"Meandering Pachyderms"

Indians have long been associated with the disdainful term “meandering pachyderms”. Also, in couple of forums on TV or otherwise, lack of patriotism gets highlighted. Sitting idle, I happen to relate this acquisition to my observations from couple of places I visited in recent times (US and Mumbai). In US, I noticed US flag being displayed at lot of places, in front of hotels, restaurants, adventure clubs etc. I remember how one of my friend, always ridiculous of India, commented to my childlike question, “We do not have our flag in India at some many location”, by saying that “In India if we put our flag on road, it will turn black in couple of days due to dust and pollution and then someone will use the cloth for cleaning its shoes etc”. An answer I felt uncomfortable with, yet something in me counterfeited my feelings. Why do we have people so insensitive about our National flag or for that matter whole nation itself? I do not intend to refer to a particular person; it is just that I meet lot of people with similar thought process. Are people the problem or is it the system? Something which encourages me to think deeper in this.

Yesterday, in an article in TOI about education in China, I read how Chinese students in every school take a 5 minute break for these National Anthem everyday, a practice common across China and followed religiously across all regions of the Great China. On the other hand, citing a similar example of promotion of patriotism and feel for the country, in Mumbai, all the movies I watched had one thing in common. Every movie started with National Anthem with audience standing in respect (I do not remember myself when last time I heard National Anthem before Mumbai). Perfect. We are just there. The only problem is that the practice not being followed across regions. No where else, at least in NCR is this thing followed. There must be some school promoting National Anthem. But not everywhere.

No doubt we are democratic. No doubt we are diverse. No doubt we are liberal. No doubt we have reforms. But can’t we have a system to reinforce the basic values back to the society. Food for thought.