Of National Anthems, Nationalism and Nubile Actors in Nylons.......

     I stalk the World Wide Web pretty regularly; to confess - obsessively so, mostly to surf news sites, blogs and opinion pages for who's writing what these days and how. Ever since I've started fancying myself a writer of some note (don't snigger, I am well aware of 'Pride Hath a Fall!'), my stalking has trebled,  though I can't say the same about the popularity of my poor little blog. Yet I continue to dream shamelessly of the day it will become viral and I would then be the next Internet wonder writer......( notwithstanding the sad reality that such Internet Wonders tend to have pretty short lives!) But dreams being just that i.e. dreams, made up of a lot of sleepy cerebral synapses firing haphazard chemicals at each other, my Blog remains a greater flop than Himesh Reshammiya in Tera Suroor. 

     And I know exactly why it's so (no, it's not because I sing through my nose)! You see, the fame of a Blog rests on the Three Boulders: one, Brevity, i.e. writing short pieces (preferably shorter than the shortest LBD); two, being a 'Bicker Badshah' i.e. writing on subjects that are currently courting controversy, and finally the masterstroke, 'BadAss Bolo', i.e. voicing an opinion that is extreme- rarely extremely conformist, mostly, extremely not.

     

     Now I have three major writing handicaps, all three violating the three tenets described above. Firstly, I can't really write 'short'. Never could, to tell you the truth. In fact I remember I could never finish my answer papers both at school and at college because I always had this propensity to write too much. So brevity is not one of my virtues.

     

     Now for the kinds of subject that I write on.  Well, I've often talked about this in my writings, of my inability to pick up topics that are popular. I'll rephrase that. It's not my inability, but my sheer disinterest in topics that tend to trend.....; and so while the whole country would be caught up in earthy matters like demonizing demonetisation, you'll find Aibee getting poetic about unearthly things like life after death!!!! And then, when you along with the 'Internet'ati are raving about sharp scalpels wielding precise cuts across the tenuous LOC, your patriotism would be rudely interrupted by a quiet little post from yours truly, on, hold your breath, 'Lost Love'! I think you've got the drift...Exasperating, isn't it?

     

     And finally about voicing my opinion. Well, I usually find myself without one and when on the rare occasion that I am able to scrounge up an opinion, I find that its rather fragile, easily bent this way and that and ever ready to compromise itself to reach a peaceful settlement. In fact, I hate arguments. They cause my heart to go into tachyarrhythmias and my stomach to secrete too much of acid.....which you would agree,  is not at all a very comfortable feeling. And thus, because my writing so blatantly belittles the three Boulders of a successful Blog, it's no surprise that I am still a pebble in the Boulders' shadow, lounging in anonymity!!!

     But then, this time there's this issue that's going viral, the one about the Supreme Court ordering the National Anthem to be sung before the screening of every movie in movie theatres. I would have, as usual, run away from this controversy too, but when I found Twinkle Khanna in her Mrs Funny Bones avatar writing of how singing the National Anthem at the cinema hall interfered with her drooling over Ranveer Singh in his colourful and little too well-fitted underpants, I couldn't keep away. Ahhhhh, the lure of those flowery underpants!!!!

     I then did a bit of surfing around and concluded that this controversy has divided the country sharply into two halves, the cut as precise as the surgical strike by the our Special Forces. One half is made up of those like Aibee who would happily sing along with the Anthem, a little teary-eyed maybe, but 'Befikre' of the impending underpant show; while the other half is made up of the Twinkle Khannas. 

     I'll begin by asking, timidly of course - What's the harm in listening to the Anthem before a movie? 

     I recall no one protested, definitely not Mrs Funny Bones, when Big B sang the Anthem before the Pro Kabaddi League last year. I'm quite sure all those muscular young men in tight-fitting vests and shorts, toned, sweaty bodies gleaming in the stadium floodlights had as much, if not more SA as Ranvir in his red underpants. Wonder how drooling over them was not interrupted by the Anthem then? And of course not many said anything when Bachchanji once again sang the Anthem (and simply divinely too) before some India Pakistan cricket match early this year. It seems to me as if the nation has begun to think that nationalism is something that is the patent and the sole responsibility of the Indian Army. And as for the rest of the citizens, this is an emotion that is to be churned out of their systems only during cricket matches, kabaddi games, at the Wagah Border and when they bring a martyr's body home.........!

     Lets take some of the counter arguments offered, one by one. From what I could gather from the opinions expressed in the public domain, people it seems, don't mind the anthem being played but they do not want to stand-up for it. Now that's funny. Not stand up for your own nation's anthem? I think we would be the only country in the world having a debate on this!!!! Why wouldn't we want to stand up for a mere fifty two seconds that the official version of the Anthem stretches? We can stand in queues for periods longer than this to buy tickets to the movie, but are queasy about standing up for the Anthem, once inside the hall!!!!! Rather weird, I'd say...again!!!

     Others say, nationalism through the compulsory playing of the Anthem, is being forced down their throats. Now that's unfair, being factually incorrect. Sound enters us through the ears, not through our throats.

     Another argument that is being put forward is - why have a rule like this at all? That is, of all the places in the entire country, why should the Anthem be played by order only in cinema halls? Well for one, the movie hall is a place where it's easy to play a song as it has all the wherewithal for it. Additionally, it's a place where you are at leisure, in contrast to say, in the kitchen, at the railway station, at the airport or in your car at the traffic junction where either you would be too rushed to stand still or it would be too inconvenient or simply, impossible to stand and to listen. If you are now going to say, then why not play it in the public courts, in the houses of Parliament, in the Legislative houses.......well, I too would say- yes why not?

     

     Others say, whether one stands or sits or lays down or does the sheershasan during the National Anthem, their position is not an indication of the levels of their patriotism. I agree completely and wholeheartedly. Body posture is not a parameter with which to judge patriotism; but universally, all over this world, we humans stand up when we want to show respect. We stand up for our teacher when she enters class, we stand up when we perform an aarti, we stand up for our elders, we stand up when we want to give an ovation (it's called a 'standing' ovation, in case you didn't know), so why not stand, to show you respect the Anthem and by extension, your Nation?

     The next question that might naturally follow, is that there are other ways to be patriotic. Again, absolutely correct. I love my country and so I will not litter, I will not spit on the roads, I will not piss in public, I will not deface public places, I will not damage public property, I will always buy a platform ticket..........The list of these 'other ways' is endless. But you've gone through the list.....tell me, don't you think for us to honestly be able to put a tick against all of them, would need for us to change the way we think and act, something that would take time, lots of it? Till then, don't you think it's a good idea to start with the easy things like standing up for the Anthem, be it on the Republic Day, at the Wagah border, at cricket matches or in our cinema halls?

     We always land up quoting what the Americans do as examples to be emulated and I too am going be guilty of that crime. Ever seen how the Yankees put their hand on their heart when their National Anthem is played? It really does something to me, that gesture of theirs. Can you imagine two Yanks quarreling over whether they would stand up when their anthem is being played? After seeing them with their hand on their heart, I find this something quite difficult to imagine.

     I walk to work nowadays, being winters and I know the moment we enter January, every morning I will get to hear the little girls in the convent just behind my home sing the Anthem in their childish yet serious voices. And it gives me such pleasure to hear these young people sing this soulful song....! I like the Anthem, not just for its lyrics but also for its haunting melody that echoes of something I can't exactly put my fingers on, but its something that fills my heart (and also my eyes....) without fail, every time I hear it. Whenever the Anthem plays, I can picturise vividly our exquisitely beautiful land, its snow capped mountains, its dense green forests, its deep blue rivers, its vast oceans, it's beautiful People, their rich culture varied yet intrinsically linked to each other with a bond that goes back thousands of years into our history.....

     And now after this controversy, whenever I listen to this exquisite song, I find the question knocking in my mind: Why? Why oppose a little thing like the playing of the Anthem in cinema halls? What's the harm if for 52 seconds I stand and listen to this wondrous music? What's the harm if for those 52 seconds, before I immerse myself in Ranveer Singh, Daniel Craig or Eddie Redmayne, I see in my mind's eye, helped by the Anthem, the beauty and wonder of this land we call our nation, our home?

     I believe that Nationalism is rather limiting an emotion. I firmly, ardently, believe in वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्, that the world is one family.

     But to evolve to that level of realization (not that I claim to be such an evolved being), we have to begin small. If we cannot love our country, it's difficult to believe that we could love our world...and if we cannot happily, without qualms stand up for 52 seconds in a cinema hall to pay respects to our Anthem, then by no stretch of imagination could we ever hope to be able love our Nation. 

     As a nation, it is important that we evolve. That we must leave behind beliefs, systems and practices that hinder our evolution into a better nation, is something there is no doubt about. But as we move ahead, isn't it vital that certain things that define our identity as a Nation, as a People are held sacred and cherished? Love for the nation, patriotism, nationalism, call it what you will, is I think one of those things.And therefore, it is vital that we learn and teach to love and respect our Anthem for it is a symbol of our Nation and our identity as a People. And standing up when the Anthem plays in a cinema hall is just a small, very small expression of that respect and love.

      And though he hasn't said anything about it in public, I think Ranveer would agree with me.