Sipping tea Suresh was uninterestedly watching the news . Tomorrow being independence of India, the news channels were all filled with information and trivia regarding Independence day. He was simply bored so he turned off the idiot box and switched to reading newspaper. It was filled with the usual stuff about parliament being disrupted, scams, scandals and the like. Suresh now pondered to think what have come out of this independence.
The poor were still poor and rich continued being richer although there were some noteworthy exceptions. As he was born after independence of India he couldn’t relate to the independence struggle as his father did. His small shop was enough to feed his small family of three and save a little for his daughter’s education and marriage.
As he was pondering over all these things his wife came to take the dishes of his tea and snacks. Seeing his wife he was sudddenly forced into thinking about the plight of women in a country where the country is symbolised as a mother as in “Bharat Mata”. Yet in such a country women were still not safe to move freely, where in the name of tradition, superstition, dowry and honour women are still being killed. His daughter came to him asking him some questions about her geography assignment. He answered and explained as much as he could. The small girl was satisfied and got back to writing her assignment.
Answering about his daughter’s assignments he was forced to ponder what have come of the states of the indian nation. Demand for newer states were rising and who knows how many times geography textbooks may have to be changed in the coming years. He then thought about education scenario and how tough the competition was nowadays and although literacy levels has risen but still the amount of universities and centres for higher education were abysmally small compared to the amount of students. What else can be expected of a country where the lawmakers spend little in higher education and more in giving poison ridden mid-day meals through scam infested networks of middle-men.
While thinking all these things it was time for dinner. As he sat on the dining table he wondered about the price rise specially of vegetables. Onion was an expensive vegetable now which he could not afford often. Yet without expensive spices and vegetables the food was great because his wife, like most Indian housewives was adept in making delicious things out of simple and cheap ingredients. As was his custom he switched on the TV . Again there were these hippocrites blaming each other on national television for the lack of development and scams taking place in the country. It left a bad taste on his tongue, so he quickly finished his meal. After that he wished his wife and daughter goodnight and went to his bed. As he laid down he thought that India as an entity may have been free of foreign colonists but Indians are still at large not free, only the foreign colonists made way for indigenous colonists.
As he proceeded to pray before going to sleep. He wondered how amongst all these chaos and scams and injustices India still continued to remain united and functioning as a single entity. Maybe it was God’s grace that made this country survive for almost 66 years after independence from British rule. And resigning the fate of the country to God he went off to sleep.
