"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance."
-- Pandit Jawaharlaal Nehru
64 years after Pandit Jawaharlaal Nehru gave the very famous nerve shivering speech titled "The Tryst With Destiny", the day of our Independence is here today for us to celebrate. He rightly said that the moment of Independence rarely comes as even though we celebrate this day every year throughout the country, that very stroke of midnight, 15th August 1947 is just unmatched.
Although we hoist our national flag every year, year after year, with the national anthem in the background, do we really feel the burst of patriotism that those people who witnessed 15th August 1947 must have felt.
For us its really just a burst of patriotism that sneaks in on two national holidays only, is there a true feeling of nationalism and patriotism that is substantial ? this is the question to be asked by every individual to himself.
Patriotism is not something that is bound to a certain day that is historical but its something that should be with us for ever in our hearts with every step we take on our mother land, only then will our country be free in real terms, only then will India truly awake to life and freedom.
Lets refer to all those great men who fought for the country and gave us our Independence. Lets not just cleberate the freedom that we already have, its time to remember the loses as the Independence did not come cheaply. Lets crave that much harder to make our country a much better place where no old man like Anna Hazare needs to starve to fight against corruption.
Jai Ho !!! For the day in history that allows us to live the way we live today.
Happy Independence Day
