And then she said .. "Did you not blog about this?"
Umm.. And so this is here. Last Monday, the morning after the Independence day, I was woken up with a phone call. It told me something that reminded me of 5 years younger me on the roads picking up the Tiranga's that could be seen through the mist that engulfs the mountains in the rainy seasons :)
After having a small breakfast, I went to the kitchen to pick up a polythene bag. I chose a reasonably sized one. But the message was clear - carry a large bag. After finding one that did justice to the word 'large' I walked up the road from our flat till the time I could see on the far end of the gali(lane) a couple of hundred Tiranga's being washed down by the early morning rain. Each step in that direction was a step into my past. Each step taking me closer to 'Project Tiranga'.
One dental college had decided to have a fabulous Independence Day programme. And for decoration, they had decided to use plastic national flags. 10 .. 100.. no they must have been a couple of hundreds in number. I tried to raise my hand and reach out to the closest few. They were tied pretty high up. But some strings were broken. Some of them had come down. Some were torn down. Till about 50 meters away, I could see more of them scattered on the road. I could see them in the drain. I could see them piled in garbage.
I tried to knock the iron gates in hope of finding someone who could help untie the strings. No response!
I tried to jump up and pull the strings down. But, there were string wires which supported the strings. They were tied to electricity poles. The task was demanding something more than I had expected.
One at a time, slowly, I untangled the strings and picked the ones that had fallen. One at a time. Sometimes jumping and doing some antiques created some noise. In a few minutes I had audience. Some people from the same building were hiding behind windows on the second and third floor and watching the spectacle. They did two things. Watched and talked.
In the mean time I realised that the polythene bag was not large enough. there were more and more of those. I tried to keep my mind focussed on loving the flags. I tried not to think about the organisers. I tried not to think about the people who were watching. They probably were 4th class employees earning a couple of thousands to keep their family going. I did not know what there pieces of plastic meant to them - if at all anything?
After the ones in reach were all pulled into the bag, I used some physics to pull down the higher ones. And lo, I had fireworks! I told you na, there were electric poles involved? I stepped back for a moment, carefully watched the tangle, and slowly got back to work trying not to disturb the electric wires as far as possible.
The last string remained. Tied high up, way beyond me reach. I tried to throw a stone tied with a rope in order to be able to grab the string and pull it down. Did not help much :( And then finally, some magic happened.
2 guys came down that building. They did not try to make eye contact with me. Nor did I try to look at them. They climbed the fence and reached out to the place where the rope was tied. With a good jerk he pulled out the nail which held the string and passed me the rope. I took the remaining flags. I realised one of the flags had fallen inside the campus. I requested him to pass me the same. He obliged.
I gave him a brief smile and walked back down the road. I did not know what to feel. Good, bad, uneasy, comforted??
I just knew - Project Tiranga lives on!