Freedom of all sorts

How different will Independence Day be during a pandemic-led lockdown?

Happy Independence Day, people! How are you celebrating India’s 74th Independence Day? Is your school having a flag hoisting on Google Meet? Are you going to sing or recite a poem for a special August 15th Assembly on Zoom? I bet your history teacher is making you write an essay about the struggle for independence! (I still think that’s better than having to write about the history of pandemics!)

Here’s a fun fact I learned during my history paper research — did you know that 62 countries have gained independence from the United Kingdom alone? That sounds like a Guinness Book of World Records record.

Here’s another one: did you know that

Jana Gana Mana became the national anthem only in 1950? That’s right, we spent the first two-and-a-half years as an independent nation without a national anthem. Talk about submitting your homework late. I’d really like to know how they got away with that.

Oh, and Mahatma Gandhi didn’t attend the first celebration of Independence Day. Apparently, he was upset about the India-Pakistan partition and decided to sit it out. There’s a lot to learn from the Mahatma. I can’t even get out of a quarantine haircut, so I’d like to know how he pulled this one off.

Don’t flag off

If you’re thinking of making your own flag, don’t. You could go to jail. Apparently,

khadi is the only material our flag should be made of and, if you’re caught flying a flag made of anything else, you could end up counting bars. I’ll just shelve my idea of a dry-fit flag then, shall I?

I liked learning about all these things, but I think Independence Day celebrations should be more about the future. We know how we got freedom from the British, but how are we going to become free of all the terrible things in our lives right now? Like COVID-19? And single-use plastics? Fake news? Bad roads? The British have been gone for over 70 years, but all these problems are here right now.

So, maybe, this August 15, each of us could do one thing — just one — that tried to help us get freedom from the problems that we face now. You could tell someone that the forward they shared is fake. You could ask people to install cheap aerators on their taps and help save water. You could get masks and gloves for the people who work in your building. You could write a letter to your Corporator about fixing the road outside your house. ONE THING. And keep doing it. Till something changes. Till there are other freedoms we can celebrate.