Definition Of Patriotism

The country is once again gearing up to celebrate the 75th Independence Day and as the day nears lots of programmes are already taking place all over the country, be it a motorbike rally with the national flag, ghar ghar tiranga, dresses with the flags’ colour -orange white and green, bangles of the same colour, faces painted in tri-colour…list is never ending.

In all this rigmarole, I was asked by someone, why I am not taking an active part in the celebrations – dressing up in a combination of orange, white and green, applying mehendi, wearing bangles and earing with the colour of the national flag, hoisting the national flag in my balcony etc. In fact, I was called unpatriotic.

This was my reply, “who said that by waving the national flag for 2 days in a year, we become patriotic, I personally feel this idea of patriotism is a little weird, ignorant for the lack of a better word.

I am constantly pulled up and blamed for not updating my status on What’s App, Facebook, Twitter, and Intsa, with the national flag.

It is great that people believe in all this but frankly for me patriotism is not wearing the colour, it's much more than that, its about being honest, and true, respecting our women and elders, not being corrupt and taking bribes and not dividing the country in the name of politics, creed and religion.

I get a lot of forwards of videos of our soldiers and martyrs, I have deep respect for them, but why do we forget and ignore them the whole year and make a sudden show of caring only these days, the answer is simple, for most of us “Independence Day” and “Republic Day” are holidays which we eagerly check on new year in the calendar and if it falls on a Sunday, we feel we have been cheated, disappointed for there goes one holiday and all your plans are over. In all this, we fail time and again to see the sentiment and patriotism behind these days.

For me, patriotism is being sincere and loyal to our country, patriotism is something that comes from the heart, you should be able to feel it when singing the national anthem or hoisting the national flag, and we should feel proud when we salute it with honesty, gratitude and fervour.

Stop being a patriot for just one day be a patriot every day.