Today is India’s 62nd Independence Day. I didn’t attend any flag hoisting ceremony. Nor watch on television the Prime Minister’s traditional salute to the flag and address to the nation.
What I did do was stumble upon AR Rahman’s brilliant rendition of Maa Tujhe Salaam/ Vande Mataram that features the kind of music only he can make.
I have heard the song and watched the video hundreds of times. But it still has the power to cause me goosebumps. No, to make me shed tears of simultaneous pride/ pity for this vast, weird and completely crazy country I happen to have been born in.
Don’t get me wrong. I am about as patriotic as the next steal-from-thy-neighbour and damn-the-country Indian. If I had to give up the comforts of home, I’d probably live abroad without much regret. But some things do move me. This song does. Watch it and feel it.
Manisha blogs here 