During a meeting at my office today, suddenly there was an announcement. Like a natural reflex action, everyone in the room stood up after listening to it. By now each one of you must have guessed what the announcement could be. It was “As all of you know, today is Martyr’s Day. Exactly 60 years ago Father of our Nation laid his life for the freedom and development of this country.You are requested to stand up in silence for 2 minutes in memory of those thousands of martyrs who laid their lives in the freedom struggle.” And after 2 minutes we resumed the meeting. But the question is even in those 2 minutes did anyone even think of the freedom struggle and the martyrs? Does this forced silence for 2 minutes serve its purpose? Is standing up in silence for 2 minutes a year enough for remembering their struggle for freedom?
Same is our attitude towards Independence Day and Republic Day. It’s just another holiday for us. As a mark of Republic or Independence Day, the maximum most of us do is listening to a couple of patriotic songs. The so called leaders of our country will be in great demand this day for hoisting our national flag. Leaders like Nehru and Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel held positions in government and were respected so much because they were always at the forefront when it came to defending our country from foreign powers. But today people who actually fight for our country are the least known. A common Indian like me (yeah…even though I am writing this post, I am no exception) would know more politicians than soldiers or defense officers.
I know very well that no single person (or even a group of people) can change our thinking overnight but the least we can do is remember and respect the freedom fighters and our soldiers whenever we feel for them. It should not be a forced one and limited to certain predefined time or day.
P.S: The irony of this post is that it was thought upon in those 2 minutes of silence. Only while composing the post, I realized the graveness of this issue. I am not sure if this article will be of any good to any of you but it certainly made me think.
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6 comments:
intense...dats what come to the mind when u read dis particular one..however we dint have any announcements at our client's :D...still its heartening to see u finally got some time to keep d blog goin' and as ur gtalk status says to chat :D
If in two minutes you makesuch an important observation, then dear you better not think more than two minutes for updating your blog;). Anyways very thought provoking piece.
yeaa i did think of those ppl whom i dont know ..!
which i wudnt have if the 2 min announcement was not there!
yeah , thanks fr reminding that we had the death anniversary of the father of the nation yesterday........to put things in perspective .. i never manage to forget valentines day or new year eve........man ashamed of myself i should be... :)
hi... this one is really the most appealing of all your posts as this touches the reality in a very naive way.. hope some of us will be inspired by this and do things which is wanted from us in the way that the national spirit at least rises from the current state..
me doing a job which some day might get included in those two minutes of silence.. cheers to you sweety...
gud that u reminded us all of the father of nation as also all others who died for our cause.
n if it makes us think of him for atleast two minutes and if it makes a blog post , then i believe that the ritual of two min silence is worth it.
hope we dont forget it all for the next 364 days like the newspapers do n keep the respect for those martyrs reserved for only anniversaries.
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