The New Patriot.

    He is 74. But he is young. Quoting a friend of mine, he is 16 years young and has 58 years of experience. He is Kisan Baburao Hazare. If Gandhi was the father of our nation, our beloved Anna is the guardian of our nation. He is the guardian of the Mahatma’s legacy and our future. You’d be a fool if you have no clue who he is. And I’d be a bigger fool trying to put down a man of such pristine virtues in my words. His deeds are for all to see! A man of our grandfather’s age fasting for days at stretch, for our future makes me get a lump in my throat! The fire that he stroke is as some call it, our 3^rd war of independence. Rightly so!

    I’m not here to educate you about how corruption affects us, or how unethical and shitty it is. We all have done it, haven’t we? Some have given money and the others have taken! To obtain driving licences, evade taxes,  grab tenders, pass projects. In our state, which was recently rocked my the Atala drug case, involvement of the police was suspected. Yet, we didn’t care. It was none of my business, I thought. So did we all. Corruption was treated as a part and parcel of life. It is an unspoken fundamental right granted by the constitution of bureaucracy and  politics. (note to self : replace ‘is’ with ‘was’ real soon)

    I was made to believe that I’m unpatriotic, although I had my opinion  on every national issue. Yes, the national anthem did give me goose-bumps, but I guess that was not enough. It does happen to every youth, doesn’t it? They call us brash, hooligans and people who just want to enjoy life. Or that we were just interested in studies and scoring at exams. They say that we have no love for the motherland, therefore we qualify in the ‘unpatriotic idiots’ bracket. Even I thought so, I guess so did many others! Allow me to share with you what happened today.

   Today, the 18th of August 2011, started with the day wherein Anna and the Civil Society were granted permission to fast on the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi for the Jan Lokpal bill to be brought into effect. And it was also the day of the ‘All India College Bandh’. When we heard about it yesterday, we were in two minds. To come to school, or to stay home. Little did we know that we would end up doing something else. We took to the streets and joined the protest. And oh boy, what a way to do it!

   During the assembly that we attended itself, me and many colleagues of mine went around spreading the message that we should leave our classes immediately and pitch in! And we did manage to round up a crowd of about 60 people from our higher secondary school itself, out of the total strength of around 250. The rest, they either didn’t turn up in the first place, or went home. All of the juniors did that. Yes, all! A few showed that they were more concerned for the fact that they will get wet in the rain than for their country’s future. I still don’t understand why girls tend to do that. But at the same time, I salute all the girls who came down to carry out the peaceful protest.

   Once we reached at Azad Maidan, being the first institution to do so, we just stuck around for a while, listening to older citizens speak to us and stuff. The new found patriotism was wearing off everyone. We didn’t believe in the fact that shouting out slogans when we were the lone people there would change the way things were, besides keeping our spirits high. Many wanted to decay off quietly from the congregation, but in the end, they were all happy that they didn’t. Things grew better as the crowd began to pour in. The intensity of the slogans increased.

Here are the few pro-Anna Hazare slogans that we used.:

“Anna Hazare tum aagey bado, hum tumhare saath hai!”

“Brashtachaari ho saavdhaan, jaag utha hai Hindusataan”

“Ek do, ek do, brashtachaar ko fek do!”

   My personal favourite was the following. With the policemen smiling at us, we just shouted

“Yeh andar ki baat hai, Police hamare saath hai!”

   A friend of mine talked to the police and found out that if allowed, they too wanted to join the cause, but as they were in uniform, they couldn’t! Whether they meant it or not is not the question. well at least they managed to give us a positive gesture, and that was great!

   We took out a small peaceful march, shouting slogans. People peeping out of the window, wondering what the hell was on was a sad sight. Sad sight because besides a single couple on the streets (who didn’t look to be Goans) no one joined us in the naarebaazi. We screamed out throats out, and I’m sure mine will go hoarse real soon. But who cares? As much as we were frustrated with the amount people had to suffer, we were equally fed up with the power money possessed. Our state alone is touted to have a few shady public personalities who together have a sum of Rs. 49,000 crore in Swiss Banks. And our concern genuinely showed! It was a day where we all grew up! Where transformed from people who just live a life to people who live a life for a purpose worth living for! And yeah, If it was not for Anna Hazare and his hunger strike, I don’t know how long we would have had to wait for our awakening and eradication of corruption. We all felt intense satisfaction over what we had done this day! It is an indescribable feeling!

    Yes, the government is acting sour over the issue, but I truly appreciate the fact that nothing has been set on fire till date, nor has the issue taken a political detour. It’s really heartening to know that the whole of Delhi and the nation has taken to the streets. The issue has united India like never before!Why only India? I listened to a Afghan who said that he hated the corruption going on! And thanks to every news channel besides DD News, we can fight back even better! I will not single out any political party, as I know that people who are bad will take bribes and who are pure will never, irrespective of which side they belong to! While we the youth protest, they refuse to do so. They still go to work when the nation needs them. And they call us unpatriotic.

    We are the new patriots. We might not know about the people who gave up their lives for the nation’s independence or how many died fighting in the battle of Panipat. But we truly appreciate it.We walk up to a smoker and tell him to stop smoking, without fearing public ridicule. We might not protest everyday against the system,but want to focus on the task at hand. That is, freedom from all the evils. We don’t look at religion, caste or creed while making friends. We want a better education so that we can serve our motherland and the world in a better way, but we do care. We don’t look at politicians as our role models, but instead look up to those who change the way we live! We might be the Facebook generation, but yes, we do pass on our message effectively without bloodshed. We are true patriots at heart.

   JAI HIND!

    MidasTouch.