Happy Independence Day!

As we grew up, we always heard delighted chirps like `Happy Deepavali', `Merry Christmas', `Happy Holi', `Happy Pongal' etc on a few occasions of festivity.  During the last two, three decades things have evolved to such an extent that shouts like `Happy Republic Day', `Happy Sivaraathri', `Happy Aavani Avittam', `Happy Vaikunta Ekadasi' etc have become commonplace. Even Memorial Day, Thanksgiving and Labour Day have `happy' greetings flowing out from that segment which has or has had association with USA. The primary driver for all this overflowing happiness seems to be the fact that all such days are holidays for most people.  At least for the majority of people hailing each other, the particular day's significance ends probably with the wish and the rest of the day is just another holiday.  Please don't get me wrong; I have no grouse against anybody being happy on any day, including a working day and realise that people have the right to wish each other `Happy Tuesday afternoon' if they so desire.

My thesis that holidays define the greetings is strengthened by the fact that some ebullient but reasonably clueless individuals have been heard to wish `Happy Good Friday'.  They pay no heed to the fact that Christ's followers would definitely be not happy about what happened on that day and could justifiably take offence being gleefully greeted.  If Good Friday is not a holiday, I am almost certain that no greeting will be exchanged outside of the community.  May be there is a case for declaring Good Friday a restricted holiday only for the Christian community -- I know that does not sound secular from a political standpoint and there could be vicious objections from various quarters --  just to avoid bloopers from the ill-informed sections of citizenry.  I have very little knowledge about the festivals of Islam, but can venture a guess that 'Happy Bakrid' may not be an appropriate greeting, simply because the day signifies sacrifice; being the day on which Ibrahim sacrificed his son.  I could be wrong.  Good Friday and Bakrid are celebrations alright, but are definitely dissimilar to Pongal and Holi in terms of the nature and texture of the celebration.  For most of us, the only common denominator is the fact that all are holidays.  So, my point is this:  Shouldn't we be sensitive and use different types of greetings for occasions, instead of being just `happy' about the holiday?

What about Independence Day?  When we were kids, we congregated at the school, sang a few patriotic songs with childish gusto after the tricolour was hoisted by the fierce headmaster or some other equally sombre chief guest, eagerly collected our toffees and dispersed to enjoy the holiday.  At that time, the exchange was `Independence Day Greeting', if I remember right.  There was indeed a speech from someone to remind us about the privileges of Independence, but also of the sacrifices people made, about the pain people went through and the lives that were lost around the time of independence.  That seems in fitness of things because the day is not just to rejoice that we are independent, but also to recall what we, as a country, went through to achieve that.  That is why I personally feel that a breezy `Happy Independence Day' does not fully reflect the significance or history or value of the day.

Our achievements after independence?? I am indeed thrilled that most parts of the country have become open-defecation free in the past few years and rural homes are getting toilets and electricity in the eighth decade after independence.  We should all be elated and proud.  I will hasten to add the caveat for the record.  This success story will remain unproven until the few remaining Opposition MPs, whose governments could not do this for so many decades earlier, unabashedly arrogate to themselves the righteous roles of supreme judges, fan out to various parts of the country to physically verify and certify this.  Shame on the entire country, more specifically on the heartless governments and crooked, avaricious politicians who need to live in disgrace for ever, for their apathy, cruelty and callousness.

What about the heart-wrenching visuals we routinely see on TV, of small kids and frail women agonizingly carrying pots of water home from some scanty source a few miles away and this being a daily ritual?? Of schools in remote areas presenting the sorry spectacle of empty, cob-webbed class rooms without electricity, toilets or water and yes, without students and teachers?? Of skinny farmers and bony agricultural labourers, squatting on parched lands for TV shots, while genuinely wondering how they would provide for their families or plotting how best to commit collective suicide?  I wonder what all these unfortunate souls greet Independence Day with??  Difficult to pin that down exactly but I can bet my bottom dollar that `Happy' is not the adjective lurking anywhere in the vicinity.  When we juxtapose those pictures with gleaming airports, glistening cars and other trappings of well-being and affluence, what strikes us most is the abject failure of governance, governments, people and politicians, to bring real happiness to the majority of the folks in the country. Now, one wonders how much justification lies in our `Happy Independence Day' slogan.  To a large extent, that rings hollow.  We have lived in hope for decades and it will be typical of us to believe that eventually things will get better, faster.

What do we do happily with our independence??  Many good things and lots of uncouth stuff, we can all identify with.  What immediately comes to mind are those things which we just stand and deliver (meaning lack of footwork in sports parlance).  Like, men unzipping and peeing wherever they feel the urge, regardless of who is passing by and what they are peeing on.  Best not to disturb them in action, because they might turn the sprinkler on the questioner!  Reversing a vehicle or making a u-turn in the middle of a narrow road, whenever we want, blocking the entire two-way traffic for some two dozen others.  Even when a lane or a street is available ten metres away for doing the same elegantly and with least disruption. And pick up a heated quarrel, to boot, with someone who questions that act.  Spit on the road, while walking or driving or just chatting;  be warned not to admonish the culprit, lest the next colourful burst comes your way.

We rejoice in letting our relaxed bovine population joyously loose on all thoroughfares, regardless of the huge inconvenience caused to the traffic and pedestrians.  Parking our vehicles wherever we want, a bit diagonally from the kerb if possible just to enhance the pain value, especially on narrow, jammed roads without a thought about others. Dumping our garbage on any pedestrian walkway or road-side (because walkways are conspicuously absent on most roads) after furtively looking around, dropping and scooting.  Stick our hands or any other available body part out from a vehicle and turn right or left at the last moment, without caring for who is behind and how close.  Unlimited licence to encroach on public spaces for shops, restaurants, hotels, apartments, bungalows, temples, whatever.  With splendid rationale, though.  It is public space, one is part of the public and so, one can use it for private purposes in whatever manner one thinks fit, public be damned.  If your perspicacity quotient is phenomenal, you won't miss the fact that this is the logic that characterizes all the above behaviour patterns.

At a different level -- I am deliberately not saying `higher' level --  those with power and position at their disposal, celebrate their independence and freedom to do things like holding the parliament to ransom, willfully refusing to let any business be done; violate serious laws like money laundering act, foreign investment promotion rules and indulge in looting public money through devious shenanigans whenever they find an opening; rape and attempt to murder the victim to wipe of any trace of the crime. There is much more, but I guess everyone gets the drift.

A sharp nonagenarian once told me  when this venerable topic of our independence came up, that he sometimes thought we would have been better off under the British.  He was being facetious, I knew, but the angst in his voice betrayed the disappointment that he has had post independence.  Obviously he was not berating everybody or everything in the country in a broad sweep, but, you know.

Incidentally, has anyone heard of the local equivalent of `happy' being used for greetings on Independence day etc in any Indian language?  Is `happy' in all such contexts forced into usage by the English speaking populace in an inappropriate and contrived manner?  You tell me.

Oh, lest I forget, this is edited by my dear wife and she completely agrees.