I Day had long ago ceased to be an occasion to display patriotism. At best it is one more national holiday, and when in the company of a weekend, it offers a great op to engage in man’s favourite pastime of doing nothing, at home or any tourist destination that beckons. The worst manifestation can be seen on the TV screens where patriotism is a sponsored show brought to you by anyone wanting to peddle anything under the sun. So why should I be any different? In any case, when pinning the national flag on the pocket of the branded T-shirt (without obstructing the brand logo, mind you) would suffice, can’t I celebrate I Day as an exclusive ‘my’ day too?
‘No cameras; no videos either’. The stern command of the spouse left me little choice. Having nothing worthwhile to do, as usual, we had decided to ‘observe’ Freedom 66 by taking a drive to Mahabs. Since all the earlier ‘My Pictures’ folders of not just Mahabs but all and sundry outings remained unopened for years, the executive order made sense, even if it is the wife issuing it. These intrusive gadgetry indulgences have become the biggest threat to freedom. What a useless exercise, this endless posing for photographs and what utter stupidity to be experiencing nature through camera lenses rather than using God-given senses! Is it not foolish to spend one’s fine recreational moments in filing away for the future rather than finding pleasure in the now?
Yeah, I can hear some dissenting voices wanting to know how going out alone with wife can be termed a ‘freedom trip’, if you see what I mean. But remember, the wife too can make similar insinuations. So, having thus made a case for gender equality, let me now outline the positive side of a mid-age sojourn. Foremost, you are freed from the ordeal of listening to the ritualistic drone of the reigning PM from the, yes, ‘ramparts of Red Fort’. You bet, the temptation to see and bid adieu to MSingh on his last speech as PM was quite persuasive, but after second thoughts, I preferred the road ride than being taken for a ride by a PM who himself is a pillion rider. In any case, you can always catch up with him on You Tube or just the tube, where there will be videos of him exhorting the nation to fight sectarian forces and enforce secularism and also watch him issue veiled threats to Pak even while making open overtures for peace with it. These videos, to be sure are uploaded by lensmen who saw him through the viewfinder and not in flesh so that we can go on long, pleasant drives, spouses notwithstanding.
Of course, I also mused about Free India. Msingh may be freed from bondage long before next I Day, but what about us, the rest of the citizens? I felt lucky in a way because the ECR was quite a distance from the LoC, though not entirely out of the jurisdiction of jihadis. But there were other core concerns. If patriotism is love for the nation, what are the guidelines for showing that love? Does hoisting of the flag by a bunch of looters and leeches make the flag proud? And what constitutes the nation when, geographically, the official map does not tally with ground realities; culturally, the country is sought to be built on the debris of its many millennia-old civilisational traditions; politically, when elected reps and rulers drafted to serve reign like monarchs, immune to any norms of accountability; and historically, when even after the exit of the British, foreign rule remains.
But we Indians have a unique advantage. When confronted by confusing conundrums we can always invoke the unknowable, throw up our hands in surrender to the Supreme and shift gears from the material and mundane to the spiritual and sublime. My escape came as I took a turn into a lane and entered the precincts of a temple. ‘For God’s sake, leave the mobile in the car’, said the voice that you are all familiar with. She left hers, though ‘forgot’ would be apt. Since God has been called in, I obeyed; not that I wouldn’t otherwise. But getting back to the point, Bharath’s religious traditions talk much about freedom: It holds that everything in nature is bound by time and space and therefore not free, whereas the soul is unbound. Real freedom is in rising above the pulls, pressures, pleasures and pains of life; The material world is full of chains that shackle the individual. Swami Vivekananda puts it succinctly: ‘The unstable condition of the mind must be changed … when we have succeeded in preventing all the forces in the world from throwing us off our balance, then alone we have attained to freedom and not before’. Profound words, but ones that will not breach even our eardrums, let alone reaching that elusive thing called soul. Not certainly, when another irate driver is honking behind you or an EMI is likely to land in an empty account next day. Or for that matter, when the PM is delivering the I Day address from the ramp …no!
A strange impotence gives rise to an overpowering urge to imitate those stone sculptures of Mahabs, silent sentinels who have seen and surveyed scores of spectators over centuries. But the fact is we are all entrapped, as humans and as citizens of this country. We have to suffer our karmas and doings as also our leaders and their undoings. Indeed, to quote MSingh, we have miles to go; and to paraphrase Modi, we know not what rocket will carry us. But for the present, I decided to record my thoughts before they vanished from my mental monitor. After all, when the spouse issued the ban on gadgets, she forgot to mention the laptop, a loophole that I lapped up. Small wonder, the return journey was not all that pleasant. But free speech survived, at least.
e-mail the writer at [email protected]
