At the stroke of the midnight hour.........

This speech always manages to tingle me and inspire me in the today's cliched world... Enjoy!

Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.

At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?

Freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this Assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freedom we have endured all the pains of labour and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now.

That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfil the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.

And so we have to labour and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this One World that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.

To the people of India, whose representatives we are, we make an appeal to join us with faith and confidence in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill-will or blaming others. We have to build the noble mansion of free India where all her children may dwell.

The appointed day has come-the day appointed by destiny-and India stands forth again, after long slumber and struggle, awake, vital, free and independent. The past clings on to us still in some measure and we have to do much before we redeem the pledges we have so often taken. Yet the turning-point is past, and history begins anew for us, the history which we shall live and act and others will write about.

It is a fateful moment for us in India, for all Asia and for the world. A new star rises, the star of freedom in the East, a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materializes. May the star never set and that hope never be betrayed!

We rejoice in that freedom, even though clouds surround us, and many of our people are sorrowstricken and difficult problems encompass us. But freedom brings responsibilities and burdens and we have to face them in the spirit of a free and disciplined people.

On this day our first thoughts go to the architect of this freedom, the Father of our Nation [Gandhi], who, embodying the old spirit of India, held aloft the torch of freedom and lighted up the darkness that surrounded us. We have often been unworthy followers of his and have strayed from his message, but not only we but succeeding generations will remember this message and bear the imprint in their hearts of this great son of India, magnificent in his faith and strength and courage and humility. We shall never allow that torch of freedom to be blown out, however high the wind or stormy the tempest.

Our next thoughts must be of the unknown volunteers and soldiers of freedom who, without praise or reward, have served India even unto death.

We think also of our brothers and sisters who have been cut off from us by political boundaries and who unhappily cannot share at present in the freedom that has come. They are of us and will remain of us whatever may happen, and we shall be sharers in their good and ill fortune alike.

The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman.

We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be. We are citizens of a great country on the verge of bold advance, and we have to live up to that high standard. All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action.

To the nations and peoples of the world we send greetings and pledge ourselves to cooperate with them in furthering peace, freedom and democracy.

And to India, our much-loved motherland, the ancient, the eternal and the ever-new, we pay our reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to her service.

15th Aug 1947

"Steady boy...Focus..and keep your eyes on the ball..steady now"
Patil sir
New start today and new goals...

To Sir with love...Part II

I took in the room. It was spartan but filled with army memorabilia. Later I would learn stories of how a bad shoulder would render Patil sir out of army service. How he preferred a teacher's job to a desk job in army in some ramshackle office in a non descript army building.

"How's your nose? Does it still hurt?" He asked
I told him it didn't. Then I told him how much I loved playing. We discussed various teams, and I told him I rooted for Italy. How cool Paolo Maldini was and how I felt frustrated at being left out.

He told me that he wasn’t going to pick me anyway in the team as he wanted a minimum of 4 km from all his players. He told me that my body was too rigid and not fluid and that I was uncoordinated.

“Then why did you invite me to the trials?”

“Because I wanted you to experience the situation. Did you not like it? What if you had managed to stop those kicks. The very guys who had hooted you would have slapped your back.”

“There’s a saying that the higher you fly the harder you fall. But I’d like to believe that it’s the very depth of our experiences that separates a man from the imposter he masquerades as, or believes himself to be. You are in a tough situation as I understand. It can make you or break you. And the funny part is, it is totally up to you.”

I didn’t understand it at that point. He asked me about my family and other general chit chat till our PT period ended.

Few days later I heard our class teacher Mr Panchram tell a story about Patil sir. Lt. Patil as he was known then apparently carried a severely injured friend of his thru 30 KMs of jungle terrain somewhere in NE

..with a bullet in his shoulder.

I was walking home that day and imagining how hard and painful it would have been. It was difficult to imagine such grit and bloody mindedness from the almost laid back demeanor people had come to associate with Patil sir. My heart welled with his respect. It is then I recalled his statement. About being under cosh and how it and how it made or broke people.

I wanted to be in the team. It was a crazy thought. But I just wanted it so bad.

That night I remember dreaming about being in army. I dreamed about playing football and scoring goals.

Over the next few years I had multiple opportunities to see the injury whenever I saw him sleeve less Tee's. By the time he found a rescue party the bullet was so deep and fragmented the doctors decided not to remove it at all. It effectively ended his army career. And yes they did give him some medal for that.

I started running and doing basic exercises. It was painful. My lungs were not accustomed to it. Initially my condition worsened. I was surprised by the amount of phlegm I coughed out. Sometimes my father had to come and take me back home as I sat wheezing on the ground unable to move. But I improved. I reached a point where I could do 6 KMs around the school ground.

It took me 1 year. Most people if they are at it fully would be able to make this within couple of months.

I started keeping goal during the PT breaks. It was the least preferred job among boys. But I resolved to be good at it and I soiled my shirts.

A good goalkeeper as I learnt 1) needed to know where the right and left posts where 2) Place his defenders during the free kicks and minimize angles 3) should have good reflexes.

“Play the ball and you’ll play the player”, Patil sir would say.

In an year I was competing with Anustup for the keeper’s post. For parity Patil sir lined up us against same players. It boiled down to the decider. Anustup failed to judge Sangharsh’s kick, it went the other way.

There were 2-3 players in our team who were adept at playing with both feet. Sango was the best. He would run in and would simply aim and blast into either the left or right bracket, or wrong foot one into the other direction. It was difficult to judge as he had a similar run up for both and kind of stopped before his shot, before the right or left foot came into action. His right foot shots were like bullets so you had to commit to a jump to have a chance to stop it, but if it was his left this very jump could be your undoing.

I took my mark. I remembered the last time and instead of fear I managed a chuckle. I saw Sango mark his run up and charge into his shot. I watched his foot ankle downwards and I still remember seeing the extra half a step of his right foot going slightly back while he twitched his body to the right. I knew it was going to be his left.

I stood my ground and moved towards my right and when the shot came and punched it away. I was IN! And I could see Patil sir’s approving smile.

“Nice guess harami” Sango mouthed. I just smiled. Over the next year I stopped many of his goals and earned his respect. Some secrets are best kept hidden. I never saw anyone else stop his kicks. He was that good.

We cruised to the semis and defeated KV VSN in Bhopal region. The finals were with a team equally good (K V Kamptee).

It went down to the wire. And we won in the Penalty shootouts and I saved more than the moron in the opposite team. I was carried around the ground on shoulders. I cried like a girl in the changing room. Many of those involved didn’t remember, but were the ones who hooted me once.

I remember the day. It was raining and I jumped on every puddle I could find on the way back home. My mom couldn’t understand the fuss. Sango, Anil, Sumit qualified for the Nationals from the regional pool team.

Later on I would play center defense and right wing in my college days. And I would graduate as the best outgoing student for my participation in sports as well as acads. Funny who would have thought!

2010

I met Patil sir when I visited the school. He is nowadays in Regional K V office and is responsible for inspections and overall development of KV’s in the region. Not many sports teachers make this big. He mentioned the irony of inspecting the very school he once taught in. He lamented the lack of sports in kids nowadays and how no of computers exceeded the sports equipment in the school inventory.

He probably never knew the impact he’s had on me. And though he recalled seeing me he could not remember my name. He was taken aback when I asked him about his shoulder. “Still creaking along”, he replied with his smile.

The last I saw of him was whistling and nonchalantly walking down the corridor…