Happy Independence Day, India

9:00PM, August 15, 2020; San Francisco, USA
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He plugged the PAT5000 robot into the electric socket for night time charging after it was done vacuuming and cleaning the kitchen and living room. Taking the newly installed escalator up to the bedroom floor, he went into his daughter’s room to tuck her in.
“Tell me a story papa”, she repeated her favorite request as soon as he walked in!
He was drawing a blank at first; fixing her sheets, he started:
“Once upon a time, long ago, there was a country ruled by a foreign Empire. The rulers from England were not very nice. They stole lots of Diamonds and Gold, and many other things…”
“Diamonds are very shiny, right?” She asked.
Yep, very shiny. ‘The Kohinoor’ was one of the shiniest and biggest of all” he went on…
….”After centuries of submission to the outside ruler, a small group of people started a fight for freedom.
She was not interested in this story; hoping it gets interested, she asked, “why were they fighting?”
“So they could be free. As the time went by, the fight became more and more popular and grew bigger and bigger.”
“Popular is good, right? You think I will be popular in my school?” She did not understand the story, so she started her own discussion.


“Yes, for sure……”
“I think so too..”
Well, back to the story, everybody started to protest against the British rule. People were coming together everywhere to demand freedom. Some did it quietly, while others were very loud.”
“Loud is not nice, mom always says” She added.
“You are right, but sometimes they have to be loud when nobody is listening.”
“Like what?”
“I will show you a movie sometime, you will see…They used to sing patriotic songs like..umm. ‘Mera Rang De Basanti Chola’…. and do many other things to bug the English rulers.”
“I don’t get it,” she yawned.
“Well, the fight for freedom became too big for England to control. They had no choice but to run away…. in the middle of the night on August 15, 1947”
“Oh, I see…,” she paused, “but it is a boring story.”
“If I tell you the details – the interesting ones, we will be both awake all night long”
“So they have been free for a long time?” She wanted to delay her sleep-time with every excuse possible.
“Yes, they have been free from foreign rule for a long time. It has even controlled the long time corruption and political power abuse that used to be really bad.”
“Huh?” She did not understand any of this.
“The G64 Committee on International Business Ethics finally declared the country free of corruption this year. The robotic spies in every city and town are doing a great job to monitor the corruption-free operations and dealings…”
“Pa, you are telling a very boring story today.” She uninterrupted
“Boring yes, but good-ending, right?”
“I don’t think so….”
He paused…. “Go to sleep, little munchkin, one day you will be very proud to be from that land”
“Who is Basanti..or something, is that grandma?” The delay tactics continued
“It is a color, saffron….like orange yellow; the color of sacrifice”
“I don’t like yellow… Goodnight,” She grunted, turned to the side and closed her eyes…“Can you send mom upstairs to tell me a REAL bedtime story?,” She took the parting shot.
He smiled, gave her a kiss on the head, and walked out humming and singing to himself:
“Waqt aanay dey bata denge tujhe, aye aasman
Hum abhi se kya batayen kya hamare dil mein hai!….
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai.
Dekhna hai zor kitna baazu-e- qaatil mein hai……”

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