Amar Jawans - Today is our Republic Day!

srinivasan_vanaja · Jan 26, 2008

Today is Republic Day of India.

A day where we Indians get an opportunity to give our salutations to our National Flag, to our Soldiers who gave their lives to safe guard the nation, to our late leaders who made this day possible for India.

This morning I had enough time to wind up my duties and switched on the Television. My mind did not concentrate on any of the programs that were going in the name of Republic Day celebration. I turned the channel to National DD and the Republic Day celebration started with a Shehnai concert by Late Bismillah Khan. The music invoked my patriotism.

Then the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India, Hon'ble Chief Minister of Delhi and the Hon'ble President of India arrived one after the other.

The most heavy part of the event was paying silent tributes to our "Amar Jawans" - the Soldiers who laid their lives in safe guarding our nation. Those silent moments filled my heart with lot of mixed emotions. I couldn't judge whether those feelings were for their patriotism, for their lives, for their families, for their care and love towards citizens of India, for their respect to the leaders of India, for their sacrificing all amusements and what not.

When the President was giving away the honorable and the purest award Param Veer Chakra to the wives and relatives of the Late Soldiers, I was really overwhelmed with the courage of the women (wives) who received the awards. Though I could see a deep sorrow in their eyes, they presented themselves very calm and bold when they received the awards.

As a woman though we don't get an opportunity to serve in the army, God has given us a boon of giving births to great Soldiers like them and being a moral support as wives of them.

Then came the live relay of the "Parade" which carried colourful dance, decorated vehicles, marching Soldiers and School children and the daring, skillful acrobats of our army, naval and air-force. All the states of India took active part in the "Parade" and it definitely invoked patriotism not only in children who where watching but also in grown-ups.

The guest for the event was the Hon'ble President of France Mr. Sarkozy who enjoyed and remained enthusiastic for the whole event.

And at last, I feel the crown of the event goes to our Hon'ble President Mrs. Prathibha Patel. The salutations, honour and respect that she received made me feel proud of being a woman. She had a good stamina and equaled men in standing and back saluting the "Parade".

I feel we should make our children watch these kind of patriotic events instead of regular entertainments that we have today.

Jai HInd! Salute to the Tri-coloured Flag!

Shanvy · Jan 26, 2008

hi vanaja,

Yes. the programme was good.. all the national channels were carrying the same..only the tamil channels were showing movies or movie oriented...

my kids love the parade..as you say the children need to see these kind of programmes more..

Saraswathipv · Jan 26, 2008

Hi Vanaja,

Thanx for the post...It was good reading about the parade...It made me nostalgic....I have always watched the whole prog while in India.

I missed it this time. Though we get to see DD here in Riyadh..it is usually not clear in the mornings....

Thanx for sharing ur feelings......

bye

srinivasan_vanaja · Jan 26, 2008

hi shanvy,

did you say that only tamil channels were attached to movies? what a pity!

now a days it is not that safe to comment on channels. let us take only the good. thanks for the reply.

srinivasan_vanaja · Jan 26, 2008

hi saraswathi,

i feel really happy to give a write-up. your patriotism would be definitely more than us as you stay abroad. thanks for the reply.

Anandchitra · Jan 27, 2008

Dear Vanaja
Thank you so much for writing about it here. I felt like i was there too. Thanks so mch for sharing. You really have a good writing style.
Jai Hind.

Ria2006 · Jan 27, 2008

Very apt thread.

I did wish my parents republic day on fone. They consider this as bigest festival in whole year. We talked a lot about how DD used to be sole respite in old times,
My father retired from army after 40 years of services. He has had some tough postings those in kashmir, Leh and Laddakh to quote some.
We have had a childhood where we saw our father twice a month. Sometime even lesser.But never our mom let us feel down. She was so energetic and full of life that we never felt that dad is away. even till today my mom take pride in calling her army woman.. She says those who live for themselves can never undertsand this feeling of doing soemthing for your country. I have one uncle who is still in army. And you should listen his stories of war. We had one more elder uncle who had been in 65 war..and Man! you will live through the horror while hearing those stories.

I wished to be army officer until this materialism bug bit me. Then I went for engineering. There was no pressure on us to go in army. But we clearly knew it would have made family very happy if we pursued one. Later I wanted to marry an army officer. Those plans again got replaced by this material me. So here I am feeling proud of being from Army family and being away from my country and still feel..
At least we have one relative in form of my elder sis's husband serving in Air force.

"Koi baat too tujh main hai ei Ahal-e-watan...Ki bhulaye nahi bhool paati teri mitti ki khushbu..Main Kahin bhi basera karun..ek vadaa tujh se hai..Ki khakh meri tujh main hii ake milegi.."
I just went to grocery store one hour back. And to my pleasure store was playign patriotic songs.. My favorite..
"e mere vatan ke logo jara aankh main bhar lo paani
Jo shahid hue hain unki jara yaad karo kurbani" Wonderful song. For few minutes my throat was choked. I could not concentrate on anything else. And then I saw almost every one had grim patriotic feeling on their face. I reveled in the fact that.. "You can take person out of India, but you can never take India out of a person,"

Happy republic day. Long live India!

Ria

Sriniketan · Jan 27, 2008

Join me in wishing all a Happy Republic Day!
Thanks for bringing to light what went through other channels during this Day, Vanaja!
If the programmes bring out the patriotism in the future generation, that is indeed worth watching those programmes.

sriniketan

Saraswathipv · Jan 27, 2008

Ria,

Nice reading this post of urs.

I understand ur pride being from the army family.. I had a handful of friends whose Dads were in the Army. While visiting their home, as kids, it used to be a spl feeling entering the army quarters itself. So I take the pride in having friends from the Army:queen.

The song "Ae mere watan le logon...." touches u whenever u hear it. I almost feel the same while hearing "Sandese aate hain..."from the film Border. Glowing tributes to our jawans...

Bye

ria2006 said: ↑

Very apt thread.

I did wish my parents republic day on fone. They consider this as bigest festival in whole year. We talked a lot about how DD used to be sole respite in old times,
My father retired from army after 40 years of services. He has had some tough postings those in kashmir, Leh and Laddakh to quote some.
We have had a childhood where we saw our father twice a month. Sometime even lesser.But never our mom let us feel down. She was so energetic and full of life that we never felt that dad is away. even till today my mom take pride in calling her army woman.. She says those who live for themselves can never undertsand this feeling of doing soemthing for your country. I have one uncle who is still in army. And you should listen his stories of war. We had one more elder uncle who had been in 65 war..and Man! you will live through the horror while hearing those stories.

I wished to be army officer until this materialism bug bit me. Then I went for engineering. There was no pressure on us to go in army. But we clearly knew it would have made family very happy if we pursued one. Later I wanted to marry an army officer. Those plans again got replaced by this material me. So here I am feeling proud of being from Army family and being away from my country and still feel..
At least we have one relative in form of my elder sis's husband serving in Air force.

"Koi baat too tujh main hai ei Ahal-e-watan...Ki bhulaye nahi bhool paati teri mitti ki khushbu..Main Kahin bhi basera karun..ek vadaa tujh se hai..Ki khakh meri tujh main hii ake milegi.."
I just went to grocery store one hour back. And to my pleasure store was playign patriotic songs.. My favorite..
"e mere vatan ke logo jara aankh main bhar lo paani
Jo shahid hue hain unki jara yaad karo kurbani" Wonderful song. For few minutes my throat was choked. I could not concentrate on anything else. And then I saw almost every one had grim patriotic feeling on their face. I reveled in the fact that.. "You can take person out of India, but you can never take India out of a person,"

Happy republic day. Long live India!

Ria
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