The Republic Day

Today is a day of national celebrations… our Republic Day. India was declared a Republic on 26 of January, 1950. This day has inspired me throughout my life…. So here I am dedicating some time to my much neglected Blog Space. Probably I needed the inspiration as much I needed the time!

Poster of Incredible India in a foreign country makes us proud

There is a strange relationship that a child shares with his mother. The same is true between one and the motherland. Since childhood the Independence Day (15th August) and the Republic Day (26th January) has been very special to us. On these two days we used to hoist the national flag in our house without fail ... We were taught that each and every citizen had the responsibility to hoist the Tricolor in their house. The flag had to go up before the sun rises and come down at the sunset before it gets dark. While the schools and Governmental bodies used to have permanent flag poles we at the household always used to improvise.

I have some fond memories from my childhood days. We had to leave the bed early in the morning in spite of it being a holiday and put the flag up. Then we used to get dressed and accompany our father to the parade grounds. Even though the ground was very close to our house, we used to go by the Jeep, as these were a very formal official affair. 

The time for the flag hoist used to be 8 am when Chief Minister or the governor used to pull the flag up and there was a shower of rose petals which was wrapped within the flag. As a child we used to get very excited watching the petals fall and the march past by different divisions of the Armed forces and the Para military personals and all saluting the flag when they marched past the podium. The best part was the armed forces band.

There used to parties in the evening but we only got to see the invitation card and never got to go and see how much fun it was!

Happy Republic Day to All of you out there … Let Peace Prevail in our country.