It happened a long time back. I was in school then. I came back home after the flag hoisting ceremony. By that time dad had come back from the office too. Mom as usual was busy in her work. We started watching TV. There were some patriotic songs being telecasted on some channel. I don't know what happened all of a sudden I started crying. I was saddened by the state of the country then. I don't think I was old enough to realize these things, but I could conclude, using the little intellect I had that this was not what our freedom fighters had hoped for.
My father used to read a lot about freedom fighters and Indian history out of interest. And he used to tell me about it a lot. But I was too young to realise the gravity of the sacrifice they had made so for me they were just like the fictional characters who were ideal in each sense. Netaji, Bhagat Singh, Azad, I knew about them but never realized what their ideologies must have been.
I grew up and probably dad thought that it was more important that I should focus more on my studies or may be he got busy, or may be I got too old for the bed time stories. But that feeling of patriotism found its way to the surface every now and then, when some movie based on Bharat's martyrs used to be made. Also movies, like Swades, it was the first time i had watched a movie alone in a theatre and also it did something unique. I liked a Shah Rukh Khan movie for the first time may be. Each time a movie was made about India, highlighting patriotism I used to be moved by it. I used to decide that I'll do something for my country, may be join defence services.
But it takes a lot to give lesser importance to self. Time's different now. The need is different. But that doesn't mean it was easier back then. The sacrifices made were beyond our imaginations. Now we can't even imagine what it might have been back then. How difficult it might have been for a mother to feel proud of her son being a martyr. How difficult it would have been for young boys of our age to mould their thinking in such a way, that seeing Bharat free became their ultimate goal in life. And life? It didn't matter much to them, otherwise where did that passion that led to such a sacrifice come from?
Not just the martyrs, but everyone involved played a crucial role. I too like some used to think that role of people like Mahatma Gandhi could not be compared to the ones who sacrificed their lives. My mom was the one who made me think otherwise. She told me to look at the work that he had done for people independent of his ideologies and biases. He too had made sacrifices far superior than an average person can even think of. And indeed he was successful in binding the nation together.
Probably people like us, people like me don't have the stature to comment on the lives that these national heroes lived. Probably we will never be able to realize what their ideologies were. We would not be able to realize how they were infused with so much passion for their motherland. We would never be able to feel the situations that can motivate a person to consider his life secondary to a purpose. We can only feel the aftermaths of their sacrifice, as we breathe in a free Bharat.
Yes we haven't achieved what they had thought of or hoped for but we still have a life time to make things right. The day will come when women would be able to roam fearlessly on the streets of Delhi at midnight. The day would surely come when politicians would be concerned for the people. The day would come when equality would prevail by all means. The day would come when we would be able to say that we have evolved as a nation our martyrs had hoped for.
A day would come when
Shaheedon ki chitaaon par lagenge har baras mele vatan par marr mitne vaalon ka yahi baaki nishaan hoga!
I hope.
Jai Hind.
