What Patriotism means to me!.. (Sheetal's speech)

I wave the Indian flag! I am so patriotic! My heart is content and the world sees my gleaming teeth, I show pride. Following the regular way of life is our nature and endorsing it our second nature. Is waving a flag, standing up for an inherited national anthem our sense of patriotism? It barely takes a moment to realize how superficial we are.

What do we usually do on Independence Day and Republic Day? Most of us sit at home and enjoy our holiday. Just because we are not in school anymore and no one expects us to be present for the flag hoisting, we don’t bother to attend it. It shows that we take the independence of our nation for granted. Our patriotism is only limited to joining ‘I love my India’ community on orkut and facebook. Our patriotism only comes out when India plays against Pakistan in a cricket match. What happens to this patriotism when we carelessly throw chocolate wrappers on the street? What happens to this patriotism when we see thousands of flags lying on the streets on Independence Day?

Let me narrate an incident to you. During our vacations after our 10th std. board exams, I had the opportunity to visit the Wagah border. It is the only road connecting India and Pakistan and lies between the city of Amritsar and Lahore. The village of Wagah is divided by the Radcliff line and eastern part of this village lies in India while the western part lies in Pakistan. I witnessed the flag lowering ceremony which is held every evening. The crowd assembled on both the sides of the border and the air was filled with the shouts of 'Hindustan Zindabad' and 'Pakistan Zindabad'. On both the sides the patriotic songs were played at a very high volume. Some people even began dancing to the tunes of the songs. People on either side enthusiastically waved their flags. The BSF of India and the Pakistan Rangers took their positions. At the sound of the bugle they began to march in a perfect drill. The gates were opened and the soldiers exchanged a brief handshake. After this the flags were lowered and folded with utmost care. The officers exchanged a final handshake. The gates were closed and this marked the end of the ceremony. My seat on top gave me a complete view of the whole ceremony. I was extremely disappointed to see the sight of Indian flags lying on the floor. We promptly began picking up the flags. As we did this, few people joined us for the task. Some people were too busy clicking pictures to realize that they were stamping on the flag. We collected around 200 flags. The soldiers had seen us picking the flags and we were overwhelmed when they expressed their desire to click photos with us. One of the soldiers said, "Roz yahan hazaro hindustani aate hai. Aaj mujhe sachhe hindustani mile" .This instance has left a mark, on my mind.

We celebrate our diversity! Unity in diversity we claim, and I say it’s all fake! Patriotism for me, is when we realize, who is an Indian, and why do I call myself an Indian? After all India is in-fact an artificial political construct. Patriotism is when you have a feeling of belonging, a feeling of a positive debt towards a larger entity of the nation. We don’t need to write eloquent poems and song, we don’t need to be dogmatic. We don’t need to serve in the defense forces to show our patriotism. We are a part of a young, educated, enthusiastic and dedicated generation of India with the ability to understand the society better and do our part for the nation’s upliftment. In Kennedy's own words, don’t ask what your country can do for you. Ask what you have done for your country.