Dear colleagues,…and all Indians who love our nation
I welcome all of you on this august occasion as we gather here on 64th independence day to unfurl our national flag once again.
At the strike of midnight of the August 15, 1947, India shook off the shackles of British Rule and became free. It was a night of celebration all over the country. The world learned the power of nonviolent protest as Gandhi lead the diverse peoples of India in a struggle for home rule.
We commemorate our independence from British rule and its birth as a sovereign nation in 1947…Indian flag, representing India's long struggle for freedom is a national treasure. It signifies the status of India as an independent republic. Our national flag is a unifying force for our nation.
The love for our country is supreme. True love is so selfless…only we should have nations benefit in mind. This nation has given us love, care , nurturing and freedom..all of us love the fragrance of our nation…It is time we should all think of repaying something back to this nation, to the people of this beautiful country. Nation is always before self .Please have this approach in daily life if you love this country. This is the best gift you can give to our country.
We have already learnt the hard way how we got our freedom. The price of which we had to pay by losing so much precious lives and so many patriotic Indians.
If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point to India.
Max Mueller, German scholar
Let me share a story with you..
A man was selling balloons at a fair in a tribal village. He had balloons of different colors. To attract the attention of people, he would release a gas filled balloon into the air. When children saw the balloon go up, they would jump with joy and rushed to buy one.
The Balloon man was busy in attracting his little customers, when he felt someone pulling his kurta (traditional dress worn in India). He turned around and saw a little dark tribal boy asking him, "If you release a black balloon, would that also fly high?"
For a moment the balloon man was taken aback – why is this little boy asking such a question? His eyes fell on the dark skin of the body, and in a flicker of moment, the balloon man realized the matter!
With lot of affection, he moved his hand on the head of the little boy and replied gently, "Son, it is not the color of the balloon, it is what’s inside it that makes it go up!" Such is the character of our nation. We are multi cultural..ethnic, religious, yet we have something great within us that makes us a great nation. India is not a country or a mass of land , it is dharma’s abode. It is our land of great spiritual vibrations made up of saints, holymen of all faiths . This makes our nation so remarkable.We are proud of this.
Today Indians take freedom and liberty for granted they forgot who obtained it for them. The Indian Freedom Struggle is well documented and there is no doubt that Gandhi infused a new life into it. He took it from the drawing rooms of the rich to the poor peasantry in the villages to whom freedom and equality were not even conceiveable. In 1947 all Indians were given liberty and equality much before many western democracies! If there was no influence of Gandhi, then the Civil Rights movement in America may not have been non-violent. If Gandhi did not exist, it is quite possible that the Free world may be short of 1.2 billion people today and most Indians may not be living in a united India.
One day he was investigating Champaran village (in Northern India) riding on elephant when a British policeman saw him and drove him back to town and issued a legal notice of leaving the village immediately. He signed the order and wrote back, ‘I will disobey’. In those times, no one had courage to speak to common Englishmen but Gandhi had power to disobey British laws openly.
Let`s make another tryst with destiny and pledge to end poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity.
The land I belong to,
The land I will die for,
The land that defines my identity.
This is my country &
My India….
Spread optimism
instead of Negativity
Live for nothing
Die for something…
FREEDOM IN THE MIND,
FAITH IN THE WORDS,
PRIDE IN OUR HEARTS &
MEMORIES IN OUR SOULS…
LETS SALUTE,
THE NATION ON 64nd INDEPENDENCE DAY!
Lets sing this song for our nation as a tribute to being born in this great land with me…
sare jahan se accha hindostan hamara
ham bulbulain hai is ki, yeh gul….sitan hamara
jai hind..vande matram…jai hindustan
