Independence Day

Well I have quite a lot to write today, but I am sure that in the flow of writing .... half of them will slip out of my mind, the other half will become muddled, so the end-product will be very interesting .... :) atleast for me.

Happy Independence Day !! And this I say between an ongoing mailing list brawl, over how the national anthem was written to glorify the rulers of our country rather than our nation and hence we should stop singing it ..... etc etc. :) Amusing , yes!! Not only because I have read this forwarded email and all the arguments for and against it..... also because every Independence Day, there is somebody who happens to dig it up again and remind us of the grave mistake that we are making. Please don't get me wrong..... or attribute this to patriotic bengalism ( any comment about Saurabh Ganguly inevitably always puts me in this category) because the national anthem was written by Rabindranath Tagore, .... but honestly, what is the logic behind fighting over singing or not singing a song which we have accepted as our country's anthem, as a means of showing our respect and love and patriotism for our nation. It is the means only and not the end. (Ah !! Me and philosophy as usual do not mix. :) ) But everyone is welcome to his/her own opinion. And if you really hold on to this anti-jana-gana-mana idea dogmatically, don't sing it. Celebrate Independence Day by singing anything you wish, whatever makes you happy ... what do you want to do , translate another country's national anthem and call it our own ??? :) (I am sorry for this tirade, it should probably have been directed at the person I was angry on.)

As far as I am concerned, and I am sure it is not an effect of being in a far away country, Jana Gana Mana is what makes me feel proud. When I hear the song and stand , (when I was a kid it was more because my parents scolded me into standing than any patriotism) and when I see so many Indians stand along with me, I feel proud to be an Indian. But more than that, there is this unexplainable feeling of belonging..... and home ...... and roots. How much ever I blame it, curse its bad practices, I am still very much an Indian at heart.

But with a host of other people, I am following the so-called Indian dream !! :) Of living the Indian dream of being in a foreign country and earning big bucks to support a future life of comfort and ease. I don't know why I do it.... but it goes to say something that I still don't leave.

Today, I met up with an interesting group at lunch. One person, Jim was admonishing my friend, Prashant on having gone to India and come back without even going through the process of meeting girls. Another of my friends had told me about this a couple of days back, of how parents sort out the guys/girls and keep, and all you have to do in the 3 weeks or so of holidays that you get off..... is meet all of them, select one person and get married. Believe me, nobody has ever painted such a comical picture of our current marital situation to me. I finally was able to see a very light side of things :) and laugh whole-heartedly.

The situation is laudable, whether you agree or not, and I am just happy I am not in that exact situation right now. :)

All in all, I did do my part for Independence day, I wore a salwar kameez to work today - to everyone's amusement. :) And there was this brief nostalgic moment when I missed Oracle a lot. Maybe it was the effect of having finished reading One night @ the call center yesterday night, ( enjoyable, there are some parts you might identify with if you have worked at a software job in India, but on the whole really not that great.)

So I end the post on a lighter note than in quite some time. Hope you all celebrated being Indians.