Question of the day : Is it cool to be a patriot ?
This was the probably my last republic day in an educational institution.
Me being a act-according-to-situation guy. I was in great dilemma about whether to portrait myself as cynic as generally happens or as a patriot and praise my motherland .
Several things go through my mind thinking about it.
Is it kind-a cool to be a cynic and just deny any love to my nation?
One can talk about it the whole day so much to talk about, it has been so much in the news that I’ll not take the pain to put them here again. It is always kind-a exciting and just the kind-a adrenaline that rushes through (at least) my blood to criticize somebody or something.
It’s really a great dilemma . It’s always about being cool , being the talk of the college ,prestige blah blah blah.
As i was going through these thoughts .
The flag was hoisted .
Then a speech [i don’t know ,was it in Bengali?] by Mr Datta. [He was really in the ‘Dabang’ style . Black goggles, Police Inspector like uniform and a ‘danda’ too]
A speech From Mr Channiwala, really good one.
Msg : Need to file more patents from india , some stats that “America had some number of patents ( about a lakh ) , Chinese has even more, But india had just 28k something.” Awareness about filing patents has to be increased.
Cultural Stuff .
Bharatnatyam on Vande mataram. [ Donot mistake with the’ Vande Mataram ‘ sung by Lata Mangeshkar . It’s A.R.Rehman with his exotic music. Probably Vande Mataram was know for its words but this guy so talented … now its just about the Music. ].
Patriotic songs , well i know very few had closed their eyes to have ‘a feel’ of that, but it was kind-a good.[Oh, not me.]
Most interesting Part , A speech again, right from his introduction from the anchor , “an award from CM of Jharkhand”[ i could not here the rest]. I said this is awesome. This guy with a specs on , starts with a one liner from personalities, [actually there were too many in the whole speech], I really thought this might be the way Great leaders like Lal Bahadur shastri etc , influence the people despite of having a simple physical personality . it was awesome , I had heard such an provoking Speech after quite a while. Many do well in schools but in this cut-throat-competition-of getting-into-college stops most from carrying on.
But it was the Food that matters the most. Most of you who did not attend to this event , It was vada and upma.[This just took away all the influence that guy had put on me.]
Have a nice day..
I do like comments.
Akshay Adiga's Blog 
#1 by Shameel on January 26, 2011 - 6:43 am
first of all, patriotism is not about praising our country, because prasing a country does not mean loving it, to try to make your country worthy of praise is patriotism…
secondly, “Vande Mataram” sung by Lata Mangeshkar is not the original version either….though i agree with you on the ‘people enjoying music more than lyrics’ part..
it was nice to read your description of the festival…gives an entirely different angle..
#2 by akshayadiga on January 26, 2011 - 7:12 am
1) I agree .. praising a country does not mean loving it. happy to correct myself..
I really meant criticizing the country’s ‘developments’ is not patriotic when one will , for sure , do nothing for it.
2)I never said that the original version was sung by Lata Mangeshkar .. but still it was the most accepted and circulated , and had most original words.
Thanks for the appreciation..
#3 by Anil on January 26, 2011 - 8:48 pm
Hey cool u gave a thought to it man..
but first i wana make 1 thing clear attendin republic day n independence day flag hoisting ceremony isnt the definition of a true patriot
Patriotism is wen a person through the best of his abilities gives his best effort in building of the nation
And when one does he should be called cool