The Dead Patriot

Now I know!

Facebook has become such an integral part of the current lifestyles that when I think about being patriotic, the only thing that comes to my mind is something that my friend Salman Amin wrote in his facebook status...

You get out of the country to save the patriot in yourself...

 

It took me almost an hour to find this quote, all thanks to the random shit that's populating and polluting Salman Amin's facebook wall ;-)

 

 

 

 

 Independence day is around the corner and everyone's busy digging out the patriot in them, even if there is none. It is funny and equally dismal to notice that people take out all their love for the country a day or two before the 15th of August or rarely around 26th of January... but, I remember a survey where 73% people said that 26th January and 15th August were just another holidays for them, then why do they spend few seconds out of their schedule to message a "Happy Independence Day" with such dedication. 

 

I can not lament on this irony as I realized it last night that I make a part of it. 

 

Everybody is painting the town tricolor, so how could the schools lag behind? Yesterday evening when my niece asked me to make an Indian flag on a chart because her teacher had asked so, Independence day aaya toh yaad aaya Indian flag? What jerks? I thought, and I hated even the slight thought of giving the flag a few minutes from my otherwise useless and spare time, but I couldn't let my niece down and I am thankful I did not. 

I think it was my 3rd or 4th standard in school when our teachers told us the meaning behind the tricolors of the Indian flag and my teacher always corrected me when I said 'orange' instead of 'saffron', What's the difference? I always questioned back. Then, the school life got over and as was obvious I never got an opportunity to study beyond what my teacher told me about the flag, but how much could she have told me? She couldn't infuse everything in my mind, and it never interested me to research beyond what had been told to me. So, when years later I appeared for the entrance exam for my architecture course, I sat in the hall laughing at the question paper when I read the very ridiculously easy question as it seemed to me...

Which color is not present in the Indian flag?

a. Saffron

b. Green
c. Black

d. Navy Blue

I came out, excited and elated about the sheer easiness of the exam. In this date, a child studying in 4th or 5th standard might know the answer to this, but, to many people's and my own dismay, I had gone for the option d. Shame! I had always colored my flag with a black chakra, and considering how stubborn I was, my teacher overlooked the mistake or today I wonder if even she was sure of the colors in the Indian flag. I might have done 99 correct out of 100 but what let me down was this 1 answer that was not only a deduction from my score, but also a mere point of shame for me - the careless patriot as people called me back in school.

This was 3 years back, and last night when I sat down to make the Indian flag for this little girl, I was happy that I knew the chakra was to be navy blue, but it took me a google search to find out if the chakra touched the saffron and green bands, or if the chakra actually had 24 spokes as I had read back in school.

Maybe  not her teacher, I am the jerk here!

So, do I have the right to even lament on what people are doing in the name of patriotism? Even after what I have done to my patriotism, I think I still have these rights.

Why?

I do not spend even those few seconds in messaging "Happy Independence Day" to my friends. I do not talk about the loss that this country faced way back during the freedom war. I do not fake about what I feel, about what I know and what I know not. I may not know the right colors of my country's flag, but would it have helped if I had mugged up all that information just to make myself able to put it all in a message on the eve of the Independence Day or the Republic Day? Giving an entrance exam, or making the flag for my niece; at least it took me an introspection before I could blindly put those colors on the sheet. I am more proud than those who are continuously pressing the 'forward' in their phones or the mailbox.

I may not be the careless patriot that I used to be once. But, I am happily breaking this worthless slumber and no more being The Dead Patriot.

So, it's better to leave the country and save the patriot in yourself than staying in the country and keeping the patriot locked inside your shallow mindscape.

And I hope even Salman would agree to it, who at first even considered of leaving the country and  saving the patriot in himself ;-)