Republic day!
Growing up this was a fun day! The best part was the Republic day was the Parade which we always used to miss ( at least the initial part!); the other cool thing was HALF DAY!
Nowadays though many kids generally have a holiday which is actually sad since then the would miss the celebrations that is Republic day! Read and weep Gen Z and Gen Alpha!
We used to get up in the morning but this time with joy!
That is because there was no need to carry the heavy school bag!!
No need to carry the lunch box and no need to be there till 3!
Republic day celebration was an event of it’s own!
We would rush to the extended assembly in our super clean uniform just in time for the prayer to start!
After that there will be cool programs (cool only if you are watching! Sometimes though we would be told to perform a skit or narrate a speech then it would seem like any other school day!!)
Then there will be a speech by our principal and the good point is that we would be sitting when all this would be going on!!
This of course was secondary to the falling kid phenomenon!
Apparently most of the time some kid would fall down so they made this rule for any extended assembly!!
We would see our friends dressed up as Gandhi, Nehru and many other leaders! The best of course would be Subhash Chandra Bose!! There was always a demand for playing Bose ji!
Coming up in his get up and saying “You give me blood and I will give you freedom!”
That would raise both our morale and adrenaline!
Then everyone would sing those national integration songs!
There would be some speeches and then some ‘free life lessons as the Gen Z would call it now!’; we of course would listen to all of them with rapt attention since the punishment for speaking is to stand!
Now when the whole school is sitting; you do not like to stand with your bottoms completely brown! That was dirt of course since we would be sitting on the ground spoiling our very nice uniforms pants and trousers! The real irritation for our moms would be to wash those pants the next day! They would wonder how it could get so dirty!
Finally the next best part of the show would be the distribution of the laddus!!
I have never liked laddus (except Tirupati laddu of course!!)
But this laddu was special since we would be made to wait for it for hours together just like Tirupati laddu!! Sometimes though we all would get paper bags in the color of the Indian flags and in that there would be pieces of laddus and some other snacks thrown in for good measure!
After waiting for so long; getting that small paper bag would be a great achievement! Many would finish it off as soon as possible! I would eat a little and store it to give a little to my mother who of course refuse to eat it and tell me to finish them myself!
Rest would be munching on this and may be some other snack which some kid would have bought forgetting that you do not have to get lunch today!
We would then then rush to the ground to play until we get tired or our bus comes!
Sometimes we would be told that the bus will be late so we all would simply walk home!
Something you cannot even think of doing now! With the little flags and the little laddu bags we would munch and talk and walk!
Since there was no OTT or any Cable; the only channel that would be on at home at that time would be the DD!
We all would then watch the republic day parade! We of course would be waiting for our ‘State’ parade and cheer for it!
Then again; if you are from Army background you will be perpetually confused on which state to support since you belong to all! So we would support most of them! Including the North east since Assam and Arunachal were some of the best and most beautiful postings dad had and we loved those pristine places!
Watching that on TV along with the commentary alternating between Hindi and English was like watching the academy award with a front view! I always used to wonder how our dear President would keep his hands as salute the whole time! We would be amazed to see that glass covering!
Occasionally you would catch the glimpse of some known personality in the audience and that would be fodder to the next day’s gossip! We would even have a ‘working’ lunch!
All that work used to call for a quick afternoon nap! A rarity of those days since lunch was done and it was too hot out!
Then mom would wake us up and we would feel so sad that it is morning and we have to go to school again! Then to our delight we would realize that it was only evening! Another round of ‘Republic day’ delight!
A quick glass of milk and if your mom is in a good mood some snacks which would usually be some pakoras or Bonda!
Another round of playing cricket or football with the neighbor kids or simply cycling or skating since there is so much time to ‘waste’!
Then you would have the special screening of the movie Gandhi! It is not republic day if you do not watch that movie! Later on when we had the DD Metro then special National Integration movies like Roja used to shown which we loved to watch again!
Slowly then Mom would remind us to pack the bags and finish any homework and go to bed! The afternoon nap would make sure that the sleep would take its own sweet time to come! Then my brother would take his carefully preserved bag of Laddu and we would have a late night treat!
The night would be done but the whole day would be etched in our memories forever!
Today’s sketch needs no description! If you know you know!
Well deserved Padma for Maddy!
Happy republic day folks!!
proud to be an Indian!!!
Jai Hind!🙏🙏🙏
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