The Indian Republic day - My perception change.

The Indian Republic day - My perception change

Today is almost nearing 1.5 months after 26 January 2013 – and the day marked the 64^th anniversary of the Indian Republic day.  For the people on active on social networking sites – it was another day where they got to post heavy and strong worded statuses showing their respect for the nation.

2013 has brought a lot of changes in me, my thinking and my life style. A very distinct change in my thinking process that I noticed was when I was watching the live coverage of the Republic day parade this morning.

During the early days of my life, while in school, the reason I awaited the Republic day was because it was the only day when we used to get a half-day off, we would get sweets and snacks from school, used to stand in queue twice to get a second share of them. Overall, I would say, the Republic day was like a half-day carnival at school.

As I grew older, during high school, when I was the captain of the “Krishna - Group” and  the Republic day then, was a day when I was led a team and march with pride with stars on my shoulders and make the younger students look at us in awe and aspire to the same in the coming years.

When I graduated from high school and entered college, the Republic day, was merely a day when I got a reason more not to attend college. I have never been a part of a Republic day celebrations at college and it held no significance what so ever.

The final and pre-final years in college were the years when nostalgia of school days set in, remembering the pride of marching used to drag me to the TV and make me watch the whole of the Republic day parade and remember the good old days.  Being a technology evangelist and a crazy automobile enthusiast was an added reason to watch the parade.

 The very sight of The President’s sparkling black Mercedes S Class Limousine appearing at a distance clearing through a blanket of fog and gleaming under the rising sun as it comes closer; The Prime Minister’s Bold BMW 7 Series in a convoy of other luxury cars used to make me very happy.

Post engineering , setting a goal in career was one of the toughest decisions I have had to make in life. Being an almost-graduate in 2011-12, making a clear goal seemed next to impossible. Adding up to this, merely watching the Republic day parade only deepened my confusion.

I wanted to become a lot of things, I wanted to be

1.       An Automobile test driver and performance reviewer (Courtesy: The Stig of TopGear)

2.       A big time engineer in electronics  (Courtesy: Iron Man)

3.       A renowned coder and App Developer (Courtesy: Microsoft student partners program)

4.       An Entrepreneur with an out of the box business idea (Courtesy: Joblessness and Ranbir Kapoor from Rocket Singh)

5.       Added to all this, I used to aspire being an officer in the Indian Army. A pride that cannot be surpassed.

Again, the Republic Day was nothing more than a mere day when I got a day off and got to see the Indian tri-color fluttering at many places.

But the 2013 New-Year brought in a sea of changes, the changes started in July 2012. I got my first job with Amazon and gained a lot of exposure to a corporate world and started earning and spending my on hard earned money. Though not realizing how I have progressed and matured mentally I have had a gradual change in me. I worked harder, was more focused on work and life, more serious and cautious at dealing with people, not very talkative at work as I am with the friends.

The change was evident when I was watching the Republic day parade.

When the Prime minister’s motorcade arrived, I wasn't watching the cars this time, I was watching the status maintained and the respect showered to the Prime Minister of India.  

When the army men showcased stunts and acrobatics on the bikes, I was watching a showcase of Indian pride and saluting the responsibility bestowed upon them and the way they are maintaining that dignity.

This Republic day taught me to be responsible and work towards a better nation. It taught me that the returns of discipline in daily life and efforts focused at self-improvement not only help the individual but also help develop the community on the whole and progress as a family.

And hence I have resolved to be more hard working and be focused on improving myself first and also improve the community around me.

Thats Me ! And I am going be someone you have to watch out for!.