This year, while I was creating training plans to help teachers facilitate Independence Day celebrations, I smiled we were discussing putting in a section on flag etiquette. Not confiscating them, teaching kids, instead, how to keep them safe and ensuring they know why it is necessary for us to honor them. (This section, I dedicate to the people who love bans!). Tell them the what. Tell them the why. Tell them the how. I know it sounds like an ideal situation, but as someone put it, \u201cActualize the ideal, don\u2019t idealize the actual\u201c. As a teacher, as a mentor, as an adult, the most we can do is offer freedom from ignorance.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nWhen I zoom out and reflect, given the bans, insane regulations and the fear of the internet not being free, contextual definitions of independence seem to be getting more dynamic. Freedom from ignorance and fear, and the freedom of choice \u2013 that is how I would define independence. Freedom is a process, not an event.<\/p>\n
A wise person once asked me, \u201cIf I chose to speed at 80kmph on this road or ram into someone right now, wouldn\u2019t I be exercising my independence and freedom?\u201d I realized then that independence is just one side of the coin \u2013 responsibility, the other. For getting out in the night, staying alone, choosing the website one wants to visit, deciding how and where one wants to spend money, teaching kids a new curriculum or enforcing a new policy \u2013 realize freedom, but understand the responsibility. Independence with Responsibility. Not one without the other.<\/p>\n
As beautifully put in this video \u2013 \u201cFree will is only as limited as you make it, and as infinite as the confines of your mind. [..] So rise, because if every decade were counted as an hour from the stroke of midnight when we first awoke to life and freedom, we are now embracing the sunrise\u201d<\/p>\n
Happy Independence Day. Happy Responsibility day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Independence day \u2013 as a student in primary school, it meant the ritual of flag hoisting and patriotic songs on DD. As I grew older, it became about the speeches I was asked to give. Once I was back to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[43],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2989"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2989"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3007,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2989\/revisions\/3007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rai.net.in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}