Stuff I wrote for my college campus newspaper - 11

Celebrate: Republic Day

By Sanket ‘I proud to be Indian ’ Kambli

We are nearing mid January; it surely signifies something, no! It’s not about trying hard to avoid breaking all the resolutions made a few days ago. No guys, it’s our republic day I am talking about. Anyway, I don’t need to tell you, what being a republic means to this country, let’s just leave that to the textbooks. So let’s leave the details behind and just go ahead on. But can we?, considering the impact of the recent disaster, can we possibly look ahead for the republic day celebrations. If we take into account the inefficiency of our govt. in disaster management should they have the grandest celebration? Well let’s just leave these arguments to the editorials of national dailies, and direct ourselves on the day itself, which brings to my mind a flurry of thoughts from my childhood. I remember how in my schooldays, republic day was not considered as just another holiday, it was a day to celebrate, we used to go to the school for flag hoisting ceremony, proudly wearing a tiny flag fastened to our shirts, and a flag or two in our hands. Then we all would go for a ‘Prabhatpheri’ in the school neighborhood, guided by our teachers, carrying banners about some or the other social issue. Then returning home with sore throats after screaming about the aforementioned issues, me and some of my friends would quickly grab a snack, and assemble at my home, to watch the live Delhi parade, and we used sit there and start our kiddy comments on just about everything shown in the parade. Those were the days, the days of carrying flags the whole day, wherever we used to go, the days of freely displaying your love and pride for your nation, but now it’s not the case, it’s probably called childish by many to carry a flag, even on a republic day. Yeah! Some may say that one needs to have the love in their hearts, its not necessary to show it off, well that is a personal opinion, so keep it to yourselves and those who ‘wear their hearts on sleeves’ go out show your love for your country, in any so called childish way. What the heck, even if it’s not on our Independence Day celebration. A reason is sufficient, what do you say.