Azaadi
Another independence day goes by, with speeches, parades and flag hoisting. School children blurt out patriotic songs, cars (including mine) start sporting tricolours, the new president addresses the nation, the Baba Ramdev fiasco goes on. And for the first time in my life, I get late for a flag-hoisting ceremony. Ironically, in the 65 th year of independence, we see increased violence against North-easterners, violence in Assam and Mumbai, bomb-blasts in Pune, yet another attack on personal liberty by the West Bengal government, another car-rape in Delhi, female foeticides and an overall increase in social, political and domestic violence. Are we really free? Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore had the following vision for the country: “ 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 words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretch...