as its coming from the bottom of my heart.