The Tricolour

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The sight of orange white and green together makes my heart swell with pride every time I set eyes on it. Every single time.
The tricolour always has the same effect on me. Weather it is swaying peacefully with the wind high up on the post or fluttering passionately in the stadium when the India wins a match. Even when it quietly perches itself on my chest as part of my uniform.
I grew up in a country where patriotism is a major blood component. It flows freely in our system spiking the plasma with the required awesomeness. The tricolour is the symbol of that awesomeness.
Belonging to a generation which is confused about patriotism as it is about a lot of other emotions I have been subjected to a lot of remarks and questions. One being what does being a patriot really mean? I can now sum up all that I think in one line.
A patriot for me isn’t the guy who buys a tricolour on the Republic day but he is the one who picks it off the road when the celebrations are over.
The orange on our national flag signifies courage and sacrifice of the martyrs who got us the freedom we take for granted. The white is for peace and truth. The green stands for faith. The blue chakra in the centre represents spirituality. But the flag means differently to each person who looks at it.
Patriotism was handed down to me as legacy. For someone one whose first words “Jai Hind” the emotion rides higher than any other.
I am extremely proud of my country, the flag and everything it signifies. I hope I can make the tricolour flutter in pride for me someday.

Book Review: The Diary of a Reluctant Feminist

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Author: Bhavna Bhavna
Publisher: Hachette India
ISBN: 978-93-5009-671-0
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 197
Source: Flipkart

The Diary of a reluctant feminist is a candid account of the authors struggle between being brought up with middle class values and having modern thoughts. Like the cover suggests it is a humorous take on discussing uncomfortable issues with parents, in this case: Divorce.

Bhavna succeeds in painting a graphic image of a full blooded punjabi joint family. With the grandmother “at the top of the food chain” and hierarchy followed like the martial law. The lack of privacy is just one of the problems that arises when the families of seven brothers stay together in the same house. Quirky characters like an eager to help uncle, who scouts the sunday newspapers for grooms make appearances as the story progresses.
The disharmony between generations and the effects it has on all involved comes across nicely. She has made an attempt to sprinkle humor on issues such as weight loss, arranged marriage and inter racial marriage which work very well at most instances.

It like reading a personal diary, so it got its share of rants. Some longer than the others. You sympathize with her at times, and then get to empathizing too. After all being stuck in a loveless marriage isn’t a nice thing to happen to anyone. The parents not being supportive adds to the misery. You can feel the author struggle with stringent so called middle class values and moral rules. The redundancy of the whole exercise leaves a bitter after taste in the mouth.
In short it’s a complicated story of a simple divorce.

Over all the book is a good one time read, just to know what the author has gone through. The beginning of each chapter is with a well written poem and ending is with a check list, a nice twist added there.

Rating: 2.5/5

Buy The Diary of a Reluctant Feminist from Flipkart.com

Immured

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Something inside me shudders at the sight of a caged bird.
No birds belong in cages, no matter how much a man coveted their grace, no matter how golden the bars. They are far more beautiful soaring free. Heartbreakingly beautiful.
“I shall cage it again” said the man with a icy heart.
“I am willing to take a chance for the both of us” I said as she flapped her wings, dusted the sorrow and never looked back.
If only he could see the beauty of that empty cage!