Independence n its relevance...

Yesterday was the Independence Day, and my son Parth, had already asked me the meaning of independence nearly ten times at separate places and different times. Standing in the long line of a retail store bursting with people trying to cash on, as if their Independence,  but the monsoon sales...watching the I day decorations, flag color balloons flying high above the lucrative looking discounts and as if celebrating freedom to buy more in the buy 2 get 2 offers...he asked me again, trying his luck one more time to understand, what Independence really meant.
Just the last night we had discussed how India got freedom, and yet got divided into two nations, and why the bigger one that is us, are still tolerating the so called greedy one, trying to get inside our borders, send terrorists and disturb us. With his short experience and understanding of the life in his six years, he wondered why our neighbour China, didn`t help us explain Pakistan. Actually he was quite sad to know and failed to accept that instead of the Indian flag they would hoist the Pakistani flag in Kashmir. He had woken up checking the borders on the globe. Sporting his jaipur hand printed kurta pyjama (sadly very low in popularity compared to latest Ben 10 tees) to the I day celebration of the complex, he was very excited to celebrate the Independence Day.
Now standing in the line when the question came again, I just realised that, perhaps in all the answers that I (being the mom i had to know it all) had managed to give him, he failed to understand what independence meant to us and how it applied to our lives, or perhaps he was wondering what do we do with this "Independence" apart from shopping our hearts out.  I began to ponder along with him and the answers came pouring from within.
 Freedom, is the power to choose what to be, and the responsibility of what we have become. Today the meaning of Independence is more existential, the struggle is deeper, within us.  It is a collective nation wide venting exercise to condemn corruption in the commonwealth games, but yet do we wonder who has created this system, we all have contributed in our own ways to bring this free country to such a state. We haven`t even come forward and volunteered to clean up our city, or stop the traffic jams, for the games, but we all are equally hurt about how the money has been misused and deadlines not met with.  How patiently we can stand in a long queue of an upmarket store going on discounts, and yet it is an utter torture and below  our dignity to stand in a queue to get your passports renewed. We can throw the trash anywhere the road since the entire road looks like an extension of a dustbin, and yet go on harping about how clean are the cities abroad.
Now the challenges are different, we need to move beyond questioning the credibility of the authorities, blaming the people in posts and mocking at the state of armed forces. When we can refuse a bribe, we can question the authorities without fear, when we can stop on the road and help someone in need without thinking twice, we are truly free. It is Independence of intentions and actions that we seek.When we can proudly speak Hindi, wear an Indian dress to a posh place,  plan Indian traditional style birthday party for our kids,  we are free. It is the freedom to flaunt what is our own without worrying about being labelled as down market. It is not what we preach but what we do, enjoy and celebrate that our children watch, understand and value.
Perhaps Parth is looking for the feeling of pride and joy seeing the tricolor, the infectious patriotic sentiment of listening to the bhagat singh songs, the rush to witness the locality flag hoisting, standing up to sing the anthem, singing the national song, and distributing laddoos (which also thanx to chhota bheem caartoon, now compete with pastries for popularity among our kids), which seems to have been overshadowed by the rush to grab all stylish western brands at amazing prices.....