Sunday, January 26, 2020

It is always personal

In 1950, on the 26th of January, India kicked out the colonizers for ever. 

The new constitution was adopted and went into effect, the Bastard Raj ended, and the old colonizer was to become an island increasingly irrelevant in the world as it had always been for the most part of human existence!

Even as an Indian, I never cared for the Republic Day celebrations, however.  Because, it was less about the spirit of independence and more about jingoism and the military spectacle.  Exactly the kind that trump wants to see happen here in the US for the Fourth of July!

Decades later, my brother has another reason to mark the 26th of January.  It is the official national day of his adopted country, which continues to have the crown as its figurehead, for reasons beyond my understanding.  Maybe it is a white thing!

January 26th is complicated.

But, those are political. Not personal.

On a strictly personal level, January 26th is a day to celebrate.  I owe my existence, my male chromosome, to an event that happened on the 26th.

It is the day that my father was born in 1930.

Paal paayasam for the 90-year old and for everybody! ;)

Like father, like sons ;)

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