Blissful Life

Category: India

  • Understanding Socialism

    A few days ago one of my colleagues had expressed the idea of decreasing the pay gap between the highest paid employee and the lowest paid employee in our organization. I didn’t give a lot of thought to that at that moment.

    Yesterday morning YouTube showed me a video of Sunil P Ilayidom in which he talks about Gandhiji. I’m embedding that one here. It is in Malayalam.

    Somewhere in the middle he talks about how Gandhiji was in South Africa till his 40s and didn’t know how the poorest Indians lived and then how once he returned from South Africa Gandhiji walked into the hearts of Indian farmers. He talks about how Gandhiji’s political campaigns always started with the real life problems of the common person. And he talks about how Gandhiji’s first Satyagraha in India – the Champaran Satyagraha – was fought with the simple demand that farmers should get compensation for their crops.

    If you can understand Malayalam, Sunil Ilayidom’s talks about Gandhiji (powered by YouTube recommendations) makes you sit and listen for hours and hours together.

    Another point that Gandhi made which SPI reiterates is “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.”

    Yesterday evening we had our weekly ECHO session in the primary healthcare fellowship and Dr Vivek Kumar from BHS told the story of a lady who was diagnosed with Tuberculosis a second time in the last 1 year (after taking 6 months of ATT the first time). Her haemoglobin was 6.9, weight was just 35kg, and it seemed like even if she took ATT continuously forever, her body might not have enough strength to protect herself from tuberculosis. In that context he described how the average haemoglobin in men, women, children, everyone in the villages he serves in is about 8-9. For about 5 minutes I could simply not believe that this could be explained by nutritional deficiencies alone.

    So I searched online and found out a paper by last years’ Economics Nobel Prize winners about fortifying grains to reduce anemia. This study was done between 2002 and 2009. Which means this is a well-known problem. People live in abject poverty and there is absolutely nothing that seems to work.

    Our discussion rightly turned to policy changes that maybe required to bring change. Dr Vivek mentioned Aajeevika Bureau as an organization that was working with farmers to help them secure livelihood.

    We also talked about community based participatory research which is the idea that any kind of research should begin from the community, be designed and developed by the community, and be owned by the community to be ultimately useful for that community. People from outside have their limitations in understanding what works, and what doesn’t. When I was making this point I was imagining Dr Vivek as an insider, and me as an outsider. But then Dr Vivek replied reaffirming the point and considering even himself an outsider. And I had the realization that even being co-located with the community doesn’t make you an insider.

    Today morning on the bus I was reading Che Guevara’s “Global Justice: Liberation and Socialism” and a paragraph stood out at me:

    “The way is open to infection by the germs of future corruption if a person thinks that dedicating his or her entire life to the revolution means that, in return, one should not be distracted by such worries as that one’s child lacks certain things, that one’s children’s shoes are worn out, that one’s family lacks some necessity.
    In our case we have maintained that our children must have, or lack, those things that the children of the ordinary citizen have or lack; our families should understand this and struggle for it to be that way. The revolution is made through human beings, but individuals must forge their revolutionary spirit day by day.”

    I should probably be reading carefully the Pedagogy of the Oppressed soon. But this paragraph in the context of yesterday’s discussion made me think about poverty and the reasons why we are struggling with elimination of poverty.

    Two related points.

    The “combined total wealth of 63 Indian billionaires is higher than the total Union Budget of India for the fiscal year 2018-19 which was at Rs 24,42,200 crore.“

    Pirate Praveen had once said this:

    “Every privileged person thinks its their god given
    mission to help the poor and show their kindness. They do not want to
    acknowledge that their privilege is the result of historic oppression
    and they are part of the reason why they remain poor. They think poor
    people needs charity and kindness. What we really need is a conscious
    collective effort to end systematic oppression of people and that will
    need questioning of our own roles and privileges. Accepting our role in
    creating the poor is much harder than feeling good about helping poor.”

    Putting it all together made me finally understand the problem. The problem is us. The capitalists. The people who believe that a software engineer’s time is worth 10 times more than the farmer’s. The people who believe that it is okay to accumulate wealth and make profit.

    The free market will never pay a farmer well. The free market is stacked against farmers. Why is it that way? Why are things priced based on their demand and supply rather than their intrinsic value?

    Because that works well in favour of those few who are privileged to accumulate wealth. For things like food, they won’t have to pay a lot. And they can use that money to spend on things like AC cars. They can hire a home-help for 4000 rupees a month and get them to cook for them. They can hire cheap labour and sell the combined thing for much higher value. And they can keep all the profit.

    The farmer may spend all their time in the farm. Like a full time employment. But if you can pay not for that time, but for the onions they produce, it may turn out to be much cheaper. Which means you can buy more onions for the same money. And you sell those onions at a higher price. So, your profit increases. While the farmer remains poor.

    This is how it works. The entire system of capitalism is based on rich becoming richer and poor becoming poorer. “Specialization” and “rare-resources” are ways to become rich. And once you are rich, you have the license to exploit the poor.

    Socialism is where the farmer sets the price. (And not a “free” market). The farmer demands what is their due. The farmer does not have to give up their life to produce a season of crops. The farmer can say their “full time” is equivalent to that of a software engineer. And who would you be to deny?

  • “April Fool”, says India Government to all its Netizens

    In an attempt to not get fooled by any ‘breaking news’ from my friends (like India forfeiting the world cup, or Swiss banks revealing their accounts), I switched on the tv early today morning and I was crestfallen by what CNN and NDTV were showing in big letters. On a day where people fool each other with pranks, the Government of India has decided to fool all its internet users.

    Starting from today, the internet in India will be censored. As in China we will no longer be able to use the internet as we wish, or exercise the freedom of speech and expression over the internet. The Government will be monitoring all internet activities including social networking sites like Facebook and Orkut. This censorship move is a measure by the Government to restrict the activity of Wikileaks, the whistle blower site exposing scams. I knew those nasty people at the Parliament would decide on something like this. They can’t even tell Wikipedia from Wikileaks and what this means is that editing an article about the ruling leaders could even land the innocent ‘free’ editor in jail.

    The Government said in its ruling that blogs and self published websites would be censored heavily, and legal action will be taken against any content which may be provocative in any manner whatsoever. This could mean hell for bloggers as they can no longer bash any party or people in their blogs.

    But this could be good news for email lovers like me. Because from today fat claims with no citations will be considered as conspiracy or intended public defamation. Nobody can forward those stupid urban legends anymore. No more downloading 10 MB videos showing how bad Pakistanis are. No more wasting time calculating how much MPs earn in India.

    There you go netizen, the government tells you, “April Fool”

    PS: Please notify me if you spot any sensitive content on this blog. I certainly don’t want to go to prison leaving you people alone.

    Update: This was an April Fool’s post. The internet is useless already.

  • I Do Not Deserve the Right To Wish You a Happy Independence Day

    I won’t wish you a happy Independence Day this year.
    Not just this year. Henceforth.
    Because unless I begin doing something for my country, I simply do not deserve to wish you.
    I was notified of this day coming. By the facebook event which asked me to show my love for my country by setting up India’s flag in my profile.
    Is this how I should show my love for my country?
    I was sure I wouldn’t be attending the event. I said myself if at all I uploaded anything to facebook it would be photos of how I served my country this I’day.
    But till this moment, I have not did anything worthy to be uploaded under that tag.

    I’m disappointed at myself.
    I’m disappointed at not being able to do anything for my country.
    Sure, I have dreams.
    But I live only in dreams.
    I have written dozens of essays on the role of students in improving literacy (the last one, today morning).
    But I haven’t taught a word to anyone. When will I? How long will I be a student, to do that?
    Not that I didn’t have a chance. There was a woman who sold helmets by the National Highway. Just opposite my house. And she had two children. One girl about 10 years, and her younger brother, my brother’s age. I knew neither of them went to school. I knew they deserved school as good as my brother and I. Yet I simply walked past them for weeks. Many a times had my hands reached for the paper and pen in my pocket to teach that little boy something. I even planned giving them an apple and teaching them the letter ‘A’.

    But I never did these.

    And I’m angry about that. There is no point in crying now. Because they’ve had enough sales here. They’ve gone.

    I could have taught that little boy and little girl something. Anything. Anything would have been valuable for their lives.
    But I didn’t.
    What do I lack?
    I dream so much about changing India. About empowering lives. If I can’t teach a boy of 6 ABCD, how am I going to change India?

    I speak so passionately about how dirty politics is. About how we shouldn’t vote on the basis of religion, race, caste. But who am I to say that?

    I don’t even deserve to be a citizen of a country where people like Nani Palkhivala lived and died for protecting the rights of the people. And I don’t wish to be one in a country where his name or the names of the thousands of others like him are not even heard.

    I’m such a parasite.

    Sure I have published a few posts in this unread blog about changing India. And some essays in school competitions that not even the judges care to read. What do I hope to happen? That all of a sudden all the Indians will get motivated and change themselves reading what I’ve written?
    And who is to change India? My readers?
    I ask everyone to change.
    But I never did.
    And I now realize my mistake.

    But I knew my mistakes even before. Just that I won’t rectify. I won’t change. I will continue to be a dreamer. I will get into a nice profession, fill my purse, and eat unhealthy till I die. I will never feed the hungry. I will never enlighten souls.
    I will never bring about the change I always speak so high about.
    Because I’m such a loser.

    What is the point in fighting hunger through facebook? What’s the point in feeding children through clicks? What’s the point in filling truckloads of paper with essays about changing India, taking her to the heights of development, etc?
    What’s the point in blabbering about good leadership when you can’t be a leader yourself?
    What’s the point in thinking about action?
    Action is physical. Not mental.

    Do I deserve to wish you a happy Independence Day? No. I don’t.
    Because I don’t act.
    I can’t even promise you that I will change myself. For, if I could I would have done something for my country already. I can only tell you that I will try.

    And for that reason I do not deserve to ask you to do something either.
    And I do not possess the right to express myself. I must shut up. Now.

  • Friends, Indians, countrymen, lend me your ears

    I come to concede Tharoor, not to praise him;
    The evil that ministers do lives after their term,
    The good is oft interred with their files,
    So let it be with Tharoor … The noble Modi
    Hath told you Tharoor was ambitious:
    If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
    And grievously hath Tharoor answered it …
    Here, under leave of Modi and the rest,
    (For Modi is an honourable man;
    So are they all; all honourable men)
    Come I to speak in Tharoor’s farewell …
    He was my hero, faithful and just to me:
    But Modi says he was ambitious;
    And Modi is an honourable man….
    He hath brought many traders home to India,
    Whose exchange did the general coffers fill:
    Did this in Tharoor seem ambitious?
    When that the poor have cried, Tharoor hath wept:
    Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
    Yet Modi says he was ambitious;
    And Modi is an honourable man.
    I speak not to disprove what Modi spoke,
    But here I am to speak what I do know.
    You all did vote for him once, not without cause:
    What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
    O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
    And men have lost their reason…. Bear with me;
    My heart is in the smartphone there with the MoS,
    And I must pause till it come back to me twittering.

    —

    Enough of the Victorian Shakespeare. And enough of our mentality running older than that. Why do we always have to think old? Why can’t we think in new patterns? Are our brains too concrete?
    Does using twitter make a minister alien? Or does a website make him Extra-Terrestrial. It is called technology. Technology that makes public life social and social life public. So did Obama. And so did Advani try to. But when Tharoor did it successfully people ask him to stop shooting mouth off.

    When Tharoor stayed in a 5-star hotel it was luxury. Had he stayed in Mumbai’s Taj Palace, it would have been patriotism.
    When he called the ‘cattle class’ the ‘cattle class’, people became cattle, thanks to the English pundits.
    When he said people should work on Gandhi Jayanthi, it became anti-national. Destroying a holiday of a billion Indians? Oh My Gandhi.
    When the terrorists came in rowing boats the government started asking the flight passengers a few more questions. When Tharoor questioned the logic behind this he was helping the terrorists blast peace off India.
    And then he’s reported to have questioned Chachaji’s and Bappuji’s foreign policy. He’s reported to have.
    And the Oxford Dictionary’s Pakistan edition is still undecided about the meaning of the word ‘interlocutor’.

    Throughout he’s called the man of controversies. Tharoor should be awarded some prize for this skill.
    Where other politicians find it very tough to attract controversy even while making controversial decisions, or accepting huge gifts, or spending too less for an ordinary minister; Tharoor seems to have acquired a knack of creating controversy with sentences less than 140 characters long. When Tharoor talks there is controversy, when he sneezes there is tsunami, and when he watches a cricket match there is extortion, profiteering, breach of trust, venality and corruption.
    We’ve got options. Change our attitude or cut the tongue and all those digits off Tharoor.

  • The Meaning of Patriotism in the Global Scenario

    You stand up for the National Anthem of your nation, and then your hairs stand up. This is patriotism.
    But what does being patriotic mean after globalization?
    You are politically correct. Because after your independence (which almost every country has) the people who struggled for your national entity decided upon an agreement that you would vote regularly and decide a leader to rule the nation and so on…
    So, during elections, you are legally confirming to be a member of an organization that spans across your country.

    Just like imperialism died with revolutions, nationalism must die with globalization.

    You are no longer talking only with people whom you can see. You are no longer reading words that were written by your country-mates. You are no longer restricted to your nation.
    So why should your love be?

    Science is global.
    So is economics.
    Let alone climate change.
    Energy crisis?
    Terrorism.
    Market. Trade. Business.
    Sports, literature, art.

    If nations were formed to eliminate a common threat and preserve a shared culture, then why should nations stand alone? Because almost every threat that we face today is global. And almost everything that we do today is global.

    Our curling up into fragments of earth only shows how small we are.
    Nationalism is just the same as racism. And wars are nothing but fascism.

    This neither justifies brain drain nor suggests you to hate your nation. Your parents who cared for you all through your childhood deserves your care when you can stand alone. And if you do not love your nation you are doing the same as throwing your parents into hopelessness.
    You must retain the love for your nation. You must stand up for your own national flag, but also for others’.

    If our true love is for the mankind, then it is time that we stop hating people on the basis of nationality.

    We must be patriotic, but our nation must be Planet Earth.

  • !! Happy Republic Day !!

    WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:
    JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
    LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
    EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;
    and to promote among them all
    FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;
    IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do HERE BY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.

    Republic Day

    India, though she became independent on the 15th of August, 1947 did not become a republic until the Constitution was adopted on the 26th of January, 1950.
    Starting from a meeting in the Constitution Hall in New Delhi (now known as Central Hall of Parliament House) on 9 December, 1946 it took 2 years, 11 months and 17 days and 299 members of the Constituent Assembly including Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Acharya J.B. Kripalani, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Smt. Sarojini Naidu, Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Shri Sarat Chandra Bose and Shri C. Rajagopalachari to complete the historic task of drafting the Constitution.
    It was this Constituent Assembly which took over as the Legislative Assembly of India late in the evening of 14 August, 1947.

    The Constitution of India was adopted on 26 November, 1949. In all, 284 members of the Constituent Assembly signed the Constitution on 24 January, 1950. On that day it was drizzling outside, as if nature was excited about what was going to happen.

    Finally when the Constitution came into force on 26 January, 1950, the Assembly became the Provisional Parliament of India until a new Parliament was constituted in 1952.

    Indians started celebrating Independence Day seventeen years before actually gaining independence, from January 26, 1930 onwards. And hence, this exact date was chosen to enact the Constitution.

    Every year on January 26, a grand parade is held in New Delhi beginning from Raisina Hill near the Rashtrapati Bhavan, along the Rajpath, past India Gate, and on to the monumental Red Fort. Different regiments of the Armed Forces march in formation. The President of India takes the salute. A Head of State of another nation is usually the Chief Guest. The forces will be followed by dance troupes to symbolize the cultural heritage of India, students dressed in the tricolour, NCC cadets and recipients of National Bravery Award. At the end there is a flypast by the Indian Air Force. Jet planes fly leaving a streak of tricolour in the sky.

    Republic Day like the other national holidays is a day to pause for a moment, look back into our past, and then jump forward into a great future.

    And for this time, I wish you all a great Republic Day and tremendous growth.

    My India, My Pride Badge

    – Akshay

  • The Truth Regarding India’s National Anthem

    There’s an email forward going around telling that India’s national anthem was composed praising King George and his queen. I don’t want to thrash this view. I just want you to hear all the facts behind it, and then decide how wonderful a poet Rabindranath Tagore is…

    The email forward says these things:

    To begin with, India’s national anthem, Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka, was written by Rabindranath Tagore in honour of King George V and the Queen of England when they visited India in 1919. To honour their visit Pandit Motilal Nehru had the five stanzas included, which are in praise of the King and Queen.

     Well this IS right… But you have to read this after hearing what Rabindranath Tagore himself said about this:

    “A certain high official in His Majesty’s service, who was also my friend, had requested that I write a song of felicitation towards the Emperor. The request simply amazed me. It caused a great stir in my heart. In response to that great mental turmoil, I pronounced the victory in Jana Gana Mana of that Bhagya Vidhata [ed. God of Destiny] of India who has from age after age held steadfast the reins of India’s chariot through rise and fall, through the straight path and the curved. That Lord of Destiny, that Reader of the Collective Mind of India, that Perennial Guide, could never be George V, George VI, or any other George. Even my official friend understood this about the song. After all, even if his admiration for the crown was excessive, he was not lacking in simple common sense.”

     And just that clarification is enough for anyone to understand what Tagore really meant.

    But the email continues:

    In the original Bengali verses only those provinces that were under British rule, i.e. Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, Maratha etc. were mentioned. None of the princely states were recognized which are integral parts of India now Kashmir, Rajasthan, Andhra, Mysore or Kerala. Neither the Indian Ocean nor the Arabian Sea was
    included, since they were directly under Portuguese rule at that time.

    Well, he mentioned “Punjab, Sind, Gujarat and Maratha, Dravida and Orissa and Benga.” What more would you except from a poet who was writing a poem, all the states of India? (and their capitals too?) Hey! When did Kerala come into existence?

    And then the mail continues to give some snippets of translation from all the stanzas of the whole Jana Gana Mana

    The intention of that article is clear. And that explains why only parts of the following stanzas were translated, and not the complete translation [well, if you haven’t read that article yet, go here and read it, I don’t want to disgrace my blog copy pasting the thing here]

    Click here to read the real and complete translation of all the five stanzas of Jana Gana Mana

    When you read that you can find these phrases:

    Oh! You who bring in the unity of the people!

     The way of life is somber as it moves through ups and downs.
    But we, the pilgrims, have followed through ages.
    Oh! Eternal Charioteer, the wheels of your chariot
    echo day and night in the path

    Oh! You who guide the people through tortuous path!

    Through nightmares and fears
    You protected us on Your lap
    Oh Loving Mother.

     By the halo of Your compassion
    India that was asleep is now waking

    Now tell me, was Tagore referring to King George or mother India? He got Nobel Prize not for nothing.

    Be proud to be an Indian
    (I hereby permit to make this an email forward provided that the whole text remains including this link to the blog Blissful Life @ http://asdofindia.blogspot.com)

  • What if the PM directly orders the District Collectors? (and technology assists them)

    I just found a solution for corrupt politics. If I can get one great Prime Minister, I have made a plan to rescue India. Consider:
    There are only around 600 districts in India. Assuming that all of them have one and only district collector we will have around 600 district collectors. All of them are highly educated, highly qualified IAS officers and therefore most probably sincere to their professions too. A district is quite a manageable area for a single person to administer efficiently. So, District Collectors can efficiently look after their respective districts. But what they lack is sometimes the power to make laws and sometimes the support of a minister concerned with what he’s trying to do (that is what we mean by a corrupted government)
    Now assume that we have one great Prime Minister. And around 50 % good collectors (i.e. 300 of them). Let all others be corrupted. All the ministers, all other executives. We just need 301 people on our side.

    The PM after being elected conducts a grand conference. On day 1 he talks to district collectors from one state, about the problems the state is facing and about what they can do. He asks them about the hurdles they are facing in nation development. He lends them complete support for anything that they are undertaking (provided all the collectors from that state agree). He promises to help them out of any complications that are being imposed on them by state ministers or other central ministers. He gives them high class security.
    And he gives them an email id and a phone number. Any collector can at any moment contact him directly and talk to him and ask his permission and if needed ask his help in dealing with a troublesome minister or such.

    This is done with every other state. And within a month every collector in the country is connected to the Prime Minister. And the collectors can do reforms that were previously impossible due to interventions by others.

    What I mean is virtually a parallel government. But this one is legal.
    Instead of the Members of Parliament (We do have MPs, but they are not acting in between the PM and Collectors), we have District Collectors. It is not true democracy, but it seems like it is better than democracy as it is in India now. The PM acts directly through the Collectors. So there is no time lag. There is no efficiency drain. Corrupt politicians are no more a problem.

    One great Prime Minister and India will never be the same again.

  • Let Us Ask Ourselves On This Independence Day…

    …we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves – if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?
    This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time – to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunityfor our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim…

    US President Barack Obama asked Americans this question on the day of his victory. “What change?”
    And he is on the path of answering that question.

    Not very long ago, an Indian invoked in the Indians a similar vision.


    “A developed India by 2020, or even earlier, is not a dream. It need not be a mere vision in the minds of many Indians. It is a mission we can all take up – and succeed.”

    That is what Dr APJ Abdul Kalam said Indians through his book in 1998.

    We are halfway there in terms of years (2020-2009=11, 2009-1998=11)
    But have we made even a sway towards the dream in terms of progress?

    Halfway through we still have poverty, corruption, crime, violence, …

    Why? We are a billion strong, we have huge amount of human resource, we are intelligent, 34% of NASA employees are Indians, Americans are amazed at the quality of education in India, … and yet we can’t perfect ourselves? Why are we succesful in everything else but nation development?

    We lack proactive citizens.

    We have citizens who are ready to act when asked to. We have citizens who get goose bumps on hearing the National Anthem. We have citizens who speak/blog against injustices. (Well, I am not eligible to vote right now)

    We have people willing to do when they must. We have active citizens.
    But we don’t have people doing when they need not. We lack proactive citizens.

    We need practive citizens.
    Citizens who start movements against injustices.
    Citizens who start charity organisations to help the poor.
    Citizens who march in protest in order to protect the environment.
    Citizens who start health clubs, libraries, schools (or tutorials), industries, businesses, super-markets, search engines,…
    Citizens who create their own political party and strive to be a good minister.
    Citizens who adopt poor orphans or sponser their education.
    Citizens who take an accident victim to the hospital.
    Citizens who complain about a crime to the police, or be a witness to something they’ve witnessed.
    Citizens who read and make others able to read.
    Citizens who are healthy and make others healthy.
    Citizens who submit engineering projects to the government.

    Citizens who rise themselves and raise others.
    Citizens who organize.
    Ctizens who create opportunities out of thin air.

    Creative citizens. Proactive citizens.

    Don’t ASK what you can do for your country. Just DO something for your country.
    And the rest is assured.

    Jai Hind.

    Wish all Indians a Happy Independence Day

  • Do You Love Your Nation or Fear Her?

    This post was produced by the instant sense of non-sense when I read the news that Sashi Tharoor was summoned by a court for ‘insulting’ national anthem.

    Tharoor, after delivering the Hormis memorial lecture in Kochi in December last year, interrupted the national anthem, urging the audience to place the palm over the heart as people do in US instead of the Indian practice of standing in attention.”

    When the national anthem of teams are sung before international soccer games I have always observed (some) players keeping their hands on their chests, right above the heart. Think from the player’s perspective:

    I am going to play for my country. The whole nation is watching me. I want to win this and I want to win this for my country. Ah! My country. You who stood strong even when reeling under pressure from foreign power. You mighty ocean who have given me everything I wanted and made me what I am. I dedicate my life to you.”

    Now, should this come from mouth or heart? No doubt, right?

    Now let us come to India. I have felt it so often that Indians pay huge respect to their national anthem, also national flag, and other national things. It IS due to the unnecessary importance they were given, in the constitution. Respect brings only fear. It do not bring love. If you love your mother, you will not respect her. You will obey her, but you will earnestly try not to. True love and true respect do not go together.
    So, if you are showing too much respect to any of the national symbols or your nation, you can’t love her.

    Not that I am a huge fan of Obama. But he and his nation is so adorable in every field that I can’t stop mentioning. The day before Obama was sworn in as the President of The United States Of America (How prestigious does it sound?), there was a celebration. Famous actors, singers, comedians, musicians, dancers, everyone staged wonderful performance to fill the waiting nation with happiness. There was a huge crowd and I still remember one line of what the commentators said during the show:

    I have seen even larger crowds, but I have never seen so many smiling faces”

    The message is clear. People are so happy with their new president that they are wishing everyone good morning with 3 inch wide smiles. And of course there were stars and stripes being waved everywhere. People and president and what he represents, the nation – so friendly.

    Can Indians ever dream of such a day?
    Of course we have Independence Day, Republic Day, and Gandhi Jayanthi.
    But what happens in Independence Day or Republic Day? Children go to school and speak on why we should remember the past leaders and their sacrifices. All government offices hoist the national flag (which unto that day would’ve been dusting off in the cupboard of the clerk). Police and Army do parades. And not to forget the grand displays at Delhi.

    But I love Gandhi Jayanthi more, because, that day, there is no parade. But, there is activity going around everywhere. People feel more united than ever. And most probably they will find themselves together trying to pull of a strong rooted weed. I don’t know why. But I like to go school on October the second rather than on August 15th or January 26th. May be because I love creativity more than protocol, or I love celebrating more than witnessing. But I love Gandhi Jayanthi.

    Now, that brings us back to the question. Do we love our nation or fear her? Why can’t we walk forth everyday with the tricolour? Why can’t we sing national anthem lying on the bed with utmost love towards the nation in our mind? Why can’t we just love our nation and get rid off all these unnecessary codes?

    Example: we need to stand in attention during National Anthem and nothing else. So Sashi Tharoor is called up by the court. Right that he should not have urged the people to imitate him, but can we say that he shouldn’t have kept his palm on his chest? Is it an insult to the national anthem or greater love to the nation. And more; if Tharoor is punished then another popular person too must be – Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. I have seen him several times, during national anthem not in attention, but with his hands before his body like a nude man covering his private parts. Does he not deserve higher punishment that Tharoor deserves? Answer: To be punished is neither of them, but the man who framed the laws regarding the use of national flag, anthem, etc.

    Love, expressed in any form is love itself.

    So the final question is
    What do we need – a billion salutes or a billion kisses?

    Note: If you are going to comment like “So, we can jump up and down the next time we hear national anthem”, you needn’t please do so.