• Home
• /
• Opinion

Celebrating Republic Day in a foreign land

"If I were at work, I would be wearing a mismatched outfit - a pair of denims with a green tee and an orange cardigan"

Some things are perennially at the back of the minds of Indian expatriates. Other than doing quick currency conversions from dirhams to rupees during shopping excursions to ensure they are paying the right price for their purchase, we find ourselves finishing the sentence, 'If I were in India, right now, I would be...'
Say, when the weather gets any better (like these days), we imagine gorging on samosas with chai. When the calendar shows an Indian festival, we start to wonder about the celebrations back home.
So naturally, my thoughts this week were draped in the hues of the tricolour. If I were at home, my dad would have ensured that I was up and about before the Republic Parade would get screened on the television. Since it would be a public holiday, mum would make sure we had a laidback brunch of aloo-puri or rajma-rice. If I were at work, I would be wearing a mismatched outfit - a pair of denims with a green tee and an orange cardigan.
And if I were on the road, my view of the traffic jams would be dotted with miniature flags. Yes, they'd be adorning the windscreen of every car. I'd be getting annoyed with the incessant phonking when a little boy or girl would knock on the car window. He'd be shabbily dressed (rather underdressed for New Delhi's winter), but he'd smile at me - the magnetic salesman smile! And, just like that, I'd be lured in. We'll have a little chat, wherein, I'd learn that the little salesperson's cousins and friends are making their sales pitch at other areas in the city. I'd offer him/her a chocolate from my bag or a pack of biscuits. I would be taken on a guilt trip - made to show how everyone else's vehicle was already adorned with the Indian flag.
I'd give in and buy more than one flag. (Of course, I was sold at that genuine smile, minutes ago) These salesmen/women do more than making one spend the odd 10-15 bucks. They, in fact, are fortune tellers of a kind. They can predict your success at work, the fate of your relationship... "Didi, tumhari promotion ho jayegi, please khareed lo." (You will get promoted at work, please buy a flag from me!)
As I type this, I miss the boys and girls, who sell the tiny flags of pride. I look at the windscreen of the cars on the road, they're empty, but it doesn't make me sad. For, when I look up, I watch the Burj Khalifa lit up in the colours of the Indian flag, my country's flag. It's at times like these that I wonder, What if I were not in the UAE at this moment. I would have missed standing with pride - as tall, if not taller than the world's tallest building - at being an Indian, who is loved and respected in this foreign land.
-purva@khaleejtimes.com