Pledge

India is my country; All Indians are my brothers and sisters;
I love my country; I am proud of its rich and varied heritage;
I shall give my parents, teachers and all elders respect, and treat everyone with courtesy;
To my country and my people, I pledge my devotion;
In their well-being and prosperity, lies my happiness.

I remembered this pledge one morning, when I saw some smartly dressed school kids last Friday.

Back in my school days, apart from the welcome weekend, I used to enjoy Friday mornings because, the school assembly extended to an hour's time to accomodate the Flag hoisting.

I used to love the flutter of the Tricolor in the bright morning sky with the entire school saluting to honor the flag and hence the nation's pride. The sequence of flag hoisting as I remember:

From some where you hear, School Attention!!!! and we all stand in attention.The School pupil leader marches towards the podium and accompanies the principal in a march towards the flag pole, the principal hoists the flag, the rose petals in the wound-up flag shower and the flag flutters in the morning breeze, the school pupil leader ties up the nylon rope's knot on the flag pole, and says : School, Salute!!!!, we all look upwards to the fluttering Tricolor with pride in our eyes and salute the flag. Then again she says: Order!!! to put our hands down. The school choir sings National anthem and the school sings along. Once done, the school pupil leader speaks out the pledge as the school repeats after her.

It was this pledge that you read earlier in this post.. When I saw those smart school kids, I remembered the pledge, I remember the pride, I remembered the Anthem, I remembered the latest happenings in the country...

I also couldn't help thinking of the fact that some of these school kids who sing National Anthem and speak the patriotic Pledge, will end up studying abroad and working for a foreign land, which is not wrong, because money does wonders...... but can't help wondering about the fact that the feeling of pride in the nation is somewhere getting lesser and lesser with the current state of affairs in the country... Now don't tell me: We all love India.. Yes, we do, but then the kind of respect and patriotism that we once had as children, we may not have it today.. I see a lot of people appreciating a foreign land, but never taking a simple step in his own locality to change things.... I also hear people saying: Why bother? you can't change things in our country anyways.....

Do colleges have such patriotic pledges? Do corporates conduct flag hoisting, forget going as far as reading a pledge? I have not attended a flag hoisting event in any of the companies I worked for.. Wonder if there was one.. If there was one, I did not know....If there is a reason why this is not happening, someone should let the world know.. The independence day holiday is usually considered as a day for complete rest, except a few social service activities in a few places... I did not have a chance to sing National Anthem for the last few Independence days as far as I can recall... The last time was when I was in my college days.

Now, read the pledge again.... Does it make sense to revise, revive and revisit it? I think it does...