Happy Independence Day... the tryst to be independent continues

Independence day....
Today's the day when 62 years ago we achieved independence from the British Rule.
I'm wondering something fancy and patriotic to write about today. But somehow it wouldn't do justice to this day.
Cynic that I am, I sit here and wonder exactly how significant is this day to us Indians. We're a weird race. We blow out of proportion silly little things like a five year old falling in the ditch and completely ignore something as significant as our Independence Day. It has the least number of SMS's passed around, unenthusiastic greetings and celebrations, and the regular monotony of a holiday. I'm sure there ARE quite a number of people out there doing a lot more than that, but since it doesn't include me, I feel pretty useless and left out.
Of course, on a more dismal note, I'll also point out all the things that we're still not free from. We still labor under the oppression of diseases, pollution, malnutrition, poverty, terrorism, over exposure and dependence on technology, the oppression of MONEY, of peer pressure, of depleting and degrading natural resources, morals, cultural values.... blah blah blah. The question is - how much of it bothers us; and even more importantly, are we willing to do something about it?
Our forefathers, so to say liberated us from foreign rule so that we could make our own choices, and the only ones really celebrating this day, or at least making a pretense of doing so our not-so-dear politicians who probably are the only ones fully exercising this right of CHOICE.
An average Indian is still stuck in making the same stereotypical choices, (I wonder if they can be termed choices at all, since they're so spoon-fed) making ends meet. Even those who do better than that classify living life as a few annual outings taken with the family where they visit stereotypical places, spending on stereotypical luxuries, each vying to outdo his neighbor or relative or brother or friend or enemy.
Our scriptures themselves say that those who do not venture out to learn new cultures, new languages and new ways are no better than animals. So what do we do? How do we free ourselves and the rest of the Indians from their mundane stereotypical lives? The ones that WANT to Free of course. How do we emphasize on this day that we are free, we are free, independent, that we define ourselves, that our identities are neither chained in our culture, nor in the western culture, that we are who we are and we are proud of who we are, that we make choices, independent choices, not those dictated by family or society or situations?
With freedom of course, come responsibilities. And it is shouldering these responsibilities that emphasizes that we are a free race. Each of us has different responsibs and some common... ahem... noble ones that we all need to shoulder. Yes, I know it's easy to be all philosophical but it's not all that difficult to take a few small steps. Like switching off the lights in your house when you don't need them, or not taking unnecessary long drives and saving oil, or trying to give your parents little things, moments that they sacrificed to raise you, or not littering the roads, or not losing patience when someone bangs into you by mistake on the road, or making women feel more secure EVERYWHERE.... There are many things we can do, and every time we do any one of them, it's like celebrating our independence, whatever day it might be.
Theres no need to be all puffed up and make impractical resolutions with fire in your eyes and patriotic fervor in your heart or anything fancy like that, just a determination to do better, be better every moment of life. That would probably be more than being independent citizens of our wonderful country, it'd be like being independent of all our weaknesses. Sound like a good thing to be, no?

Fickle as the sands of Mahabalipuram

Sand is fickle, it does not stay in your grip, it hides itself in nooks and crannies and is difficult to get rid of, nor does it grow anything, it does not nurture life. It belongs neither to the beach, nor to the ocean, and it's dead, raw and scratchy.

We were leaving Mahabalipuram, a small tourist place with beautiful beaches, lots of foreigners, temples and possibly lots of dope. My sister couldn't find her watch so we decided to go back to beach where we'd bathed earlier and see if we could find it. It was a slim chance, but like responsible good kids, we decided to drag our legs all the way across in the hot sun. We neared the beach where I asked my sister to go ahead alone while I'd wait for her on the edge of the resort. The sea was a deep twinkling blue in contrast with the bright yellow sand that burnt hot under the tropical sun. Oceans, infact all forms of water bodies are my weakness, and I found myself being pulled to the beach behind my sister who was about to turn back after having unsuccessfully looked around for her watch.

"H, lets take one last look at the water", I said, as I neared her. The ocean seemed to be calling us, splashing wave after wave onto the shore.
"But they'll be waiting for us", my sis replied.
"C'mon, we come this far, another few minutes wont hurt", I chided.

I'd almost been dragged away twice that morning as we'd bathed, my boasts about water never killing me had dimmed a bit and I'd seen it's power for the first time, felt it rather, as it sucked us through and threw us back as it played around the coast. Sis consented and as we went towards the waves again, a woman came calling in Tamil, Now I can understand Tamil well, but I don't even recollect the syllables. My sister worked it out that she was calling out to us to get our hands read.
Astrology is a temptation to me. It's not like i don't believe in it, but I don't believe in practicing or using it. Future should be left as it is, in the future. I see it as a sign of weakness, the need to consult your stars while making decisions, nor do I see the point, whether you know about it or not, what will happen will happen, and only the destined will happen. Anyway, enough dragging, the irony of all my drag is that impulse made me call that woman. I asked my sister to ask her her in Tamil what she'd charge to read my hand. She didn't reply but asked me to sit down. And thus started her rattle about me...
"You're a spendthrift", she said (as my sis translated every line). "You look happy out side but you're not satisfied inside, but you have a vision, and that will take you far.
Your body troubles you, it is sick. You think something but something entirely different happens instead," she continued, "if you have the support of someone elder, you will prosper," she kept running a metal stick on my palm. She assured me a long life. "You don't bow in front of God physically, but you believe from within, you don't mingle with relatives a lot..," She also said that the woman I marry will be the goddess of wealth, that I'd go abroad (a practised line that almost every youngster likes to hear I guess). She kept repeating something about a vision, but I guess she meant my perception, which needed a change for my fortunes to turn around. When she started repeating things we decided to pay her and move on. I handed her a Rs. 50 note, and she rattled off again in Tamil that escaped even my sister's understanding.
Then she told my sister she wanted to do something to permanently rid me of all my health and 'vision' related problems... we repeatedly refused to her and ultimately my sis asked her what she'd take for it, and she said, no I don't want anything in return. She said she would perform something on a little twig that I'd have to throw into the ocean after spitting on it (I misunderstood there and spit on the ocean instead) When I came back we started to move on when she said I was supposed to pay her another 350/- for that little hocus pocus she did with the twig, we paid her another 150/- and moved on, her yells following her in indecipherable Tamil.
Sigh.
It's the kind of thing people lean on when they either don't want to make efforts or have little faith in themselves. I have made my own choices in life, and if they're a bit dull, they're still mine, but the whiner in me always pulls a dismal face when I'm asked how I am. This was another silly desperate attempt on his part to hopefully turn his life around into something that can be identified as his own...
Most of the lines the woman said were practised dialogues made o people who need other people to tell them what they are, how wonderful or troubled they are, a tinge of sympathy, a pint of admiration and wonderful useless promises that are never defined into anything specific but have that usual note of 'everything will be alright'.
I feel amused and slightly ashamed of my temporary slip towards this side of whiney losers. I guess it happens to everyone once in a while...
When I looked back, the sky was still a beautiful twinkly blue, the sky bright, the sand bright yellow, as if reinforcing in me my belief, whats to happen will happen, there are no two things about it...

My new 9 to 5

I keep signing into the blog, wanting to update it, but nothing happens worth updating here.

Life changes every short while... and most major changes slip in gradually.It takes a while before you realize that your life has turned a corner, shifted gears. I've been trying to change y routine. For someone as lazy as I am, taking responsibilty starts with a shock, the shock of finding how much there is to be done when you start doing it. 24 hours seem inappropriate and sleep feels like a scarcely available luxury. I've suddenly started appreciating getting up early, racing to the bathroom before anyone else, wondering where I lost time even if I woke up early, and skipping breakfast to make it in time to the office. It feels good, worthwhile, atleast it keeps my mind from wondering into things that are ... well... not worth thinking.

Sometimes I wonder if people take time to appreciate how precious a normal, peaceful, routine life is.