Republic Day, its like the only time of the year when your dad asks you to watch TV. Or shall I say that wants you to watch TV with him. For all my life republic day has always been a father son moment type of a thing. Spotting celebrity faces in the republic day crowd, to guessing the aircraft names during fly-by's, and having the annual moment where the Arjun tank comes on screen during the parade (and my dad has to specifically inform me about it's arrival) has always kind of been how I've had and seen Republic Day. Its one of the few times when watching TV for a few hours isn't wasting your time in your dad's eyes, because of course patriotism comes before studies doesn't it ?
Nothing can be a better treat to me than watching the Republic Day parade with my family as we have a breakfast of pooris with aarchaar and chai for everyone. That occasional cup of chai, that half a cup that you get once in a while on a weekend or on a holiday. Discussing stories of wartime blackouts, ranks of the old retired army officers in out families and those conspiracies about what really happened during that war. All these memories they have a special place for me, and for most people. Because why not ? It's the one time of the year when the nation is brought up without falling into the politics whirlpool at the breakfast table, when everyone sits and actually enjoys. The only day when your father/grandfather/uncle would hopefully keep their trap shut about Kaangress and Bhajapa. It's not like other holidays when either you have some kind of a religious duty to perform something or half your family isn't home because the holiday wasn't relevant enough.
There is nothing in this world that seems as blissful to me as Republic Day, its that day of the year when you have a legitimate family moment. To be honest I'd go as far as to say that its even better than Diwali. No stress of getting everything perfect, its just an oddly imperfect day for a family moment.
But that isn't really how we have it now do we ? Hours of action streaming daily on the screens, stimulus as high as it had ever been in the history of humanity the republic day parade which used to be a moment of excitement for everyone has slowly started to fade away from society. As the future generations slowly seem to forget the value of this day.
Being born in the 2000's I can only imagine what kind of an event the parade must have been for the people who grew up in the 70s, the 80s and the 90s. Seeing men in uniform march in perfect formation like they were fine tuned machinery, aircrafts fly past you with their engines roaring. Battle tanks on the road, such scenes back then could only be seen on once a year. There were no war films, there was no top gun and there were no videogames. Now I think that there is so much for kids to see, there is no point for the curiosity to develop in them.
I do really wonder, will the excitement ever end once and for all ? Will people ever forget to tune into Door Darshan that one and only time of the year ? Will the parade ever become a thing of the past ?