INDEPENDENCE

Now we r on the eve of our 58th independence day.Again comes that time of the year when we have nostalgia abt our past,about how great our country is,and how proud we feel to be its sons.Again that time comes when we feel lucky that we are independent and have freedom.But at such a juncture a question pops up:what does independence mean?And whatdoes freedom mean?

Oxford advanced learner's dictionary definition of independence and freedom is interesting.According to it,independence means not being dependent on;not being controlled.Freedom is defined as not being a slave;able to move wherever you want.If we inspect the dictionary definitons we will realise that neither we are independent nor we are free.For since birth we r dependent on one person or another;on our parents,on our loved ones and on our society because man,by nature is a social animal.So knowingly or unknowingly we are controlled;by the invisible strands of love friendship and even by the knowledge that we can never take care of ourselves alone.as for freedom,we know we r slave to some thing or the other.We may be slave to some addiction;we r slave to comfort;we may be slave to our dreams,our ideals;we may be slave to our emotions.But the underlying fact remains that we r slaves n we cant escape from that.The definition that freedom means moving from one place to another doesnt help either.For we know as child we had to go to school;as adults we have to go to work.We cannot escape from that even if we want to.So while we are gloating that we are independent we are not really So.while it may be said that we r independent because we are a democracy and have the right to elect members to the parliament what difference does it make?For we still pay taxes,we still are ruled by an ignorant bunch of duffers,we still have to follow the government rules of how to cross the roads et al,the government still has got a power to curtail our freedom citing security.We are not free from foreign rule either.for in today's world of internet it is impossible that you can be independent of foreign influence.You are slave to designer labels to books of JK rowling to Toyota cars and all that.So what makes us say that we are independent?


Is there something that really makes a difference to our lives post-british that denotes we are independent?In other words under the constraints of subtle dependence what makes us say that we are independent?The difference is "choice".Jk Rowling says in Harry Potter-'it is not our ability that determines what we are,it is our choices'.In the matrix trilogy also it has been shown what a profound effect choice can make.So the ability to make a choice is the most subtle yet most profound of all human characteristics and thats what makes us the supreme being.So true freedom lies in the freedom to make a choice-or not make a choice if u want.you may be given a constrained list of choice which u cannot avoid,but if within it u have the freedom to choose from u can call urself independent.And so as we celebrate our independence day we can truly call independent because we have that right to make a choice.So lets savour our freedom and rejoice our independence!