A group of youngsters in Mambalam in South Chennai came together to celebrate the 62nd Independence Day today. They hoisted the tricolour national flag in all reverence, sang the national anthem but did not disperse. On Arya Gowda Road, a busy thoroughfare, they had arranged the pictures of national leaders including freedom fighters in kolu style and kept a picture of Bharatmata on top of it all. A basket of flowers placed close to the patriotic kolu attracted the passers by. They stopped and had darshan of all great men and women of Bharatmata at one go. Many of them offered floral tribute to the great ones by showering flowers kept there, and removed their footware as they did so.. When volunteers requested them to record their opinion about the event in a note-book arranged there, many happily wrote down their impressions. The word thyaga (sacrifice) of the great men was invariably found in every one´s expression. V.Ganesh, a young marketing professional and his associates of the Mambalam shakha of RSS who conceived and executed this thoughtful dawn-to-dusk celebration of Independence Day, were all in for wholesome praise by the residents of Mambalam as they gladly got the rakhi tied on their wrists by swayamsevaks, the following day (August 16) being raksha bandhan utsav. (Kolu is unique to Tamilnadu. It is an arrangement of dolls of deities on specially built steps during Navaratri in houses when neighbours are invited and honoured.)
`T.NAGAR TALK´, a neighbourhood magazine, Chennai, August 16, 2008
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