As I have confessed in realms more haloed than Facebook about my lack of complete knowledge, concerning most things, most of the time, I will assume, most of us today, too, are not quite drunk in knowledge of a particular subject as much as how it used to be earlier. When internet was a revolution, ndtv.com was on my homepage -- I loved to keep myself abreast with sports and celebrity gossip, and swiftly glance through political headlines.
Today, three decades into conscious existence later, I will tell you something most of us know but do not accept -- the "what's on your minds" are really, no more than the popcorn in your pressure cooker. It sizzles out after few minutes in the open. Yet, there will be RIPs and birthday wishes and check-ins and concerns about environment and demonitization like any expert would be put to shame (I am often a part of it too). To an extent that now Facebook is my news channel and I follow the #trending El Classico reports on it. The "National Anthem" issue too was one such. I read and I laughed at people's take on nationalism and jingoism (in my head), and I went off to sleep looking forward to today, the most awaited day of the week -- a Friday.
Ever since I have shifted, and have no TV yet, Fridays are all I have. And, how severely they have disappointed me is only a matter of concern I choose to overlook. All the movies are somehow disappointing and it ends in a good note with a disastrous intake of dense comfort food, which, again, makes me fatter, sadder. I was looking forward to Kahaani 2, what with Dear Zindagi killing my last weekend more than ever. Even SRK could not save the blah-blah-blah. At this point I think of the have-I-become-a-cynic or has-the-world-worn-blinds or what-is-wrong-with-me.
This weekend I am shifting to proper New Delhi, in the hope of discovering newer happiness in my beloved Delhi of winters and Delhi of traffic and Delhi of all-things-glitzy. Along with K2 being a thriller and a friend working on it, I was hopelessly eager and already braving packing and payments. The commercials had begun. What are movies for me? Not texts to interpret and analyse; more like siblings and friends -- they are there with their faults. And then came the declaration to stand up for instilling feeling of nationalism. I was on my momo, in the dark, making mental notes of how I which route I would take on Sunday to avoid traffic.
Was the National Anthem never played earlier, you would ask. It was, at certain theatres. It wasn't everywhere. And as I stood, barely managing to balance my momo sauce from not spilling on my beloved bag, it began -- a condensed, rushed version of the beautiful song, which had for visuals a corny coloured flag waving relentlessly all over the screen -- which unfortunately finished even before I could stand in the constitutional position to honour it. So much for dis/agreements and rights.
K2 began but I was distracted. I was thinking of the cough syrup my mother had to force down my throat every night, and I resisted it so much that half of it always fell on my clothes. I used to feel victorious, "at least I gulped half of that bitter stuff!" My country is beautiful in its varied personalities and landscape, and I have my reserved feelings towards it. And that is it, my country. I don't find why my movie-time should be snatched to force feed me with nationalistic feelings.
By the time the anthem was over, a bunch of boys behind me laughed at some joke, or maybe at someone's fat ass, the girls in front spoke of how disgusted they were about not everyone standing, and some senior citizens struggled to get back up from the chair they had cozily rested themselves on. Who, felt for the cause? Of they who smoke, how many have given up smoking with those attrocious tobacco-is-harmful visuals? We have just accepted it as one of the whims of the autocrats and pay no heed. One day old, and it is disgraceful that I am reporting that this is soon going to happen with the National Anthem too.
I think my country is beautiful because of the landscape. The people are well, losing it.
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