15th August

15th August, just another holiday for the common man. Sharing patriotic pics, YouTube videos tricoloured profile pics bears a testimony to his love for the country. And it is this common man who is existent in every level of the society. He gets fun in breaking rules and escaping punitive actions despite disobeying the order of land. He spits on the roads, pisses in public and if rebuked agrues he is not the only one doing it. He cherishes forecasts of his country becoming number one in some 2051  but soon hurries back to despair tasting the empirical reality. He knows misuse of democracy has been rampant in his motherland. He knows the politicians he votes for are nothing but cowards who compromise with the prevalent evils lest they might loose votes by hurting popular sentiments. Yet he religiously uses the ballot only to hear some empty promises and then finally consoling himself hearing news of tax reliefs in the budget. True it is that he doesn't go to the borders defending his country but within his perimeters he is fighting no lesser battle. He is worried if he would be axed by his profit hungry employer in case of lower Q2Q margins. He is worried if he can cope up with the rising inflation. He is worried doubting if he can return back home with his body barely clinging on an overcrowded train. He is worried about his wife and daughter who are visually raped by lusty eyes and verbally taunted in indecent words. And then if you ask him his contribution towards the country his only answer would be that he is trying to make both ends meet. He has borne the fear of remaining unemployed when he was a student. He studied not to gain knowledge but to get  job and now he is toiling hard so that his offspring can study and get a living. If he ever comes out of this hand to mouth cycle to do something different, he comes under the looking glass of societal criticism. His failure and not his success becomes the point of interest of his fellowmen who wants to drag him down so that they can unanimously celebrate the perpetual state of despair of their motherland.