'It is Independence, yaar, we came to party'

I have finally had to come to terms with the fact that I am not patriotic.

And until last night, I had the most tremendous feelings of guilt over my apathy. I brought in the 50th anniversary of Independence at a disco -- not, perhaps, how the founding fathers of the nation would have wished the occasion to be commemorated.

But then I found I was not alone. I belong to a generation of disco dudes, most of who have no understanding of Independence. And somewhere along the way, perhaps, we the youth appear to have missed out on something.

"No big deal," commented a friend of mine, when asked what he thought of the anniversary. Fair enough, for while the elders of the country were steeped in reminiscing about India's tryst with destiny, for us young ones, it was really no big deal.

"Just another excuse to party," admitted DJ Amit of the Razzberry Rhinoceros, a suburban discotheque in Bombay.

"10 seconds to go!" the countdown had begun, with practised fervour -- after all, we do this every New Year's Eve, too.

"Annnnddd... 12:00.. midnight!... Happy Independence everybody!"

Independence had arrived and with it, ten minutes worth of patriotic songs ranging from Mere desh ki dharti to that Shammi Kapoor hip-shaker, aaaa ajaah..aha..aja.

And if the national anthem was missing from the DJ's play-list, hey, no one noticed.

The DJ kept reminding us all about 50 years of Independence. "When are they going to start the freaking music yaar," was the cry all round. "You can understand the lack of interest," says Dhuruv Singh, manager of Razzberry Rhinoceros. "After all, people aren't happy with the way the country is functioning. But in spite of our problems, I still believe we have something to celebrate, so I came up with the idea of an Independence bash".

Singh is 30-something, and feels vestiges of pride in his country. And in his bid to understand the youth better, he made sure we each got a form to fill out. "No prizes, no surprises, no foul language. Say it, if you feel for your country," the header read. And the questions were basic, simple -- was the freedom struggle worth it?, what did we think of the governments of the past?, what did we think was the country's biggest problem and what solution could we suggest for it?, what kind of government did we prefer?...

"I want the youth to think about such things, and give me an idea of what they feel," Singh tells me. Of course, he is making money in course of this 'research' -- and he is the first to admit it. "Of course I am making money, but what's wrong with that? Isn't everyone? But I am not commercialising it," comes the answer.

"We were born in a free country -- it was not like we didn't have Independence and then had to gain it, so it's difficult for us to have feelings of pride and patriotism," says 24 year old Vishal Shetty, a finance executive for Topworth Finance.

It would seem that he speaks for our generation. For the old, it's a reality they fought for; for the middle aged, it is an epoch whose after-tremors they experienced -- but for the youth, it is, all said, just another word.

The thing is, we only studied history -- we didn't live it.

"It is Independence, yaar, we came to party," says the salwar-clad Geeta Sahani, housewife. "What are we to think about Independence? We curse a bit when the prices go up. Yes, I think it's great that we gained Independence from the Britishers, but it took place so long ago, it's hard for us to have any feelings about it."

"I have come to celebrate Independence," says Rahul Kadakia, a student of HR college. "But I come to the disco anyway," he adds, with naivete. Not much, is the answer.

Then there others, like Amitabh Masih. "Of course I am proud of my country, you have to be," he says. I find that when the national anthem was played. "Hey, I did stand for the national anthem once, when I went for the movie 1942: A Love Story. So that should count." Actually, I discover later, it doesn't count -apparently everyone had been asked to stand up at that point.

And me? I don't think we are deliberately disrespectful of our country but hey, we belong to the Coca-Cola, consumer-driven, multinational-oriented generation. Following the West has become the goal -- and somewhere in the process, we have lost our roots.

Not that the youth are entirely devoid of feeling. "I am not patriotic as in 'for my motherland', but I am sentimental about my country's Independence," says 21-year-old Natasha Alphonse. "But the fact is, I am equally disillusioned. I was passing Bandra Reclamation, and I see loads of slum dwellers living like animals. They don't even know it's Independence. So how can we talk about Independence when people are struggling to live like normal human beings? It is difficult to celebrate when I know people have died for this -- how happy are we now?"

On the night, though, Natasha was the exception, not the norm. The music was brisk, the talk mundane, the drinks heady -- and the disappointment, when the DJ announced at 12.30 that the police had arrived and it was curtains for the night, palpable.

The music ended, the crowd booed. Said the DJ: "I am sorry, folks, but this is the way we celebrate Independence -- with no freedom".

Typical of the prevailing attitude, that comment. For the youth were there to enjoy life. Independence was about doing what you wanted to do - which, in this case, was just simply to party on.

On my way out, I asked Singh if anyone had filled out the forms. No one had.

Perhaps the youth didn't have an opinion.

Or perhaps they hadn't lived long enough to have formed one?