Suddenly while watching this movie “Lions of Punjab” it put me into a dilemma whether I can call myself a country – loving Indian, a patriot or I have become to educated, too liberal, too global and insensitive to my belongingness to a country. There are lot many thoughts like this which I am sure many have shared at different points of time or rather been too busy to actually realize.
The point in the movie which provoked my thought was a scene were a person of foreign origin was about to sing the national anthem. Thought the immediate reaction might be that he being a foreigner knows the Indian anthem by heart and can I actually sing it from start to end? I easily dodged the question – It’s a movie and that actor was made to memorize it by heart and take was finalized after more than dozen repetitions – see it was easy. But the actual point of surprise came when the director of the movie had to specifically mention (though under a disguise of a pun) – “Yes! He is going to sing the anthem. So please stand up “.
I am particularly ruling Mumbai out of this article as they have been educated to stand to the anthem but others are not used to it. The lethargy to stand or the inhibition or awkwardness (I will come to the exact reason later) was really evident. I even recall sometime back an advertisement floating on the television (issued on public interest) where a lame man stands up to the respect of the anthem but the masses largely ignore it or treat it at par with a “good song”.
First of all, coming to the movie hall incidence – I think the answer lies in one question. If you are sitting in a restaurant and the manager asks a question to all the people sitting in the crowd “ how many of you own a cell phone – please raise your hand” I wouldn’t have picked up my hand as I know everybody has a cell phone and there is no big deal in putting up my hand and letting people know – the crowd will look at you as “here is another attention seeker”. But had the same question dated back to 1998, where I would have been asked the question and had I got a cell phone, I would a proudly but politely raised my hand. So coming to analogy, had the same movie being played in New York, Durban or Beijing I would have jumped up my seat and would have proud to “show off – Hey I love my Country “ . I haven’t gone to answer whether this is right or wrong – its just an effort to explain a mass behavior.
Americans have master this art to “show off how much they love their country” .
Have lots of thoughts to scribble, currently I have most deadly situation to handle – Mom is standing on my head and as its lunch time – another Indian Dilema
Just leave your thoughts on this issue.
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Very right said Sid!
October 23, 2007
Well said Sid, but have to say “Currently the Indian Gandhi is Mukesh Ambhani” this jig cant be pulled off anywhere. I guess lets leave Mukesh at what’s he is doing best. Dont overburden him with Gandhi and all. May be none of our shoulders are tat strong enough and hence the reality has come to the stage that u just said.Cheers
October 23, 2007
Wo !! Man !! Respects.
Never thought you will ever think through me. Who are you bro? Shouldnt say just intelligent but a thinker.
Its true never ever felt like Indian unless watching a match in a Stadium. I would love to see some kick ass stuff on screne where aah our men beat a sh*t out of some clumsy lookin geek stuff
October 26, 2007
Sahi hai bhau !!!!
bada ambani ka tareef kiya aur mere waale ambani ko bhool gaya. bahut na insaafi hai.
on a more serious note i kind of agree with what you say. but i think there is the ice berg effect, there is more under water than meets the eye.
i think we liked Chak De cos we dint believe we would win, so we were surprised to have won.
same thing happened with Twety20. we all were hoping we would win, but didnot believe in it. losing would have been acceptable, winning was surprising.
we have to get rid of this attitude of - hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
wars are not won while thinking of defeat.
india today stands at the junction of history where the only thing that stops us is our imagination.
look at the share market. 18000 oh my god it will crash, 19000 it will surely crash now. hell somebody had to mention something and we were all running like rats deserting a sinking ship. This when any sensible person would tell you that FII’s have to come to India, they dont have an option.
keep posting and next message on chotta ambani 
October 27, 2007
Everyone of us can serve the nation by sincerely doing whatever we do efficiently and in a more disciplined way. Be it a ticket collector in the stations or an IT professional coding for a multi billion dollar US client. Travelling places one realises that the world’s impression abt India is changing for the better. We are beleived to be a force to reckon with. The world expects a lot from us and we need to rise up to the occasion and deliver this time be it the politicians or ordinary people like us. Chak De India
October 27, 2007
Awesome thoughts….
I really liked the analogy of cellphones and National Anthem.
I too had similar question in my mind while watching Anthem sung in K3G. I with some of my friends stood up while, complete hall was busy clapping and whistling for the kid singing National Anthem on the 70 MM screen.
Everyone was emotionally charged but no one wanted to stand up.
Well, Keep coming up with such delightful readings .
October 27, 2007
must admit i was one of the very few who didnt stand up during national anthem in Chak De….
Its really nice to see the comments. I particularly agree with umashankar ( US roxx) and Lokuji, thanks for validating me.
I would like to explain to pratap as to why that analogy is there.
Personally i am not a believer in Gandhi neither Mukesh Ambhani. I just believe both were a product of the need of the time, a not so random selection to fame but time multiplied their claim to fame by multiples.
My aim was to point out the existence of thoughtless people who just rally behind someone with an opinion. The need not validate wether the opinion has any credibility, viability or future.
I also observed that the Ambhani’s ( put together ) just need to say and the kind of reaction they get is very similar to the word spoken by Gandhi. All Gandhi had to say that he will be fasting on this particular day for this particular reason and that become the order of the day, the whole nation used to rally behind it. Isnt what happening with the Ambhani’s. Of last 1 yr , all the ambhani’s have done is unleashed GREAT PLANS done little to get to the valuations they are now. No one knows for real Reliance Telecomm actually justified the Rs. 25,000 cr investment. Same is happening with other reliance companies which havent even come into production but you can really see for urself whats happening in the markets. I dont say its wrong or right. I never went to answer that - i am just pointing out analogy. Gandhi’s Satyagarh cannot be proved to be a SUCCESS or the FAILURE, but the result eventually came. Thats all what people see. No many bother, would the result have been achieved faster or had things turned out to be better any other way. Same might happen with reliance
October 30, 2007
gud analogies: cellphone and national anthem and then the gandhi and ambani one .. i wonder where the ‘result’ oriented approach is taking us .. i hear this in the office all day .. all we care about is the output … seems like in real world .. the destination is far more important than the journey ..
October 30, 2007
good one…but i dunno if ambani sr is doing good for the national cause or for himself
Credit Card Debt…
excellent site!…
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