"Tryst with Destiny", one of the greatest speeches of all time delivered by the first Prime Minister of Independent India on Independence Day eve. The lines "At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance" awakens great feelings in me and I know I'm not the only one feeling that way. We march on with all our contradictions, a nation with so much diversity that "diversity" itself has a hard time digesting it. Yet here we are, a thriving nation, standing together for 67 long years and counting.
However, is it enough? I'm sure all of us know what I'm going to say next. Yes, we know the answer. We know it all, we've heard it all and even experienced it enough number of times to answer it without giving it a thought. Nothing is more patriotic than being aware of your nation's shortcomings and seeking to improve them. Independence Day or a Republic Day doesn't mean much to a lot of people sadly. Just another holiday to stay home and watch TV. When somebody talks of it, all we know is we
were a great nation. We are not anymore. We know it, we admit it and we very well know we are part of it.
Well, criticizing hasn't helped us much has it? The other day on a get together, we stumbled on this topic. It is one of those obsessions Indians living abroad have, discussing why our country too cannot be like the one we are currently residing. My friend said "Nobody follows even a simple traffic signal rule and the auto rickshaw guys changes lanes like he just escaped prison and is on the run". My husband is this goody goody type who asked him back "well how many times have you done the same. Everybody blames and nobody wants to change". The discussion went on with things like if I'm the only person following all rules, I will be ridiculed.
We lose the right to complain of government and country when we refuse to make a small change in our everyday life like following traffic rules for starters. May be we could give a second thought when we throw that empty chocolate cover on the road. Perhaps turn off that street light that has been on forever or care enough to reduce the water flow from taps while doing dishes.
The little things we do, might just be what the next generation learns from us. Our minds may have rotten, perhaps we are accustomed to complaining and comfortable doing it. Quite a Pro, aren't we? However, I guess there is no need for complainers in our country. We need catalysts that brings change. No switching off lights, not littering, turning off taps is not going to make us a Superpower in the next 10 years. But it sure makes way for something better.
I read a quote somewhere "Stop saying what kind of country are we leaving for our kids. What kind of mindless kids are we leaving for our planet!"
We have a long way to go. Lets pave way for the better and we may be lucky enough to watch our country change for better in our lifetime. The question remains.
"Do you care enough to make that little change in you?"
Please go ahead and read one of the greatest speeches delivered on the most important day of our nation's history. It will surely stir up something in us.!
TYRST WITH DESTINY
Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.
It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.
At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again.
The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?
Freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freedom we have endured all the pains of labour and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now.
That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfil the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity.
The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.
And so we have to labour and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for anyone of them to imagine that it can live apart.
Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this one world that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.
To the people of India, whose representatives we are, we make an appeal to join us with faith and confidence in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill will or blaming others. We have to build the noble mansion of free India where all her children may dwell.
The appointed day has come - the day appointed by destiny - and India stands forth again, after long slumber and struggle, awake, vital, free and independent. The past clings on to us still in some measure and we have to do much before we redeem the pledges we have so often taken. Yet the turning point is past, and history begins anew for us, the history which we shall live and act and others will write about.
It is a fateful moment for us in India, for all Asia and for the world. A new star rises, the star of freedom in the east, a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materialises. May the star never set and that hope never be betrayed!
We rejoice in that freedom, even though clouds surround us, and many of our people are sorrow-stricken and difficult problems encompass us. But freedom brings responsibilities and burdens and we have to face them in the spirit of a free and disciplined people.
On this day our first thoughts go to the architect of this freedom, the father of our nation, who, embodying the old spirit of India, held aloft the torch of freedom and lighted up the darkness that surrounded us.
We have often been unworthy followers of his and have strayed from his message, but not only we but succeeding generations will remember this message and bear the imprint in their hearts of this great son of India, magnificent in his faith and strength and courage and humility. We shall never allow that torch of freedom to be blown out, however high the wind or stormy the tempest.
Our next thoughts must be of the unknown volunteers and soldiers of freedom who, without praise or reward, have served India even unto death.
We think also of our brothers and sisters who have been cut off from us by political boundaries and who unhappily cannot share at present in the freedom that has come. They are of us and will remain of us whatever may happen, and we shall be sharers in their good and ill fortune alike.
The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman.
We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be.
We are citizens of a great country, on the verge of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action.
To the nations and peoples of the world we send greetings and pledge ourselves to cooperate with them in furthering peace, freedom and democracy.
And to India, our much-loved motherland, the ancient, the eternal and the ever-new, we pay our reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to her service. Jai Hind [Victory to India].
