Jaya hey

Aradhika column

My father conditioned me to stand erect in ‘attention’ position whenever I heard the strains of Jana Gana Mana. The progenitor’s devotion was irrevocably to God and the country. Generations in thefauj and the fact that his childhood years was spentin the timeof the struggle for freedom, had guaranteed that. He ensured that heinstilled the same feeling my sister and myself, and I believe I did the same to my sons.

Years ago, they would play the national Anthem at the end of a movie and frequently people would choose to shuffle out of the theatres while it was playing. Woe betide any person near my parent who chose to move. He would grabthe unfortunate soul by the shoulder saying “Stand still you*&**#*&. The National Anthem is playing.”

Embarrassing! However, the values imparted by him and the fact that I studied in KendriyaVidyalas, where everyone lustily sang the National Anthem at the end of every morning assembly, ensured that even decades later, I leap to my feetwhenever I hear “Jana Gana Mana”.

Sometimes in school, during assemblythe kids would deliberately drag the singing to shorten the first period.The music teacher would glare at us and in the music periods that weekwe would have to practice singing the Anthem with adequate joshand in the prescribed 52 seconds.

Standing in attention to the Anthemwas thus an unequivocalresponse even when I went through the phase, asgrowing-up kids do, of negatively comparing the country and its polity to other “advanced” nations.Years of seeing the republic battered by countless divisive forces, strikes, protests, economic lows, rising expenses, crime and my own growing pessimism have yet not dimmed that instinct. It’s all worth it when stand together with my fellow countrymen, looking at the Tiranga and singing the Anthem.

It does not often happen in adult life that we get the chance to stand together to sing the eternal song written by Rabindranath Tagore, but it does happen in movie theatres before films are screened. When the Anthem plays before the film begins, every person in the hall puts aside his coke, popcorn or ‘chai’ and inasingle instinct rises and stands still a shared feeling of national pride, looking at the flag fluttering in the wind.

It is, ironically,movie halls that have lately inspired moments wherein I have experienced a true sense of bonding with my countrymen. When the anthem plays, all of us stand up united by a sharedfeeling of brotherhood, collectively letting our heartsswell and surge with love, devotion and pride for our country. This is when the National Anthem makes so much sense.

Now when I join my countrymen in standing up- in picture halls or wherever the anthem is played- and sing (or lip sync) “Jaya JayaJaya, Jaya Hey”, I feel linked not just to the hall full of people, but to the souls of my father and forefathers, who lived and died on this land.