Of National Holidays and Extended Weekend Breaks-1

I recall my school days Calcutta, when National Holidays would rekindle patriotism and remind us of our country's Great Freedom Struggle. Namely, Netaji's Birthday, Republic Day, Independence Day, Gandhiji's Birthday, Pandit Nehru's Birthday. There was a time when each of these holidays reminded us of the hardships our country has faced to get Independence. I remember, when I used to listen to patriotic songs, watch patriotic movies and also have "adda" sessions with friends brushing our "Independence Quotient" (IQ). And the same continued, with equal vigour for a couple of more years till my engineering days in Bangalore. By the time I pursued my MBA in Bombay, these feelings had started to die down and I started entering my corporate life.

However, over the years, I've realized that these National Holidays have just been reduced to a normal holiday. Working for nearly decade now, I look forward to these "days" as just an extension of my weekly offs - Saturday or Sunday, with special interest to identify how many such "days" fall on a Fri or Mon, to plan out an extended long weekend break in & around Mumbai and now Delhi-NCR. Most of the times, I fail to recall the occasion for the holiday, except of course the Independence Day, due to visibility of the occasion on various news channels.

Netaji's Birthday has been completely forgotten in other parts of the country, except in Bengal. Gandhiji has been more or less forgotten by us, thanks to the Congress Party, as for them its only the Gandhi Parivaar, who have contributed in the freedom struggle, half the people, if questioned do not understand the complete meaning of the Republic which we celebrate on the 26th of Jan, etc, etc.

Do I feel sad about this change in perception of viewing these "Days"? Does this make me less patriotic? Do we need to move on and not remind ourselves of "pre-independence" days? Do we still need to celebrate these days? Do we need to bring back "life" to these days? Do we need to bring back life to the other freedom fighters? As of now, I'm not very clear and maybe in a couple of weeks or months, I'll engage my thoughts come out with some vision & clarity of thought. Till then I guess I'll enjoy the National Holidays as Extended Weekend Breaks!