आज़ादी (Freedom)

"Dushman Ki Goliyon Ka Saamna Hum Karenge, Azad Hi Rahe Hai, Azad Hi Rahenge"

-Chandra Shekhar Azad

'Is the Independence day just another holiday for you?' some woman on the television asked. This was 3 years back and I was yet to join my college.

I was a little taken aback by the question and on reflecting back a little bit I did realized that yes, Independence day for many was yet another holiday. We do things like raising a flag and all, but all that is just the formal ritual which almost everyone across this country does. Raising a flag in itself is not less in anyways mind you, but is that enough? Then the other times I just shrug and say "I am in college, what can I supposedly do?" Never did I knew that the answer was waiting for me.

Three  years down the line, a lot happened. College happened, crushes happened, fights happened and friendships happened. And amidst all that chaos, College Diary happened. Because College Diary happened, I hold a moral obligation to give respect to my country and share patriotism with my readers with this medium I subdue. Not a lot has changed when it comes to celebrating Independence day, but still a lot has changed. The younger me would have got up early, bought small flags to cover almost every corner of his belongings, brought in kites to fill the sky with the three most beautiful colors of this world and watched a lot of patriotic films on television; not to forget attending the school function where we got free laddoos. The present me would have pretty much done the same (please excuse the getting up early part), though every thing electronically. Yes, this is the electronic era, and we have to make place for its existence. But this very time, I try to differ. I posted nothing on Facebook, that will easily be lost in the large wave of updates coming every now and then. Instead, I wrote this article. This article (as I hope) will remain at least for the coming 10 years. That much time is enough to spread my voice. *honest wink*

But coming back to my original topic: Freedom. Freedom; One subject that has pestered in the gardens of my thoughts all my life, since I gained conscious if I am not wrong. When I was 4 or 5, I brought in a parrot from the Saturday market one day and hung its cage in the veranda. It was this parrot that changed the way I see the world today; forever. Read the poem in the end to know more. No one in my family knows the importance of the events that lasted almost 15 days long, maybe because I chose not to show them how I felt.

 Moving away from home to study brings in a complex bunch of feelings all together - you are free and excited yet you feel low when you realize something back home is pulling you back. As Khalil Gibran , great poet and philosopher, would say:

My house says to me, 'do not leave me, for here dwells your past.' And the road says to me, 'Come and follow me, for I am your future.' And I say to both my house and the road, 'I have no past, nor have I a future. If I stay here, there is a going in my staying and if I go there is a staying in my going. Only love and death change all things.'

It wasn't long ago that the concept of freedom and independence day dawned on me. As I reached a responsible age, I started seeing the inevitable pressures, duties and obligations 

that parents, society and peers expect from a being. I don't deny them neither would I run away from them at the first possible chance but wouldn't it be great if it wasn't so much complicated. 

Thus I realized how painful it must have been for our forefathers to bear the blot of being a servant country; a third world.Hence we fought and ensured our freedom. What has changed now is that we people don't actually know what being enslaved or achieving ultimate freedom is. If we had known, maybe we must have respected this auspicious day a little better. Nonetheless, ours is a very patriotic country and I am proud of it.

Though concepts of freedom vary person to person, it is the journey and the anxiety that builds up over the result that intrigues me greatly. I would have explained a bit about my concept of freedom but that must have taken well over a few thousand words ; a book or so. Guess we would have to wait for that to from up. I am sorry if the article seems bizarre, I have just thrown in random stuff; maybe because it is difficult to write about a subject when you either know nothing about it or know about it too well. You decide well and understand my dilemma!

Now follows a short poem as promised at the beginning of the article. It is a story of a parrot I brought on one saturday when I was 4 or 5 years of age.

एक शनिवार अचानक
एक गहरे हरे रंग का पंछी दिख गया बाज़ार में
लाल चोंच, कर्कश आवाज़, सर पे मुकुट सा सजा एकल पंख
'इस पंछी को क्या बोलते हैं भैया?' मैंने पूछ लिया
यह तोता है, जो बोलोगे बोलता है
शिकारी ने कविता में जवाब दिया

१० रूपए में, पिंजरे के साथ, खरीद लाया
हरे रंग का नया जानवर
जो आज तक कभी न देखा था न सुना था
और लटका दिया बरामदे में, अच्छे से सजाकर

कहाँ जानता था की १० रूपए में बस शरीर ले आया हूँ उसका
आजादी इतने सस्ते में, कभी न बिकती थी

फिर कई दिन बीत गए
उदासी उतरती ही नहीं उसके चेहरे से
ऐसे चिपक गई जैसे तंज़ चिपकी रहती है आकाओं की जुबां पर

मिर्ची खिला दी, चने फ़ेंक दिए, गर्दन दबा ली
कुछ असर न पड़ा
बस खुली छत की तरफ देखता रहता
और टाये टाये कर के पुकारता रहता जाने किसको

फिर एक दिन जब मैं स्कूल से वापस आया
देखा पिंजरा खली था, माँ ने दरवाज़ा शायद खुला छोड़ दिया
पर मालूम पड़ा माँ ने जानबूझ कर
रिहा कर दिया था उस हरे अजूबे को

मैं बोहोत रोया, चीखा चिल्लाया
कई दिनों तक माँ से बात भी नहीं करी

तब एक रोज़ एक और परिंदा ले आई माँ
और फिर उसे भी कुछ दिन बाद उड़ा दिया
करती रही ऐसा वो काफी समय तक

फिर एक दिन, मुझे भेज दिया
दूर दराज़ के एक महलनुमा स्कूल में पढ़ने
तब समझ में आया, परिंदा रोता क्यूँ था
टाये टाये क्यूँ करता था
सब तो था - मेहेल्नुमा पिंजरा, खाना, ख़याल करने वाले लोग
पर एक चीज़ नहीं थी, वो एक चीज़
जिसे आजादी कहते हैं