5.10 am 15TH August 2022
Cochin, Kerala.
The colours of our Independence!
Hearty Greetings to you my friend on 75 years of Independence!
Independence: Origin from French word 'depenre' meaning 'to hang from’. With 'in' suggesting 'not’, Independence is to ‘not hang from’, in our case the colonial rule! Well, August may be special in many ways but nothing more than the 75 years of Independence we as contemporary countrymen are celebrating today. I am but not that naive to think that I can lead any such discussions than bowing to the profanity of what this occasion means for us and respectfully leaving you alone to fathom your own understanding to rejoice in the spirit of freedom we enjoy.
Left on my own, what captures my thoughts today is but a 'forwarded many times’ video message which appeared in one of our WhatsApp groups. A classroom: the teacher is on the topic of our national flag. He asks the students about the number of colours on the flag. Everybody in sync said three, while a lone voice said 5! The teacher shocked and enraged ordered the boy to stand on the bench and with the cane ready in his hand asked the young boy to recite the 5 colours he thought was on the flag. Soft but strong, tearful but truthful, quivering but not wavering, the answer came out. Saffron, White, Green... Blue of the Chakra, it was the teachers turn to be surprised while the boy continued to add the final fifth colour, .. Red! Why red? The boy choked a bit and said, the first time I saw the flag was when my father’s body was delivered home by the Army; all wrapped in the National flag where with all the other colours I could see my father’s blood too! The teacher was thrown off and didn’t have any questions or answers thereafter.
Maybe the whole ‘forward’ was somebody’s imagination! But I am shaken adequately by the lesson and the special message it holds. Time to ponder deep into the Tri colours of Courage, Truth and Growth as in Saffron, White and Green; and even beyond, to the Blue of the Chakra with its 24 spokes representing the 24 virtues we need to have; with the message of ‘life in movement and death in stagnation’. As Designers who are taught ‘white comes with all colours in it, I am sure we can see all those unseen colours like nobody else can. Let us embrace our flag/our independence and spread its fragrance and message into the spaces we shape where people live inspired by all the unseen colours and embrace the entire spectrum of life. Let us like the spokes of that wheel, hold hands with the 1.,4 billion of this Country and move forward! Let our lives be worthy to be a ‘Forwarded many times’ message, open and meaningful to not only us but the entire 8 billion of our Sapien family!
That reminds me to remind you, IIID is now looking forward to elections! Let us celebrate our rights as an independent IIID citizen to vote for Courage, Truth and Growth and move forwards as in a wheel towards North!