In the close to 28 years of my life, I have never attended the independence or republic day celebrations live, watching on TV from the comfort of home, was always the more attractive option!
So you can sense my excitement at attending the celebrations here at the Indian High Commission in Lagos! I must be very patriotic--I left home at 7:30 am and two bikes and a BRT bus ride later I managed to reach 15 minutes late. The Indians are apparently very punctual in Nigeria! There were about 200-300 Indians, a few non-Indians, short speeches, some patriotic songs ("swades, yeh des he mera" from Swades brought me close to tears...), FOOD (chole bhature, samosas, idli, vada, sambhar, gulab jamun....).
I did a lot of networking for GIVE and got a lot of cards from corporate honchos and social workers. But there was some reservation which I expected, they were not so forthcoming! Well anyways, I gave my best pitch and the rest I leave to their conscience!
Hey M,
ReplyDeleteHow are you ?? I have relocated to Dubai and have been here last 6 months...planning to get back to school in the next one year...perhaps do a masters in International relations/ public policy
Keep in touch. my email is sabithkhan@gmail.com
Cheers
sabith
Me too never attended an Independence Programme after schools. Security (sic) reasons in Delhi compel the schools to celebrate our Independence Day on 14th August (well, that is Pakistan's Independence Day) but in the village schools we still celebrate Independence Day on 15th August with lot of fanfare. This time I celebrated creating a slide show for my organization reminding them that there are still lot of children who are compelled to work and do not go to school - they are yet to get INDEPENDENCE.
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