The Loose Blog Consortium, LBC for short, has now got into its stride and the topics are getting to be tougher by each week. In many parts of India, the word ‘Loose’ indicates that a screw is loose for the person concerned, and I for one am now ‘loose’ alright. In Ashok’s language it is very elegantly called “thaley loozze” meaning “his head is screwed on loosely”. Ashok, I am sure will appreciate what I mean here. Far from implying that the other four bloggers in the consortium are also “loose”, let me direct you to Ashok, Conrad, Grannymar, Magpie and Marianna, in politically correct alphebetical order. By the time that this post appears, the racket of protests would have died down and you are bound to have a bouquet of flavours.
The English transliteration and translation of the original Bengali Poem by Nobel Laurette Rabindranath Tagore can be read in this very well brought out site.
I was four years old when India won its independence and it was not long afterwards that I learnt to sing it standing to attention and looking at the National Flag if there was one around.
I have never forgotten that lesson. Till today, I get goose pimples when I hear it. Brain washed jingoist that I am.
Sadly, I wish that I could say the same about many modern young Indians who think that it is jingoism to do that. It is supposed to be ‘uncool’ to do that. When national barriers are being broken a National Anthem is supposed to be hindering the process by encouraging jingoism. I have got into many tricky situations because of this casual attitude to the National Anthem.
Personally, I would have preferred the other short listed song called Vande Mataram, which was the unofficial Anthem till independence. The Indian National Congress, the then ruling party decided, for vote bank politics not to have it as the Muslims and some other minorities of India objected to it. You can read about the controversy in Wikipedia. I strongly believe that had it been chosen, many of the problems that we have now would not have come about. I shall write a separate post on that topic at an appropriate time.
For the purpose of this post, suffice it to say, I get all worked up whenever I hear it, I get emotional, maudlin and get goosepimples.
I AM STUCK ON OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM, BECAUSE OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM IS STUCK ON ME.
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