Jan 26, Aug 15 . . .. what do these dates mean to us.
We all know the significance of these Anniversaries, but has it lost all meaning to us?
We just enjoy a holiday, away from work, studies etc. Do we ever stop and wonder!
Now what to wonder about? I really don’t know. But I can’t help feeling that we are all not doing something right. On festival days most of us do some sort of puja to god, eat a good meal and probably buy clothes, jewellery etc even if we don’t know/understand the significance of those festivals.
But what do we do on I Day and R Day? Hoist a flag, sing the Anthem and then enjoy the rest of the day?!!..... Shouldn’t we be doing something special on these days? Because we all know AND understand the significance of these two anniversaries. IS THERE ANYTHING WE CAN DO TO MARK THIS DAY, apart from the monotonous activities of flag hoisting and Anthem singing?
There is a special day for many things: there is a fathers day, mothers day, teachers day, Valentine’s Day friendship day, etc. Though these are often dismissed as a western conception and as marketing gimmicks, it atleast has given us an occasion to express our feelings. It is true that one loves his father/mother/teacher/girlfriend/ boyfriend every living moment. But it is not every day that you have the time and inclination to express your love to them. Such occasions as fathers day, mothers day,teachers day etc provide this opportunity.
In a similar way I Day and R Day are supposed to be anniversaries when we express our feelings or do some introspection. I Day and R Day are days on which we show or feel love for our country. It is true that we love out country every living moment (atleast most of us do), but how do we go about showing patriotism for the country?
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I am personally of the opinion that there should actually be _NO_ holiday for such occasions.
ReplyDeleteAsk yourself, what do we do with a vacation on these holidays? Go around, meet some friends, and if you are lucky take your girl around the city. Today these days are just "day offs" nothing else.
agreed. Thats my point too.but revoking the holiday on these days will only lead to a lot of political problems for whichever govt. which is brave enough to try it out. so we need to think of how to spend this day the way it was meant to ( in an ideal world)
ReplyDeleteNow that Valentines Day is over, let me ask you simple question, how many SMS, how many greetings were exchanged on this day?
ReplyDeleteAnd how many messages are exchanged on Independence Day, I would probably change my news channel at the mention of these topics.
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ReplyDeleteI dint get what u mean.
ReplyDeleteAre u saying that u will change ur TV channel at the mention of I Day topics or V Day topics.
If u consider only in India, i guess sms greetings on I day will outnumber those from V Day. Saying u love ur country is more fashionable than saying u love ur girl/ boy friend ( it seems)
Certainly from my side there were no sms on either of these days :-)
The way i think about this is, If you do what you have to do properly on normal days (not I or R days), you are doing good but not great service to your country. And its the country's way of paying back by giving you two days off.
ReplyDelete@nag
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the blog.
That is surely a nice way of looking at the matter. *thumbs up*
I dint get what u mean.
ReplyDeleteAre u saying that u will change ur TV channel at the mention of I Day topics or V Day topics.
I was talking in general, most of times we would prefer to switch our channel whenever there is a mention of Independence day. I have done that personally, and I have seen many a times. Hell! what is so special about this day. Some big politician unfurlled the flag on this day. All this is boring for a lot of us.
But then look at V-Day, the moment it is mentioned, one might be tempted to know about it. What are the most common gifts that guys gifted, what is the total number of SMS sent. All this is BIG news.
If u consider only in India, i guess sms greetings on I day will outnumber those from V Day.
I seriously doubt this one.
Certainly from my side there were no sms on either of these days :-)
No wonder :-)
i think we should look at alternative's..as just revoking a holiday might not be enough as a huge chunk of the population as to be disciplined and taught the meaning of it..its no point until there's a radical idea : "every person will serve the country's forces (defences, domestic, civil) for a certain period of time (8 years) irrespective of who they are".. this is the case in austria..its not something new..something like this will put everything to rest
ReplyDeleteU posted more questions than answers.So what do u propose to be done on I-Day or R-Day?
ReplyDelete@Nikhil
ReplyDeleteI am confused citizen. I dont know the answers to the issues i raised here. That is the main reason i wanted to discuss this topic. Am interested in knowing the opinions of fellow Indians on this matter. I guess, the reply from puneethspeed might be a possible solution
and also nagaraj's way of looking at it might be a nice way to get a feel good factor
i dont quite agree with u that not every day u can do something.its the case that only on special days u get time to express or show the significance of the day.yes certainly the "days" concept is borrowed one.if u have will power whatever u want to do country u can do it all time ,not only on the d-day itself.it applies to any other day too.u can always show affection and gratitude to mother .anytime and not specifically on "the day" itself
ReplyDelete@anonymous
ReplyDeleteI agree that we can do anything we want to, provided we have the time and inclination to so.
But the issue is, when we have designated days for certain events,how do we spend that day?
[Rhetorically, would everyone hoist their country's flag everyday? and sing the anthem everyday too....after passing out of high schools] It is for such people, the designated D-days should mean something. As it is an occasion to mark some siniicant event in our history.
I -day for instance, what "special" activity do we undertake to mark the occasion? and i am not looking for a reply about the flag hoisting, anthem singing etc. [ like u said, we can do this every day, if we want to]. I am interested in knowing how fellow Indians spend these days. Does everyone take a "rest day" from their hectic lives or is there something else they do?
So far, almost everyone i know treats it as "just another holiday". And all these are patriotic people, who love their country.
What does patriotism mean? Is it not a dividing line between people? And the question to be always thought of is "Why should we b patriotic". There are millions of people all over the world waiting for some sort of help from ppl . Then the word "patriotism" is nothing but a term used to confine ourselves.
ReplyDeleteWhat does patriotism mean?
ReplyDeleteI asked that first :-). See this thread's title.
Is it not a dividing line between people?
yes, i guess so. But that depends on how you want to look at it. There is no one dimensional way of looking at this or for that matter anything
And the question to be always thought of is "Why should we b patriotic". There are millions of people all over the world waiting for some sort of help from ppl . Then the word "patriotism" is nothing but a term used to confine ourselves.
wow.
This is my hypothesis:
Patriotism is supposed to inculcate a sense of belonging. Not a sense of confinement. But practically, it may have turned out that it has become more of a confining principle.
Like they say, if everyone keep his own house clean, then the whole world will be clean.
Similarly, here. If everyone of us can help those who are geographically close to us, then every one helps and gets helped. simple as that? well, not really.
It is human tendency to pay greater care to something which belongs to you or something to which you belong. So if you belong to a country or rather have a "sense of belonging", be it any city/town/country etc, then you are likely to do more to improve the situation.
So if this is the case, then "why should we not be patriotic?"
On the other side of the coin, there are extremists who use the shield of patriotism to commit heinous crimes. We dont need such patriots.(If at all they can be called patriots)