Wagha Border 25th July
It’s hot, very hot and the white cement steps looked like iron tava (frying pan) awaiting for my soft butt to be placed on them and burn my butt all red… but then came the few brave men who are ready to sacrifice their blood for the tri color, their arrival aroused the big cheer -- “Bharath Matha Ki Jai” for them and for my country. Approximately 300 men, 150 women, 50 foreigners, and 50 VIP’s (Whom I never heard cheering) and lot of NON INDIANS cheer in a single voice “Hindustan Zindabadh!!!” “Vande Matharam”. I‘m soo excited, I am soo happy, my voice is going high, the energy levels are sky high. As if we are warriors ready for a war, facing the enemy on the other side, we are all gearing up to kill the enemy with our loud cheer of “Vande Matharam!!!”.
A hundred meters from all these are two huge gates, one belongs to Hindustan and the other belongs to Pakistan. On the other side of the Pakistani gate, are similar white cement steps one side for men and the other side for women, the crowd on the other side was smaller, approximating 100 Men and equal number of women.
Inside our gate
“Vande Matharam!!!” “Bharath Matha Ki Jai!!!” All of us are jumping out of our seat, all are cheering for Hindustan…. “Hindustan Zindabadh!!!” “Vande Matharam!!” …. we had few patriotic songs on the loud speakers, few people danced to the tunes of the song, there was one elderly citizen of around 60 years who started dancing which added color to the event. I feel soo proud of my country and country men. I remember my hero Bhagat Singh, thanking him for sacrificing his life for us and for a moment I go back to the time when our freedom fighters faced the British with cheers of “Vande Matharam!!!” and I feel how thrilled they must have been, it was a real situation and they were there really fighting a war… no doubt they felt it’s worth sacrificing for our country. I feel the power in the words “Vande Matharam!!!!” “Bharath Matha Ki Jai!!!”.
After some time when we are at the peak of the excitement and the energy levels are running high war reaching a vital point, victory will be decided by who cheers the loudest. Will it be Hindustan or Pakistan?!?
We go “Barath matha ke Jai!!!”, “Hindustan Zindabadh!!”
from the other side of gate comes “Pakistan Zindabadh!!”
we go “Hindustan Zindabadh!!!” other side “Pakistan Zindabadh!!”
we go “Hindustan Zindabadh!!!” other side “Pakistan Zindabadh!!” yes you guessed it right we were the loudest and we were at the edge of victory, then…. as if someone stabbed me from behind I hear “Jai Shivaji!!! Jai Bhavani!!!” …
Remember that burning in my butt? Suddenly it reaches my heart and all of me is on fire… What the hell?!?!?!?! what is happening? Shouldn’t it be “Hindustan Zindabadh!??!” “Vande Matharam!!!??” and the burning in my heart increased when few NON-INDIANS started “Jai Maharashtra!!!” and “Jai Jai Jai Jai Shivaji!! Jai Jai Jai Bhavani!!!”
Now we had a 3 way war, with those on the other side chanting “Pakistan Zindabadh!!!” at the top of their lungs. Meanwhile,
Inside Hindustan, there are cheers of “Vande Matharam!!!” and NON-INDIANS inside our own gate going “Jai Shivaji!!!”
The saddening thing was that repeated requests on the loud speaker from our soldiers not to cheer any other slogan other than “Vande Matharam!!!”, “Hindustan Zindabadh!!!” and “Bharath Matha Ki Jai!!!” went unheard.
Just a small thought crossed my mind, when people put region or language before country pretty soon we no longer sing to the same tune and as a nation we loose steam. We are no longer able to sound out a united, powerful, harmonious war cry because the diverse cries spoil the symphony. Had there been chants coming from gangs of Sikhs, Kannadiga's or Tamilian's we would have had lots of wars going on inside our own gate. Wait a second!!! Don’t we already have wars going on inside our own gates?? The hard truth is, yes! We do have these wars going on inside our own country in the name of regions, language, god and caste.
The return journey to the Golden Temple was hard, my heart filled with fire, a feeling of loosing the internal war, a voice shouting “Why, people Why???” we are Indians, we are ONE! I had lost the war against our own country men, maybe these are the real enemies of our country’s progress?
Yes, we should be proud of the diversity of our country, we have different languages, cultures and religions which I am so proud of and tell my foreign friends that, when I have to go to foreign I have to just travel 300 Km’s from Bangalore and find new people, new language, new culture. It’s so beautiful that India has these, but as individuals when we represent our country, Indian should be first and foremost. It’s not enough to blame politicians, even we should think of our country before our God, Religion, Region and Language.
I remember this scene from the latest hit movie “Chake De” where the new coach of the Indian hockey team ask the players to come forward and introduce themselves, players start introducing themselves as belonging to their state and not the country.
I am one of them who believe that India will be a super power by 2020 and feel that these few low thinking “NON-INDIANS”, may slow down the progress, but the hope is that there are more true INDIANS who are fighting as one for our nation’s progress and I still feel we will be a super-power before 2020.
Now, you can sit there and say “Who’s Father What Goes!!” or really start dreaming about being a super-power and think of India before you, your God, your state and Caste. This mindset may be one of the factors slowing down the nation from being a super-power.
