Appreciating our heritage

Here's something I've been wanting to blog about for a long time but never got around to. A couple of months back, on January 25th, I asked a friend of mine what she was planning to do the next day. She looked absolutely blank and then said, the usual holiday stuff- wake up late, go out for lunch or watch a movie etc. I was actually quite surprised and then started wondering about how many people today do take the trouble of celebrating the day and putting it into context for their children, rather than just treating it as another break from the stress of work.

For me, from the time I was a child, the whole Indian Independence struggle story really resonated at a very deep emotional level. I knew my dad's whole family had been involved, many of my aunts and uncles had even gone to jail for it, my grandfather was one of the founder members of the Congress Party in Mysore, though I'm glad to say he eschewed politics after India became independent. Even dad, who was only a toddler at the time of the Quit India movement, played a role - he used to be the guard outside the house, along with their dog Jacky, and any time he saw a British solider, he's say loudly, "Down Down Union Jack, Up, up Indian Flag" as an alarm for the students involved in the movement who used to hide out at their house. My grandparents lived hand to mouth, but sheltered scores of such students in their home, putting them up on the roof where they could escape notice, and sharing the family's one meal of the day with them and helping them get away to safety.

I've always felt super charged-up about the days which celebrate India's Independence movement, be it Independence Day or 26th January. In our colony, we have a flag-hoisting ceremony on those days, at about 8:30 in the morning, and whoever wants to be there turns up, we all sing the National Anthem and Vande Mataram together and share a few sweets before disbursing. Sometimes it is a pain to force myself to get up that early, but I make sure we do it, all the more since we've had kids, because I feel it's important to them that they get a sense of their country's history and heritage. It only takes a few minutes but that's all one needs to reaffirm our connection with our past, and to feel, even for a few minutes, the same sense of idealism about how we can shape our country. What I find sad is that nowadays, only the older people living in the colony show up, hardly anyone with young kids bothers.

This year, I tuned in to the Republic Day Parade and as always, got goosebumps when I saw the various armed forces marching past. Some years back, when Dad was still in the Civil service, we used to go watch it live, and I always found it incredibly moving. Beating the Retreat is something I would love to take my kids to watch next year - there is nothing to beat that ceremony for its heart-stirring music and that poignant moment when the trumpets blow, the sun starts its descent and the camel troops perched on the ramparts of Rashtrapati Bhavan are silhouetted for one frozen moment of eternity against the orange-stained sky.

I don't necessarily think it's a proof of patriotism to be jingoistic or even to celebrate these events but I do feel that it is one way for us to always remember what we fought for, how far we have come and how far we have yet to go. It's a way to connect back to our own history, in which our fathers or grandfathers could have played a role, and to connect at a deeply emotional and visceral level with the idea of India. To treat it as just another holiday seems to me almost a betrayal of what they fought for; or well, betrayal is the wrong word - trivialising it. What do you think - am I being overemotional and senti?