Celebrating Anniversaries

We Indians are a celebration - oriented people especially of the kind that means a public holiday. The holiday is generally more important to us than its cause. Anniversaries (both incoming and outgoing) are our special favourites. We are so busy celebrating the holiday that most of the times we forget to sincerely remember the person in whose name we got that holiday - and the principles that he / she stood for. There are of course those government sponsored functions (conducted early in the morning) to perfunctorily reminisce about that great person - so that everyone could spend the rest of the day like a "proper holiday".

MG is undoubtedly our biggest icon but how many take it upon themselves to tell the children in the house at least one or two inspiring stories from his life (one does not really have to wait for October 2nd to do so). Unfortunately, most of our generation (born after MG died) cannot recall appropriate stories because no one took us through this routine when we were kids ourselves. Reading MG to pass the "history" paper at school is different than remembering his innovative thoughts. For example, [1] How would he have reacted to the tremendous corruption that we find in all walks of life in India? [2] Could he have suggested a method to deal with terrorism? [3] Would the increasing divorce rates and westernization of our moral standards have troubled him? [4] Would his habit (of inflicting "pain" on himself - say by fasting) have succeeded in bringing about reconciliation amongst the warring groups or in the creation of some public good? [5] Would he have approved of the never ending "reservations" policy in the field of education or employment?

Alas, instead of ruminating on any of these, we are only busy in first dusting and cleaning his photographs & busts and then in planning how the extended weekend (due to the holiday) should be best spent. Isn't it a travesty of our calling him a 'Mahatma'?

We do the same to LBS (who shares his birthday with MG). Apart from his "mysterious" death at Tashkent, our younger generation knows nothing about the dynamism of probably the most morally upright prime minister of India.

The right way of "celebrating" such events would be to personally do something to perpetuate the ideals of the person whom we are remembering on that day and of course it is best to start with oneself. Give up a "bad" habit (smoking, drinking, laziness, egotism, casteism, superstitions or something similar) to experience the pleasure of sacrificing something you were unable to overcome all these years.

Remember, "fasts" or "shunning non-veg. food on a Thursday" or "attending a flag hoisting ceremony" are just not enough to allegedly "purify" yourself.

If you must, then celebrate anniversaries by improving yourself a little bit and by teaching kids around you to learn doing the same.