We, the people,... of the Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic of India, ... still have no clue what our country is all about

I have heard enough calls of "Happy Republic Day" to put me in a slight depression. We "celebrate" 60 years since India became a constitutionally governed republic. What does this mean, I ask? Do we truly understand what it means to be either Sovereign or Socialist or Secular or Democratic, leave alone the permutation of all those words? Do we, as a people, possess the self-assertion required to fulfill our own destinies, let alone take upon the onerous commitment of fulfilling a nation's destiny? I think not. I think that we are a nation riddled with doubt, confusion and dogma. Doubt, as to the meanings of everything in our life - from our names to our identities, from purpose to validity. Confusion as to our environs, our beliefs and our value systems. Dogma, in the shape of a thousand inherited and disseminated untruths.

Man doesn't spring up full-grown from the soil. He is a work-in-progress. But to assume that the task began at birth is akin to thinking that the seed was born of itself. The seed obviously comes from a fruit. What fruit bore the seed of our thoughts? The answer to this question is but the first step in the quest of self-assertion. When we truly understand where we came from, we can aver in the strongest voice who we are. I am Indian, a human born in a land named thus because of a river and a mountain, whose indigenous names belong to a language barely spoken anymore. A country that has existed far longer than its geopolitical definitions, in variegated forms. A country that has successively imbibed the wisdom of several "religions" but has continuously adopted the oldest precept of all - that every man is free to chose his beliefs, and is equally free not to believe. We are sovereign - we follow our truest belief and do not merely parrot the words or actions of Someone Else; we are socialist - our hearts and minds encompass every single human being; we are secular - we do not question a person's beliefs, we only question our own rationale; we are democratic - our voice echoes the beliefs of a thousand souls, our thought is the imbued amalgamation of a thousand such voices.

If today, or any other day, I celebrate anything at all, it is the fact that I was born in a country whose history, tradition and culture has given me a unique identity, an identity that is open to enrichment by my own life experiences, an identity born and fostered by contradictions and an unbounded zeal for an unbounded life. I am the person, the people, the Republic. Happy Republic day, everyone!

A Hastily Scribbled, Unjust Review

I promise a longer one, but for those in a hurry, as I am: Aal Izz Well. That is the overwhelming message of 3 Idiots. It has shades of Hirani all along, as also of Aamir's previous screen incarnations. But, all that put together makes 3 Idiots a tribute to some of the best that Bollywood has offered in the past decade. The trio (DCH), the Idiot (TZP), The Crazy Principal and hated student (Munnabhai MBBS), the vast vistas of Shimla (Jab We Met) and Ladakh (Lakshya). Aal Izz truly Well, with India, and Indian cinema. We have reasons to smile and be proud, the cynics be damned. "Jaisa filmon me hota hai, ho raha hai hubahu" as the song in the movie goes.

I do promise a longer, more detailed review soon.

Reaffirmation

I walk into the midst, of a newly gathered crowd
For me they are here, of me they stand proud
What did I do?, I ask. What do they see?
I say words are tough in the coming,
maybe, just for them, I will sing
and the melody that pours out of me
is but the sound of falling tears
choked memory's forgotten arrears
suddenly, perchance, becoming debt-free
and I, bathed in the salt of my own eyes
many a hidden truth do I realize
life, stark naked, in all its beauty
no voyeur of the senses I am
I've just lost my copy of life's program
the necessity of tomorrows, sought in prophecy