Tag: 15 Aug

Today is 16th August

August 16, 2017 / / 0 Comments

I planned to write this post on Independence day but then laziness took over and I dropped the idea. Then in the evening, I went out to get some groceries and this idiot jumping the red light in his big car again inspired me to do it.

Anyways let’s get back to the point.

Like every year, this independence day also social media was flooded with patriotic messages. It looks like such a good scene but the unfortunate reality is that this whole drama lasts only for a day. Today is 16th Aug and everything is back to normal again. Actually, we are a hypocrite nation. Probably have always been one. Loving the country for a day can solve any problems? No. Remembering the national anthem by heart can solve any problems? or can make someone a better citizen? No. To be honest I don’t remember the national anthem of India but I know for sure that I am a better citizen than many of the people around me. And I also know how many of them pretend to be such patriots but what all they have been up to in their lives. Was just wondering that instead of displaying these one-day emotions how about:

  • Just being good citizens and honest all the time. With everyone, not just 10 people around you who you think can be of some use for you some day.
  • Not indulging in all the unfair means to gather more money.
  • Not jumping red lights even if there are no traffic cops deployed.
  • Being nice to guys who work at your homes; maids, servants.
  • Being nice to your neighbors irrespective of whether they can be of some use to you some day or not.
  • Not being drunk beyond limits and then driving on the roads.
  • if you are a person holding a position of power; not making use of it to any unfair personal advantage.
  • If your father is holding a position of power; not treating everyone else like shit and not telling every govt official you come across “You don’t know who my Dad is?”
  • Keeping in mind the inconvenience small acts like not parking your car properly may cause for others.
  • Not throwing the empty water & beer bottles and food packets bags on the roads by rolling down the windows of your Merc and BMWs.

Looks difficult. Right ? No worries. We always have the other option to cram the national anthem and post patriotic messages on Facebook on 15th Aug and 26th Jan.

Cheers !

naha ke khoon mein aai thi fasl-e-azadi

August 15, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Call me moderately patriotic or not patriotic at all but I am not the one who would post “proud to be Indian” and “Jai Hind” messages on 15 Aug and then on the very next day would be jumping red lights and throwing garbage on the road out of the window of my AC car.

Well….my TL on Twitter and FB is already full with one-day-patriotism messages pictures .

Anyways lets not get into all that.

This day 15 Aug, every year reminds me of two poems that very aptly describe the history and the present. One of them is Faiz sahab’s yeh daagh daagh ujala

Ye Daag Daag Ujala, ye Shab Gazeeda Seher
Wu Intizar tha Jiska, Yeh wu Seher tu Nahin
Ye Wo Seher tu Nahin Jiski Arzoo lay Kar
Chale` Tey Yaar Kay mil Jaigi Kahin Na kahin

This tattered raiment of darkness
This sputtering of dawn.
This is not the dawn that we had hoped for.
This is not the dawn we had set out for.

(Text and translation from here)

It really describes the disappointment of someone with hopes of making it big after we got the independence.

The other one is Ali Sardar Jafri’s kaun dushman hai which so aptly explains the you-are-my-enemy situation between India and Pakistan. These two countries separated at birth has almost been at war with each other since the very day of independence.

ghulam tum bhi the yaroon,
ghulam hum bhi thhe

Naha ke khoon mein aayi thi fasle azadi
Maza to tab tha ki milkar ilaaj e jaan karte

khud apne haath se tameer e gulsitan karte

hammare dard mein tum, aur tumhare dard mein ham
shareek hote to jashne aashiyaan karte

Tum aao gulshan e Lahore se chaman bardosh
hum ayen subah Banaras ki roshni lekar
Himalaye ki hawaaon ki taazgi lekar
Aur iske baad ye punchhen kaun dushman hai.

Recited by Muzaffar Ali

This is the truth about the situation that India and Pakistan has seen since the day of of freedom. This place would surely have been a much better place had this enmity not been there.

This freedom (for India & Pakistan) didn’t come for free. There were people who fought for it, gave their lives in youth. Best years of their lives were spent struggling to get this land freed from the foreign rulers. Their struggle gave us this freedom but it came with India getting partitioned into two nations India & Pakistan. Millions lost their homes even lives in this process of division. Punjab was the worstly affected state. I am not sure if we can say whose mistake it was but for sure all those people who had to migrate from one side of the border to another lost everything in this process and because of no fault of theirs.

On this day we must remember and pay respect to the people who fought for the freedom struggle and then the millions who lost their lives because this country was being partitioned. Sadly the newer generation doesn’t really understand what happened at that time. But as Manto said it is very important to understand and realize what went wrong in those days so that we don’t commit those mistakes again.

With the hope that the clouds of violence and injustice fade away soon here is wishing you  a very Happy Independence Day !