{"id":3141,"date":"2016-03-11T05:23:14","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T23:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3141"},"modified":"2016-03-11T05:23:14","modified_gmt":"2016-03-10T23:53:14","slug":"independence-day-mumbai-school-functions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=3141","title":{"rendered":"Nanha Munna Rahi Hoon: What I Miss Most About School Independence Day Functions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“S<\/span><\/p><\/div>

aturdays are meant for sleeping!\u201d, said my friend Anuj, greatly upset over how Independence Day had fallen on a weekend that year, and our headmistress had demanded our attendance for the school\u2019s event regardless. As <\/span>school children<\/span><\/a>, we used to think our freedom fighters had struggled against the British just so we could get a day off, and I find not much has changed as we\u2019ve grown older.<\/span>\n\nAs an adult, I often look back upon all those times our teachers took us aside to remind us of the importance of flag hoisting and how we groaned and whined about coming to school on Saturdays. This class of complainers graduated to become a generation that thinks of patriotism as a formality we fulfil at movie halls, which we visit ironically late so we don\u2019t have to stand for the <\/span>national<\/span><\/a> anthem. Sadly, what we failed to realise was that Independence Day at school would the only phase in our lives where we would truly understand what it meant to be a patriot, without the tainted layers of nationalism and political stances that colour the notion as adults.<\/span>\n\nStarting the morning with an extravagant on-stage rendition of \u201cNanha Munna Rahi Hoon\u201d or \u201cAye Mere Watan Ke Logon\u201d sure beats logging on to Facebook and getting sucked into a debate over whether <\/span>\u201clynching is justified\u201d<\/span><\/a>. And for all the exhausting practice sessions under the unforgiving afternoon sun, march past was still less draining than trying to keep up with all the UIDAI\u2019s announcements on Aadhaar. Even with all our childish complaints about having to give up a <\/span>holiday<\/span><\/a>, by the time the principal was joined by the head boy and head girl on stage to unfurl the flag and lead the school in singing \u201cJana Gana Mana\u201d, our impressionable minds were filled with strong sense of belonging to a country, of being united while surrounded by people from all backgrounds. <\/span>\n\nNow, we\u2019re far too busy with our work schedules and misplaced priorities to stop for a minute and appreciate the occasion. <\/span>\n\n

The lofty ideals enshrined in the Constitution, imparted to us via a heavily used blackboard during Civics class, would come home to roost on Independence Day.<\/p><\/blockquote> \n\n\u201cYouth is wasted on the young,\u201d George Bernard Shaw once said, and his wisdom is applicable even in this aspect. In school, we were able to embrace the idea of <\/span>India<\/span><\/a> wholeheartedly. The lofty ideals enshrined in the Constitution, imparted to us via a heavily used blackboard during Civics class, would come home to roost on Independence Day. By the end of the school event, after the skits on the lives of freedom fighters and rousing singalongs, we would truly feel the sentiments enshrined in the National Pledge, that all Indians really were our brothers and sisters.<\/span>\n\nBut now, the patriotic songs that once signified our freedom are now reduced to annoying ditties that echo through our localities, disrupting our sleep while we lie tucked in our beds, whining about our holiday being ruined… just like my friend Anuj did all those years ago. But perhaps by forgetting what we were taught in schools, we\u2019ve led ourselves down this path of indifference, of being the proverbial ostriches with their heads in the sand, while the country is cracking along fault lines long ignored. <\/span>\n\nThis <\/span>Independence Day<\/span><\/a>, maybe it\u2019s time to remember we all have a responsibility toward the nation\u2019s future. After all, we said as much ourselves as students all those years ago, when we sang out, \u201cNanna munna raahi hoon, desh ka sipahi hoon.\u201d<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We might have complained endlessly about school Independence Day celebrations back then. But it was the only phase in our lives where we truly understood what it meant to be a patriot, without the layers of nationalism and political stances that colour that notion as adults.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":3142,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[6144,6145,19,489,1739,6146],"class_list":["post-3141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pov","tag-independence-day","tag-independence-day-2018","tag-india","tag-patriotism","tag-school","tag-school-functions"],"yoast_head":"\nNanha Munna Rahi Hoon: What I Miss Most About School Independence Day Functions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We might have complained endlessly about school Independence Day celebrations back then. 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