The Republic Day 2014:
For the first time in my life , i woke up so early , got ready in twenty minutes and left the hostel amidst heavy fog with the temperature dipping to 9 degree celsius to attend the 65th Republic Day.I am not a passionate nationalist. I just wanted to catch a glimpse of the Prime Minister of Japan and also the Chief Guest for this year's festival , Shinzo Abe , not knowing however that he will come packed in a black sleek Mercedes - Benz.
Even though I reached the venue on time , I could not see any proper direction boards which could easily show us the way for our seating venue. After asking fifteen to twenty policemen and walking for aprroximately three kilometres , I reached the correct pathway and joined the right queue hoping that after some more minutes , I would be sitting inside comfortably watching the national festival. However , my journey's destination gates got closed and people with only VN passes were allowed inside.
One uncle who was till now one amongst us as soon as came to know that people only with VN passes are being allowed, immediatley said " arre phir iss public ko hatao na" , referring to people who had normal passes. I was totally shocked by his sudden change in attitude. We (me and one of my friends) kept standing in the huge crowd, being pushed from all possible directions hoping that at some point of time they will definiety open the gates because they cant upset so many Indians who left their beds so early in the winter morning to see and taste the national flavour.
To our dissappointment , the gates didnt open. As we left the jam-packed crowd and started walking back towards the gate , we saw two Delhi Police women cops among many policemen. We went and asked one of them ," If you dont have an arrangement for accomodating so many people , then why do you issue such huge numbers of passes?" with our each words showing our frustation with the authoriities.
One of them said, "ma'am , this year the footfall is huge. We didnt expect such a great footfall". I was still not satisfied and somewhere deep down , I knew I wont go back without watching the festival but also knew that i dont know any possible way to get inside.As we chated with them , asking general questions regarding their lives , whether they always wanted to be policewomen , whether they are liking the job , what they think of the recent dharna by the new CM , I came across two women who might not be a part of the mainstream youth culture anymore but still were very youth - orinted and full of life.
They chated with us , shared their past experiences , told about their unplanned career option and how they landed being the proud Delhi Police women cops and busted one of our biggest myths. When the sun's rays had slowly started ripping the fog, we four had tea with extra sugar. The women without being judgemental and believing our innocence , took us with them inside the venue where the festival as in "the event" was happening in the presence of millions of eyeballs.
We had missed half of the event but because of those two women , we saw the other half of the episode. It was a wonderful feeling watching the left over saga unfolding infront of our bare eyes which we for the past 19 years were watching only through the lenses of the monopolist Doordarshan.
It was a dream come true. But i still didnt understand why common people who always get harrased by the military , by the police , by the politicians still turned up with such high levels of enthusiasm? Was it faith , was it love for their country ? What was it that made them travel on a chilly winter Sunday morning? They could have easily seen the same thing on their television sets being the master of their remote control sets ? Small kids howling , mothers tired of holding them in their arms and fathers anxious of how to manage an enrty inside. I am curious .
The myth the women cops busted before us is that according to them the Delhi Police is the safest place for them to work at. The colleagues most of them young at age and even at heart are very cooperative and they are also witnessing a change in the entire system. No more tenth passed men and women are being recruited.
Also for them the corruption menace is a trickle down theory. Accroding to them , it is the people at top who have the unappropriate appetite with an amazing digestive system.
"Even if we place one police member for every woman , we would still fail because the number of girls out at night is unimaginable", said one of them. I do not support this statement though.
The women who placed tremendous faith on us on 'the Republic Day' made our dreams come true even though they didnt know what dreams they had when they were of my age. They became my good friends and broke the prejudice that cops are not meant to be frinds with. I loved this gift of the Republic day even though i didnt get to see Mr. Shinzo Abe.
For the first time in my life , i woke up so early , got ready in twenty minutes and left the hostel amidst heavy fog with the temperature dipping to 9 degree celsius to attend the 65th Republic Day.I am not a passionate nationalist. I just wanted to catch a glimpse of the Prime Minister of Japan and also the Chief Guest for this year's festival , Shinzo Abe , not knowing however that he will come packed in a black sleek Mercedes - Benz.
Even though I reached the venue on time , I could not see any proper direction boards which could easily show us the way for our seating venue. After asking fifteen to twenty policemen and walking for aprroximately three kilometres , I reached the correct pathway and joined the right queue hoping that after some more minutes , I would be sitting inside comfortably watching the national festival. However , my journey's destination gates got closed and people with only VN passes were allowed inside.
One uncle who was till now one amongst us as soon as came to know that people only with VN passes are being allowed, immediatley said " arre phir iss public ko hatao na" , referring to people who had normal passes. I was totally shocked by his sudden change in attitude. We (me and one of my friends) kept standing in the huge crowd, being pushed from all possible directions hoping that at some point of time they will definiety open the gates because they cant upset so many Indians who left their beds so early in the winter morning to see and taste the national flavour.
To our dissappointment , the gates didnt open. As we left the jam-packed crowd and started walking back towards the gate , we saw two Delhi Police women cops among many policemen. We went and asked one of them ," If you dont have an arrangement for accomodating so many people , then why do you issue such huge numbers of passes?" with our each words showing our frustation with the authoriities.
One of them said, "ma'am , this year the footfall is huge. We didnt expect such a great footfall". I was still not satisfied and somewhere deep down , I knew I wont go back without watching the festival but also knew that i dont know any possible way to get inside.As we chated with them , asking general questions regarding their lives , whether they always wanted to be policewomen , whether they are liking the job , what they think of the recent dharna by the new CM , I came across two women who might not be a part of the mainstream youth culture anymore but still were very youth - orinted and full of life.
They chated with us , shared their past experiences , told about their unplanned career option and how they landed being the proud Delhi Police women cops and busted one of our biggest myths. When the sun's rays had slowly started ripping the fog, we four had tea with extra sugar. The women without being judgemental and believing our innocence , took us with them inside the venue where the festival as in "the event" was happening in the presence of millions of eyeballs.
We had missed half of the event but because of those two women , we saw the other half of the episode. It was a wonderful feeling watching the left over saga unfolding infront of our bare eyes which we for the past 19 years were watching only through the lenses of the monopolist Doordarshan.
It was a dream come true. But i still didnt understand why common people who always get harrased by the military , by the police , by the politicians still turned up with such high levels of enthusiasm? Was it faith , was it love for their country ? What was it that made them travel on a chilly winter Sunday morning? They could have easily seen the same thing on their television sets being the master of their remote control sets ? Small kids howling , mothers tired of holding them in their arms and fathers anxious of how to manage an enrty inside. I am curious .
The myth the women cops busted before us is that according to them the Delhi Police is the safest place for them to work at. The colleagues most of them young at age and even at heart are very cooperative and they are also witnessing a change in the entire system. No more tenth passed men and women are being recruited.
Also for them the corruption menace is a trickle down theory. Accroding to them , it is the people at top who have the unappropriate appetite with an amazing digestive system.
"Even if we place one police member for every woman , we would still fail because the number of girls out at night is unimaginable", said one of them. I do not support this statement though.
The women who placed tremendous faith on us on 'the Republic Day' made our dreams come true even though they didnt know what dreams they had when they were of my age. They became my good friends and broke the prejudice that cops are not meant to be frinds with. I loved this gift of the Republic day even though i didnt get to see Mr. Shinzo Abe.
"Even if we place one police member for every woman , we would still fail because the number of girls out at night is unimaginable"... the statement according to me in itself is a source curiosity..!! as many people have different views on it..!! but as far as that question is concerned, "why common people who always get harrased by the military , by the police , by the politicians still turned up with such high levels of enthusiasm? Was it faith , was it love for their country ? What was it that made them travel on a chilly winter Sunday morning? They could have easily seen the same thing on their television sets being the master of their remote control sets ? Small kids howling , mothers tired of holding them in their arms and fathers anxious of how to manage an enrty inside.", according to me the fact that we are Indians and have still got some patriotism left down our hearts is the answer..!! :)
ReplyDeleteyes priyanka i was to astonished to see such a large crowd. but a little disappointed with the state tableaux of Republic day.
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