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2023 - The Year That Was

Places impact you for a variety of reasons. And the same place impacts different people in different ways. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual experiences, where every single person’s experience is unique. And personally, every spiritual experience is unique, the same person can have different deeply spiritual experiences at different places, at different times. This thought has emerged because of my own experiences over the years, but especially so this year, with different and unique experiences at various places I have visited recently. I began this year with a visit to Baroda (Vadodara) with friends. It was meant to be a relaxed trip, a touristy trip, with our sons. We enjoyed ourselves to the hilt, but the highlight of that trip was a visit to the Lakulisha temple at Pavagadh. It was the iconography of the temple that I connected with, and I spent a few hours simply lost in the details of the figures carved around the temple. There was an indefinable connect with

Happy Republic Day!

Sitting in our room at Mashobra, every morning, around 10, we could hear the distant sounds of a band. The day we went on a trek, we learnt that the sound came from the Government school at Mashobra.




A couple of days later, I was sitting by the window, basking in the heat of the sun, watching the play of shadows on the mountains, when I glimpsed some activity below....



A group of girls were standing in rows, and soon, I realized what it was all about – they were practicing their march past!



As, over the next hour or so, I watched the children practice....





I was reminded of the time I was part of one of these groups... years back, in school.... Except, none of our teachers ever had a stick in their hand!



I just hope he did not use the stick for any punishment!



Last week, as I watched my son marching as part of their sports day events, I wondered about these kids... what were they practicing for? School in Shimla shuts down for the winter. They couldn’t possibly have any sports events in such weather... Maybe they were practicing for Republic Day? Wouldn’t they have their holidays though? Maybe the kids were called to school during the vacation for the Republic Day ceremony!!



That set me off on a whole new train of thought. Today, as we celebrate Republic Day, the day our constitution came into effect, most of us are at home, enjoying a holiday. There was a time when I used to wake up early and stay glued to the TV watching the Republic Day Parade, wishing I could be there, but today, I have a hard time even convincing Samhith to watch the parade. And it’s not just me. I can hardly see anyone else watching it either! Many of the kids I know would much rather stay home than go to school and hear a bunch of talks on freedom fighters they don’t even relate to. No matter how many stories they hear, how many books they read, their struggles don’t seem to inspire the admiration I felt at the same age. And it saddens me. I would so like Samhith to appreciate the fact that we owe our independence to so many freedom fighters, that our constitution is such a beautiful piece of work, giving us the right to live our life the way we want to, but above all, be able to march past, and proudly salute our National Flag, not as a chore, not as an event, but with pride in his country! Is it too much to wish for? What do you do to instill patriotism in your kids? 



Comments

  1. Hey, I watched the Republic Parade!!!
    May be it is not the children's fault that they lack the inspiration. We need to change our way of inspiring! Bring in innovation and make best use of available technologies and moreover talk to them in their language to relate to them! Hopefully one day we will be successful!

    Kanthi

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    Replies
    1. I surely hope so, Kanthi... good to hear u watched the parade.. i couldnt :( and do you realize that this is the longest comment u have ever left on my blog? and also the most prompt?

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  2. Happy Republic Day!!!

    Australians celebrate 26th January with us!

    http://renuka-mytraveldiary.blogspot.in/2013/01/india-and-australia-celebrate-together.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. THanks so much, Renuka... that was interesting. I wasnt even aware of Australia day!

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  3. those views on the first pic... you're so lucky there!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Simply exquisite, that gorgeous ... fantastic! Good landscape!

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  5. Loved the way you captured the girls practising. Maybe they were practising for some annual day function of the school or for some local festival?

    ReplyDelete

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