I stumbled upon a gem this morning by this gem of a person aka Twinkle Khanna. Can we just take a minute to acknowledge how hilarious and amazing this woman is? Can we? Okay, done. In her fortnightly stint for TOI, Khanna took to her column to talk about something the whole nation has been talking about – the new decision by the Supreme Court that states the national anthem must be played before every movie, at every theatre. Whether this is right or wrong, we don’t know, but what we know is that this column mirrors a lot of our thoughts. This is what she had to say:
Scrolling through my phone on the way to the office, I stumble on the news that to instill “committed patriotism and nationalism”, the Supreme Court has now ordered all cinema halls to play the national anthem and folks are obliged to stand up and show respect to the same.
Now, I am admittedly one of those barmy women who get teary-eyed during our national anthem and bellow it out as loudly as we can, much to the embarrassment of our children.I have even gone on a tour to the Wagah border where, along with the 200 people sitting beside me, I too screamed myself hoarse with ‘Jai Hind’ and ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ competing vigorously with the Pakistanis raising their slogans across the border, because not having variable parameters to judge nationalism, we seem to simply define it by volume, hoping the loudest wins.
But I still can’t wrap my head around how and why I am obliged to feel patriotic when I have merely booked tickets for Befikre, and am about to see Ranveer Singh in his tight red underwear.
Can’t deny that this woman makes a lot of sense and put into words what I’ve been thinking.
You can read the entire column here.