jabberwocky

what is sacrilege?

Munish, Vinod and I were at Koshy's yesterday
Munish was a bit distressed by the fact that a certain
International School in Bangalore, one that celebrates
the Independance day or national day of most countries in
the world did not know much about the Indian Constitution or
Republic. Not too many of their students knew the Indian national anthem
and on Republic Day the Indian flag was hoisted upside down in school.

Seems a bit blasphemous.. but then who's to say
forced patriotism is as bad as fantaticism
while the upside down flag seemed crazy.. so does the
idea of playing the national anthem in the theatres(they do in mumbai)
people in mumbai dread the begining of films.. the national anthem is
played and people have to stand up..... many have stopped standing up
some curse.. most are indifferent and walk in 5 minutes late.

Perfectly reasonable people... why force them to do things?
5 mins is nothing for your country, but, how do these 5 mins help?
its a gesture that means nothing....
we waste so much time occupied with the small things in life that
we become incapable of larger things.

The flag hung upside down bothers us, but when a painting is hung upside down is that okay?
is the sacrilege any less, asks vinod.

is it? does it not start with the individual? is his right any less than that of an entity called the "country" isn't it one and the same... isn't he the country and the country him?
everytime we misspell or print wrong or incorrect information isnt that a sacrilege?--vinod
is that a small thing and the national flag a bigger thing...?
are we prioritising and are we the custodians who decide what is important
and what is not?
why are we obsessed with things that shouldn't really matter?
why are we incapable of greater things... even in thought?