Happy Independence Day Here Be Rant.

It was the eve of independence and all through the house, not a creature was moving, not even a mouse…because all the creatures in the house, man and mouse, had stepped out in the streets, some shouting loud, some others enjoying the beat. Come 15th August any year, and a ‘true red-blood Indian’ gets a power surge of patriotism and bursts into trendy slogans celebrating the anniversary of our Independence. After four years, I am back in Ahmedabad on this day and last night, as the clock struck twelve and India awoke for its tryst with destiny, I was walking down the streets, coming home from the Flood Relief Office set up near home. Most of the work that can be done for the flood victims of Surat, from a distance, is done. More than 200 thousand people were stranded on roof tops and in high level buildings for more than three days without adequate food or water.