Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Independent India’s 60th birthday

As is our tradition, 60th birthday or “shashtiubda poorthi” is celebrated grandly. In our custom , men undergo the wedding rituals once again and bless all their children and grand children.

Today as India is celebrating her 60th birthday, I wish India to get married to her earlier consort who was known for her humility, hospitality, secular in her thoughts and her virtues are talked about and revered even today, divorcing the present companion who is self centered, more hostile than hospitable and takes pride in casteism.

On a different note, I wish the future generation to read the following poem of Tagore , not only as a mere poem but as a slogan . . .

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken
Up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where the words of depth come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by
Thee into ever-widening thought and action into
That heaven of freedom , my father,
Let my country awake.



Jai Hind