Thought Overflow

First and foremost, Happy Independence Day. No conditions asked, no strings attached. I hope you enjoyed the day that signifies the sovereignty of our nation and symbolises our freedom.

Some of you might have attended a flag-hoisting ceremony. You might have heard a chief guest deliver an impassioned speech about the India of yesterday, the India of today, and the India that is to come tomorrow. Some of you may have watched the Prime Minister’s and the President’s addresses this morning on TV. Many of you may have received mails and forwards of India in statistics—where we’ve come from and where we are. Invariably, many of these speeches and mails end with a “wake-up call”.

Wake up and smell the coffee. We need to achieve a lot more than we have. We may have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go before we can pause for breath. The world is moving fast, and we have to run faster to keep ahead. So, wake up.

My only question is … why do we remind each other to wake up only on one (or two—counting Republic Day) day of the year? Why do we get a sudden rush of patriotism-induced sobriety towards where this country is headed only for one day? Maybe what we should really do is to stop asking others to wake up … and just wake up ourselves. Everyday.