Independence Day

I went shopping yesterday...after office. Now, you might laugh if you get to know the shopping list. There were 3 items in all. Since Janmashtami is coming up, I needed to get a new set of clothes for the RadhaKrishna deity at our home. That was item no. 1. Then item no. 2 was again dedicated to the Gods, I had to take flowers for puja. Item no. 3 though was something I wanted to buy...and was not sure if I should. I wanted a flag. I reached office...and while I worked on photoshop, my teammates worked on the project website and my other colleagues watched Mahabharat in youtube, I suddenly let that slip out. All 3 present in the room heard that I want a 'flat' - they unanimously think that I am a very rich person. After they realized their mistake...one of them commented that his kid is planning to make a flag or buy one...made it sound like I am being a kid...in wanting one too. That put me down a bit. In the shops that sold flags....I mostly saw kids with their moms as the only prospective buyers. So I unhappily crossed those shops and went on to get items 1 and 2. I had almost reached the auto stand when the impulse and pining increased. It is just one life...I just must fulfill my wishes. There were few shops there which sold sports goods...each of them had a flag sticking out of the doorway. In one of them I saw some miniatures too. I gathered courage and stepped in..."err...do you sell these large flags...or you have just displayed?" "No, no we sell them." "What's the price?", I asked. As they got out the bag to show me one, by mistake they pulled out a flag of even larger size, which absolutely took my fancy. I decided to go for it and made the payment.

And we had the most wonderful flag hoisting ceremony today. The entire family, including my granny leaning onto her walker, and my bro who's here on a week long holiday, was present. Dad hoisted the flag and said Vande Mataram thrice, and we repeated after him. Then we sang Jana Gana Mana together. To think of it, I guess I have never actually sung the national anthem aloud...this was the first time. I always sing it in my mind and make it a point to stand up whenever I hear it...in whichever context. I remember standing up once on my bed...inside the mosquito net, in the middle of the night...when it played in the last scene of 1942 A Love Story, which was being telecast in the late night show. Might sound hilarious...but I am that patriotic. When I went to SG, it was my first Independence Day outside India, and I had to go to office...I decided to make a paper flag and put it up on my desk. Some laughed, some praised, one person commented that it is incorrectly made as the saffron, white and green bands were not equal in width (to admit the truth, that was the first time I got to know that they should be equal - till then I had the idea that the white band needs to be thicker as it houses the Ashoka Chakra)...all the same, I was happy to celebrate the tricolor in a foreign country. And I was totally content with today's event too. This is what life is all about...the immense happiness you get in realizing your small wishes :)