Our glorious nation and its anthem

I am writing this blog on the day Infosys has announced its quarterly results. With some Infosys shares in my demat account and having made substantial profit from them, its pretty clear where my loyalties lie. Hence when its chief mentor is drawn into a petty controversy, I feel obliged to add my noise to the chaos.

We are a nation of lip service providers. We actually think it is a good idea to play the national anthem in a movie theatre on the thin pretext of patriotism. Our idea of patriotism is bashing our neighbours, standing firm to the national anthem and lip synching it, even though we do not have the faintest idea of what it actually means or stands for. Then we have the great debate of whether this or that song is more pertinent candidate for the national anthem. If that is not enough, some dimwit wakes up and actually files a petition that the reference to "Sindh" should be removed as; you know people; India does not contain Sindh anymore... duhhhh.... We want to wipe our colonial past, by changing names of cities, airports and colleges, completely unaware of the colonial tilt of our national anthem. Don't tell them that 'India' is Latin or Greek for the Sindhu river, which is not even in India......... Wake up people, smell the coffee and get your priorities right.

If we have to go to the basics, why should it be a must for everyone to respect the national anthem. Why should a Tamilian or Maharashtrian, who hardly understands Bengali be forced to sing it. The best thing about India is that it is a free society and every person should have the right to think and act for themselves. We don't need some lame politician, religious authority, police or self-righteous individuals shoving morals and patriotism down our throat.

For all such people, GET OFF, leave us alone!!!