Independence Day: A trip down memory lane, writes Disney Brar

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‘Yeah Jo Des Hai Tera, Swades Hai Tera’

As I drive back home from work, I pass the city roundabouts shimmering with tricolor-hued lights, hawkers swiftly passing to and fro between traffic junctions selling patriotic merchandise. Distant sounds of patriotic songs like ‘Mere Desh Ki Dharti…’ playing on the radios of roadside chaiwallah thelas catch my attention and teleport me back to the world of my childhood, when Independence Day was almost a festival for me like Diwali.

Whenever the year tilts towards August, goosebumps start showing up every now and then, not only on my skin but in my consciousness itself, as the sights and sounds of patriotism start coming back as flashbacks from the cherished lanes of my childhood, making me want to go back to relive those times spent in the lap of innocence, love, and laughter. Like Dr. Idel Dreimer once said, the number of tomorrows you would give up to relive a yesterday. When I was a school-going child, I used to be really excited about the upcoming Independence Day celebrations at school and in my building society in then Bombay, now Mumbai.

Back then, Independence Day preparations would start at school almost a fortnight before D-Day.  All girls participating in the Independence Day parade at school were required to report to school an hour before the regular school timings for the march past practice and sometimes were told to stay back after school as well, so that our PT teachers could polish up our parade act and synchronise the whole march past to make it look smooth like a toy being operated on autopilot. Even our art and craft classes were abuzz with activity, where we made paper buntings in the colors of our national flag to decorate the whole school, while giving extra attention to our respective classes to make them stand out and win the prize for the best-decorated class on Independence Day.

We were also required to make paper flags to carry for the cultural programs accompanying our Independence Day celebrations in school. And a day before August 15, we would stay up late at night, ensuring our school uniforms were spotless white and our shoes were milky white as well. For the Independence Day parade at school, we also had to wear our respective house badges, belts, and had to perk up the whole look with a miniature flag pinned on our left pockets.

On Independence Day, I used to wake up at the crack of dawn to the sounds of the national anthem being played on the radio, the patriotic sounds of which echoed across the portals of our building, with almost every flat in the seven-storeyed building tuned into the same. My father used to be sitting in the balcony as usual sipping on his adrakwalli chai with  special rusks brought from the local bakery, tuned into his favourite Ameen Syani sahebs-Binaca Geetmala doling out patriotic melodies plucked from Hindi films like ‘jahan daal daal par sone ki chidiya’. Before we left for school which was scheduled later for that day, it was mandatory for us to sit with the whole family and watch the Independence Day parade being aired on Doordarshan and listen to the Prime Minister’s address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort.

In school, we were more than excited to finish our march past and go grab our share of the sweet treats distributed to the students on this day, which included the lip-smacking motichoor ke ladoo, which used to be cottony soft and used to literally melt in my mouth. Their taste is so ingrained in my taste buds that I can still taste them. Literally drooling now as well as I sit penning these words. That taste of those ladoos, specially made on order for the school Independence Day function, seems lost forever now, living just in my memories.

Back home, where I hung colorful flag buntings I made on my balcony, I went straight to the flag-hoisting ceremony in the building after changing into my new clothes, stitched specially by mom in the colors of our national flag. I also used to visit the markets, bustling during Independence Day week, to buy hair accessories to match my new dress. On the way back, Mom used to buy tricolor-hued cream rolls from Monginis, a famous cake shop in Bombay where special Independence Day cakes and pastries were made in the colors of our flag. Watching them line the sparkling shelves of the shop was wholesome and is still etched clearly in my memory.

Everyone in our  building used to assemble down in their traditional best, men in crisp kurta pyjamas and women in rustling nine years often in the hues of the tricolour-saffron oranges, pristine whites and the India greens accompanied by matching bangles, earrings and bindis. The children were dressed in frilly frocks and headgear to raise a toast to the occasion. The function had us crooning to ‘Sare Jahan Se Accha Hindustan Hamara’ and Vande Mataram, followed by individual and group dance and cultural performances, which were well rehearsed in advance during the evenings. The function was followed by kite-flying and rangoli-making competitions in the building. Afterward, everyone gathered for a sumptuous South Indian lunch spread out in the garden area. All the sweet memories of my Independence Day celebrations back in the day came back in a deluge. Well, nostalgia, as Doug Larson said, is the file that removes the rough edges from the good old days.

Cut to now: the tradition of a compulsory flag-hoisting ceremony still continues in my home, where we all get together and celebrate the spirit of our Independence Day with aplomb. Now my boys bring home the tricolor, and we hoist it and click selfies with the tricolor flying high and proud in the backdrop as part of the Har Ghar Tiranga Movement. I also make it a point to dress up for the day in colours celebrating our freedom and perk it up with matching glass bangles and bindis.

But beyond the celebrations and frills that mark this day, Independence Day teaches us the core values of courage, determination, sacrifice, peace, truth, prosperity, and faith. The colors of our national flag, our constitution, and the long struggle for freedom that we as Indians have endured and witnessed teach us the fundamentals of life and living. Let’s vow this Independence Day to live upright, with the righteousness of our dharma and collective responsibility, as proud Indians, to take our nation to loftier heights of success and power by contributing individually and living life the right way. Happy Independence Day.