We were planning a quick trip to Washington DC on 26th January to visit the Indian Embassy to attend the Republic Day celebrations there. It was sunny but a really cold day – about 18 deg. F (about -7.7 deg. C) at 9.00 am that day.
The function at the Embassy started sharp on time at 10.00 am with the unfurling of the flag at the hands of the Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen. Bowing to the elements, the rendition of the national anthem and other festivities were held indoors in the Chancery building of the Indian Embassy.
The Chancery building is not huge but nonetheless an impressive building (actually two adjoining ones) and one of the oldest properties held by GOI abroad. In the front of the building is a statue of Mahatma Gandhi. The function was held in the lobby of the building. It was a neat little lobby but a little too small to accommodate crowd nearly a hundred strong. The lobby is has photographs of sitting President and PM as well as those of late Mrs. Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. An impressive oil portrait of Sardar Patel also adorns the walls. There was a small reception room and two bigger adjoining rooms on either side of the lobby, which that day were reserved for food arrangements.
The function indoors began with the national anthem. Later the Ambassador read the speech by the President Dr. Abdul Kalam. While the contents of the speech were impressive in the usual Kalam style, the listless reading by the Ambassador turned it into a test of audience’s endurance. Also lacking was any note of welcome from the Ambassador himself and this made it feel as if he was there only because he had to. The cultural program was a display of typical “babu”dom that the GOI is famous for. After a couple of decent patriotic songs rendered by some Embassy staffers, there were a few songs by an ex-AIR lady singer. Some were OK and some quite so-so. Then came something, calling which a song would be a crime. The beautiful “Ae mere watan ke logon…” was destroyed to shreds by a lady who was introduced as being from the World Bank. There was no tune, notes were all over the place and it was just plain torturous. The master of ceremonies had told us this divine song would move us and bring tears to our eyes. It almost did – albeit for totally different reason than intended. The saving grace of the function was the last performance by an elderly gentleman who rendered a Tamil song in praise of India. It was quite good though I do not understand Tamil myself.
Then it was time for some refreshments. As I noticed this time around and also on last Independence Day, Embassy does a good job of arranging for hearty refreshments for the gathering. The fare war tasty and appetizing; consisting of dhokla, pakode, chana-puri, upma, gajar halwa and laddoo and hot and cold beverages.
The crowd was mostly enthusiastic at the function and as always, the most impressive attendees were the members of Indian Armed Forces currently posted in the US. Their faces showing the pride they took in defending our frontiers and their demeanour stately like lions and tigers. They are the main reason that made it worth our while to attend the function in the bitter January cold in Washington. Jai Hind!
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The farther you are from your motherland, the more patriotic you tend to become. In India on that day very few functions of flag hoisting would have attracted a crowd of 100 if they were not compulsory. People were happy that the 26th was a Friday, so close to a week end, and very close to 30th, Moharram holiday, if you threw in a CL, you could get 5 days at a stretch!
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