Year after year I hear people greeting each other on Independence Day as "Happy Independence Day" and I feel sad. Of course independence is something to be very happy about. But Independence day is a day to reflect upon the journey, to take stock of progress and correct our course if necessary. Unfortunately it does not happen.

Most of the people I know welcome Independence day for the holiday it brings more than anything else. And the greeting is almost as if it is a festival. In a way Independence day is a festival, but it is a national festival. I would rather greet as "Long live the Independence day". We celebrate Independence day with great fanfare. We have our leaders making speeches which talk about the tremendous progress India has made since winning independence. We have flag hoisting ceremonies in schools, colleges and offices.

What happens after that is a very sorry sight to see. Most of the children are very enthusiastic about waving flag at the flag hoisting ceremony. And it is a small industry that many people cash in on by manufacturing small plastic flags and selling them. Nothing wrong in that. So far so good. As soon as the ceremony gets over and it is time to go home, most of the children get tired of the flag and throw it on the streets which is then trampled, driven upon and generally messed up. India had very strict rules about displaying or flying the national flags on private properties except on Independence day and Republic day. What happens to that when the flags are thrown in the dust-bin? Whether or not there are strict rules / laws, our national flag is our pride. Soldiers die to protect the flag and keep it flying high and proudly. So many freedom fighters have sacrificed their lives to win this freedom. Why does'nt anyone work to prevent such things from happening?

I see so many messages on Orkut which urges people to ban a community where there is a picture of Indian flag burning. But does anyone of us stop and pick up the flag that is lying on the street and dispose it off with honour? Granted the plastic flag is not very durable and it tears apart very quickly. But that does not mean that we can just throw it away on the street to get it trampled upon? We get angry when we see the same thing on TV / movies when there are scenes of foriegn nationals desecrecating our national flag. But we do it twice every year in our own country. How do I reconcile with this?

I also was fond of flying the national flag on Independence day and Republic day every year when I was a kid. I still am. And I have bought those plastic and paper flags. But my grandfather always used to caution me to dispose it of properly and with respect  once it was torn or mutilated. In fact seeing my liking to fly the flag, he had bought me a cloth flag which I used to fly on the roof of my house every year and bring it down at the end of the day and keep it safely for the rest of the days.

Is there anything we can do to maintain the piety of our flag and give it the respect it deserves? I have some ideas. For instance, the NGOs can volunteer to collect the flags at the end of ceremony and make arrangements to dispose / recycle the flags in a proper manner. In case the NGOs are too busy with other "important" issues (although I cannot see any issue more important than national pride), local community people can form a volunteer team and set up collection centers and have collection drives to collect it and hand it over to some recycler or make arrangements with the local government officials to dispose the flags properly. Ideally I would like to ban plastic flags and make flags out of paper or bio-degradable material which can be easily recycled and is eco-friendly. But I know it is not going to happen. So we will have work with what we have and limit / eliminate the damage.