Facts about Indian Independence day

 India Independence day

1. Do you know Indian flag was first hoisted on August 7, 1906 in Parsee Bagan Square (Green Park) in (now) Kolkata and not on Aug 15th 1947.

2. Do you know it was not Nehru but Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who won the Prime Ministry elections fair and square but since Nehru didn't want to play second in command to anyone and also that Gandhi had a soft spot for Nehru, Sardar Patel was pulled down.

3. Until 1973, Governors unfurled the flag in states on Independence day but in 1974, M. Karunanidhi took up the issue with then central government and became the first chief minister to hoist the flag on Independence Day.

4. Most stunning fact is India's first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru was featured in Vogue Magazine wearing his traditional coat and slowly his single breasted jacket became a Fashion trend in the West.

5. Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke a 26-year old tradition of not giving extempore speeches, which was established after Rajiv Gandhi called Independence Day, Republic Day in a speech.

6. Do you know the Indian National Anthem, drafted by Rabindranath Tagore was actually to pay homage to King George V! Well Yes! Astonishing, Right?

7. Do you know Mahatma Gandhi, the chief architect of the Independence, did not participate in the celebrations. Instead, did a fast for the entire day in Kolkata, witnessing the flames of communal violence in Bengal between Muslims and Hindus.

8. Along with India some other countries also celebrate 15 August as their day of independence, such as South Korea, Bahrain, Liechtenstein and the Republic of the Congo.

9. After freedom, Portugal played the game by altering their constitution and declared Goa as their state. But on December 19, 1961, Indian armed forces conquered Goa and appended it to India.

10. Our country got its name 'India' from the River Indus, a place which was a home to the country's first inhabitants.

The Magic Wand "E-1"

' My First Encounter with The Magic Wand (Camera)'

Hello there!

Frankly speaking, I have never been into the stuff like writing blogs but as they say "there will always be the first attempt for everything". So, here I am to share my story on how I entered this fascinating world of photography?

Well, my story is not different from what they portray in movies like those small towns, unknown people, small families. Let me guess you must have supposed that its story of a middle-class boy with petty worries and full of strange thoughts in mind. Being a kid from the late '90s, I never came across the magical device that many haven't dreamed about it, never thought that it would change the world completely.

I hope you people started thinking about it.

Yes, you figured the right thing. I am talking about 'cell phones' the real game-changer. I speculate some might laugh after listening that cell phones would change the world and be a part of human life. No matter when you hear it, but listening to it for the first time, you would have laughed out loudly telling this would be the best-predicted joke of the century.

Coming to my life I neither seen a cell phone nor a cell phone with a camera until the day on which my dad received a flip phone with a camera from Dubai as a gift from my dad's friend. I have never seen any device like that in my life, I was completely attracted to that miniature device and the only thing that came to my mind was a very evil idea - "let's check that thing, my friend". But do you think you will walk up to your father and ask him, to give his magic wand (cell phone)?

And he would give it to you and tell not to break it or don’t do any mischievous things with it. Then my friend you must be daydreaming because that will never happen in reality. You get to hear the routine dialogue that every Indian dad says - Abhi tum Bache ho tum phone ka kya karoge (you are just a kid what will you do with the phone). After this failed attempt, I tried doing in another way "a heist". You heard it right! I went into my father's room and took out the phone from his pocket without making any noise, then I understood what exactly a pin drop silence means. My hands were trembling and I felt like I am a robber at someone's house and even worried that someone could wake up anytime and I am busted! But I never thought that something was waiting to surprise me that day. 

 Finally, I got the phone into my hands and am very excited to handle it. At first, I pressed the home button on the phone that gave me joy as if I have achieved something that day. While I am randomly pressing buttons, I clicked on the camera option and that was my first encounter with the world of camera. It blew my mind away and I was shocked how could this thing in my hand can attest, that I can see with my naked eye.

When I started exploring that world, unfortunately, my dad woke up and I dropped that phone right there and didn't enter that room for 2 days. Days passed on.. and something shocking had happened to me while watching television. An advertisement promoting the same phone as my father's, explaining the features of it. Then I came to know, the thing that surprised me was called 'camera' and it is used to capture pictures.

After a few weeks, my mother said we need to have pictures of you and your brother which would remain as a childhood memory. Thereafter we were made to get dressed in the best clothes and well-groomed. I was wondering where were we being taken and I keep on guessing the place..!

To be continued...😇

SELFLESSNESS (A Tale of Che Guevara)

What makes Che Guevara different from other Revolutionaries?

           In my point of view, Che is a Great Human being, rather than creating any boundaries around him, he wants to explore the world and cherish each and every moment. His "hunger to explore the world" led him to scatter his collegiate pursuits with two long introspective journeys that fundamentally changed the way he viewed himself and the contemporary economic conditions in Latin America. Che considered the whole world as One nation and referred the nation has ‘Mother Earth’. He never distinguished the people based on places or vice-versa whereas he believed that, "We should learn to think and act as a mass. It is crime to think as individuals". This line of him state's that, Unity is his main aim.

         In Chile, Che found himself enraged by the working conditions of the miners in Anaconda's Chuquicamata copper mine and moved by his overnight encounter in the Atacama Desert with a persecuted communist couple who did not even own a blanket, describing them as "the shivering flesh-and-blood victims of capitalist exploitation". On the way to Machu Picchu high in the Andes, he was struck by the crushing poverty of the remote rural areas, where peasant farmers cultivated the lands owned by wealthy landlords. In his further journey, Che was especially impressed by the amity among the people living in a leper colony, stating, "The highest forms of human solidarity and loyalty arise among such lonely and desperate people." Che later remarked that through his travels in Latin America, he came in close contact with poverty, hunger and disease. Even bewilderment provoked by the continual hunger and punishment that leads a father to "accept the loss of a son as an unimportant accident". Che strongly convinced himself by the experiences to help these people, he desired to leave the land of medicine and considered the political arena of armed struggle. I personally felt that, Che has taught lending service to humanity is a greatest thing which we can do unconditionally. He never had an idea of being in power, but it happened unknowingly.

           

           Che Guevara is a selfless Comrade, though he was born in Argentina he fought for Cuba. Che led the Santa Clara group. He doesn’t stop with Cuba Revolution, further moved to Congo and Bolivia to fought for the Rights of People. His stylized visage has become a ubiquitous counter cultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia in popular culture. Che Guevara Lived for Revolution and died in Revolution.

           He is the only man who made me to believe that, "Being Selfless is the only way to divert the world from hatred to Love." 

             Che Guevara remains both a revered and reviled historical figure, polarized in the collective imagination in a multitude of biographies, memories, essays, documentaries, songs, films and even in this story of mine.