Childhood Remembrance of National days

It was about seventy years ago when I was ten years old. Crossing eighty years of my life now,I want to delve into the past and share some of the old pleasantries about Independence Day celebrations at Jorhat in Upper Assam, India in those golden old days . Independence Day or Republic Day celebrations in those days were different from the ways we celebrate now . Unlike at present, people then used to wait eagerly for these two remarkable days and make preparations for the celebrations well in advance.
Even in villages, people used to buy the national flag of different sizes from the market and keep bamboo poles ready to hoist the flags on the appropriate day. People in groups used to gather at such celebrations at private or public places and used to sing patriotic songs at the flag hoisting places wearing colourful dresses.

My father used to take me to the main function at Jorhat town from our village Gorokhiadole, about five kilometres from the town .The town used to wear a spontaneous festive look. In the morning hours there used to be friendly football matches in the Court field. After the flag hoisting and speech by dignitaries,there used to be the main attraction of free film shows in local cinema halls for children below twelve years of age.Patriotic and entertaining comedy films were used to be shown. In the afternoon , a special kind of football match was played at the Town football stadium where the two teams formed with senior officials and v.i.ps took part in the fancy match.They were like the Governor’s Eleven, and the Deputy Commissioner’s Eleven.

The match was played in the most non conventional ways. There was no normal way of playing. It was unthinkably bizarre . The participating teams used to play with all sorts of queer objects like spears, fishing nets, or whatever they could gather for the event which offered unthinkable entertainment to the viewing public. The final programme used to be film shows for the public, organised by the State Information and Public Relations Department . Feature films and documentaries with Patriotic themes were generally shown in the wide Court Field in the Evening. The attraction of the film show was invariably the announcements made in between by the conducting officer with his most appealing voice. I still remember his name till today. He was Parimal Dutta, the man with a golden voice. With the Court field films goes , the day’s programme used to come to a close, to be repeated the following year.
The programmes at Republic Day celebrations were also same . People used to celebrate the Day with the same gusto and respect for the day’s functions religiously . On this day too,Fancy Football matches added the brightest colours to the occasion. One thing notable was that the football players in such fancy matches did not wear the conventional jerseys and shorts. Even dhotis and pajamas were also allowed .The honourable players used to enter the fields with various objects in hands like fishing net, axe, bow and arrow or anything that looked comical. It is not known whether such celebrations were also there in other parts of the country at that time.Those days of sweet celebrations of our National days are now only matters of memories.They will remain alive only in the minds of some people who are on the verge of retiring from life.After they are gone, there will be no one to tell our next generations as to how things were there hundred years back. It is believed that the style of celebration of National days might be similar in other places of Assam, including Guwahati also , during those days.
As such, the Government and those in the helm of affairs should scientifically chronicle these social behaviour and customs of observing or celebrating national events to help our future generations in knowing these forgotten things and enthuse in them the spirit of nation building. Else, we will loose these gems of yesteryears forever,forever.

(The author is a retired IIS official and writer cum freelance journalist)