Independence Day Celebrations

On Friday, 14-Aug-2009, our HR organized Independence Day celebrations in the cafetaria, since Saturday, 15-Aug-2009 would have been a holiday. I along with my team members went to attend the event. The event consisted of a singing competition followed by a group song by all the managers. All of us settled in a khopche-wala seat so that we would not be disturbed by anyone. The tricolour was distributed to the associates who started waving the flags. The singing competition consisted of group songs as well as solo songs. Along with the singing competition, there were a lot of prizes for the audience too. All the songs were either patriotic songs or were an expression of Indianness.

Since there was nothing else happening, we decided to do something on our own. One of the quitest members of our group, A, led the way. We decided that after each performance, he would shout a slogan and we would complete it. He started with 'Bharat mata ki...' and all of us joined in by shouting loudly - 'Jai...' He repeated it a couple of times. The audience sitting in front of us turned behind to see who was shouting slogans. A, being the shy guy, would keep his head down while shouting the slogans. And we too enjoyed participating in the 'naare-baazi'. We planned to shout 'Vande Mataram' after the next song. Once the second song ended, A shouted loudly 'Vande...' and we followed with '...Mataram'. This happened 2 - 3 times, before the next song could begin. The audience was still surprised to see our group raising slogans.

The fillers between the songs, apart from our 'naare-baazi' was filled by the questions for the audience. Every correct answer fetched us a prize. Soon the third performance began. I proposed to A a new slogan, a slogan that was made famous by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose - 'Tum mujhe khoon do, main tumhe azaadi doonga...' While my group was animatedly discussing this slogan, I got an idea. I told A to shout the full slogan, and the rest of us would join in saying - '...GE se' When heard in continuation, it would sound like - 'Tum mujhe khoon do, main tumhe azaadi doonga... GE se.' The last part was added since we work in a GE project and it is a well-known fact that associates don't get a release from GE project very easily. So we decided to make fun of that point. The third song ended and we asked A to begin with his naare-baazi. A, all enthusiastic and in full form, shouted loudly 'Tum mujhe khoon do...' and stopped. He immediately started looking at all of us to continue further, but none of us said anything. Infact, we were looking at him to continue. And the audience turned around to see who shouted this slogan - "Tum mujhe khoon do..." And since no body accompanied him to complete the slogan, it was almost like some blood thirsty man is on the loose. Poor guy... He put his head down and kept quite for some time after that. But that was not the end. Another enterprising guy asked him, before the next performance could start - 'Kaun sa blood group hai tumhara?' Poor A. He had no choice but to smile sheepishly. The junta around was still flummoxed. But we had started laughing at A's situation. The sport that A is, he too joined the laughter. We had a hearty laugh for quite some time before we started our 'naare-baazi' again. Soon enough, the others in the audience too were infected by the 'naare-baazi' fever. And they would join us when A initiated the slogans. Or they would initiate the slogans and we would join them in completing it.

All in all, it was a good event with some brilliant performances and the 'naare-baazi' adding the patriotic zing to the event.

Jai Hind!!!