Plastic Independence

No, this is not a statement intended at being dismissive about India's 60th year of being a politically free nation. After a painful and bloody birth, a mass of illiterate and poor people were to usher in the miracle of democracy. The process is still on, despite the 'teeming millions' not getting fruits of keeping this machinery of parliamentary politics functional.

The title is more a reminder of how amidst this growing up and getting complicated about what being politically free citizen meant, one has lost the connect with the emotive experience of living this day in a state-run school. Free sweets, the unfurling of national flag and the exhilaration of the national anthem being sung to the beats of drums. All this made the day special or more than just a day off from the office that it has become.

There are symbols galore, which made associating with the idea of independence more tangible. On the eve of this Independence Day, I was at a shop to pick up a khadi attire for my two-plus kid. Seeing him in a Gandhi cap spurred a strange longing and reminded me of how synthetic the idea of independence has become in all these years.

This picture is of a plastic doll kept at the entrance of the Khadi shop in CP, and to me, as I enviously saw a steady stream of children pour in to dress-up in the special fabric, it captures a debasing of the idea of India as an emotive expression.

By the way my son knows a patriotic jingle now, and I plan to hear it as many times as I can, since I am all too grown up to do it myself.