It had a knot!

After a complete week of Steve Jobs craze that finally resulted in me being able to complete the biography, I proclaimed that this is the first thing in 7 years that has been able to keep me hooked to it after Harry Potter. The life that this ‘arrogant’ man lived who knew just one thing really well- how to talk- is sure to be a big inspiration for me. But right now, I concentrate on this new blog entry at a new blog- the third blog I am writing for after my personal blog and the Creative Call blog. And my theme of writing is, for now, not related to Jobs at all.

It’s the 26^th day of January today and it has been 62 years since 1950- A big and significant day for the Republic of India. Don’t worry; I am not going to write down the history of this, starting right from the 1930 Purna Swaraj resolution. If you are an Indian and reading this, then you are surely aware of the complete thing. If not, shame on you! Google it right now!

Till this morning, I had no idea what I was going to make this entry on. It was perhaps going to be something related to trains. But an event this morning compelled me to write about today’s day.

Last night my aunt got me to write an introductory speech, for the Republic Day Celebration in our colony, that she was to deliver. The speech didn’t take me long to write- 5 minutes and it was done. How? Simple reason for that. I am used to writing these kind of speeches and have done so at least 6 times for the Republic Days and Independence Days from 2005-2007. I opened my laptop and showed her one of the videos that I had saved from the Independence Day of 2006. I was in class 8 then. We, a small group of friends aged 8-14, had formed a children’s club in our colony and we used to hoist the national flag early in the morning (6 AM to be precise) on these two days on the terrace of our building. We used to be in our white school uniforms and prepare for the day, at least a week in advance. Cultural programs and distribution of sweets (we didn’t like the traditional ladoos, so we got gulab-jamuns) had soon become an integral part of the event. We used to go to each of the houses before 6; ring the door-bells and get everyone up to be in attendance. [:D]

A video-grab from 15 August
2006, when the flag had a knot!

One of the most common features of those events was the unfurling of the flag (that’s obvious, isn’t it?) Well, what was amusing about this was the fact that when the rope was pulled, the flag rarely ever opened! It had a knot! That happened because of our usual lack of knowledge on how to tie the knot so as to open it in one pull. I remember once using a long stick and once (the video that I showed to my aunt last night) climbing up the pole to open the flag! Hahaha…

And then we used to proceed to school for the flag hoisting and cultural programmes of the day.

I moved to Delhi in 2008 and what I saw here was something completely unexpected and very unusual for me. My friends at Delhi would perhaps be surprised by me terming this unusual and might even disagree- 15^th of August and 26^th of January were two days of ‘eat-drink-sleep’. That’s it! National holiday! Schools closed! Flag-hoisting on 14^th August and 25^th January due to security concerns. What the hell was going on?

I got used to this less-patriotic feel soon (Yes, that’s how I termed it when I first encountered the situation in 2008). For the first two years I felt weird, not witnessing a flag-hoisting on the D-days. I did attend the Republic Day parade of 2009 at Rajpath and that was not a great experience for sure. (That’s a completely different story which I wouldn’t like to include here- it would deviate from what I am talking about) But now, after 4 years, even I have got used to this. It’s just another holiday for me now. I was surprised and amazed at the fact that till last night I didn’t receive even a single text message from anyone with the nationalist feeling. (Should I blame it to TRAI’s SMS limitation?[:D])

I am watching the climax scene of Border, one of my all-time favourite movies. And I should put my pen down now or I wouldn’t have readers for this really-long-boring blog entry! But before I conclude, perhaps you would like to know what event this morning ‘compelled’ me to write this entry. Here it goes- I attended the flag-hoisting ceremony in my colony this morning and the when the rope was pulled, the flag didn’t open. It had a knot!

Wish you a very Happy 63^rd Republic Day. Jai Hind!