7/31/2019 The Cover Story - Celebrating 65th Year Of Independence. But what should we be free of?

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7/31/2019 The Cover Story - Celebrating 65th Year Of Independence. But what should we be free of?

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Om PuriVeteran Actor

Acompletely exhausted Om Puri gladly answered all the queries put up to himby eager journalists at a recent award function. So, what in his view is the

main thing that we should be free of Greed! Greed! he says with hisintense eyes. We as Indian citizens and most of all a leading developing nationshould free ourselves from greed. As soon as we achieve freedom from any sort ofgreed, it will automatically be effective in the nations progress. So where does hethink the fault lies and how can we correct it? I cant and dont want to be bluntand pinpoint where exactly the fault may lie but independence from the traits likegreed should completely be adopted from the top. After we achieve this, everythingwill fall into its places sooner or later. We are driven by greed in every single unit. Ifthat stops then we are ahead of anybody in no time, concluded Puri.

It is not a hidden verity that we as a nation are stillfaced with adversities and challenges like poverty,sickness, unemployment, corruption and illiteracy.We are free from the foreign regime. Yes! But whatabout the above mentioned? Not yet.

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Piyush PandeyAdvertising Guru, Executive Chairman and

Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather (SouthAsia)

Known to be one of the top people who wear the Indian Flagon the head whenever and whatever he ventures, PiyushPandey is entirely about all things Indian but he does not

profess everyone to wear khadi! Leave everything except to beproud of what we have as Indian nationals. He states, We arestill a young independent nation and the things we are fightingagainst are visible everywhere in the world. Yes, but we should beable to get rid of corruption as soon as possible. That should beon top of our priority list! It is the main evil or devil from whichthe nation is suffering and struggling at this juncture. He also

advises the youth of the nation to Travel around the world,explore, get exposed, but come back with an open mind. We reallyhave everything in this country. Be proud of it. Media plays a bigpart in our day-to-day life. It should also take the responsibility toshow that we are the citizens of a great country. It should givereaders something aspirational in the morning. We are a greatnation - Be proud of it!

Prasoon JoshiNoted Indian Lyricists, Screenwriter andAdvertising Copywriter

Prasoon answers the big question on a very lyrical note, Fearfrom the feeling that we are not free is what we should befree from. He further adds, If we think about it, freedom is

both physical as well as psychological. We surely are free from theBritish rule but from the psychological point of view we are stillnot free. It might take time as we are still a developing nation.

But we have to accept mentally that we really ARE free and thereis nobody other than ourselves to build this nation. The scar of

being under the British Raj has still not vanished from our mindsand thoughts. If and when we achieve freedom from the feeling thatwe are not free, I think we will achieve mental freedom. This will

be a breakthrough as we will be able to focus on other importantthings about the nation.

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Shiamak DavarCelebrity Dance Guru and Indian ContemporaryDance Choreographer

It is not unknown that Shiamak is polite and extremely down-to earth.

After a quick contemplation he expresses, I would have a go withEducation! People from all walks of life should be educated. Gesturing

towards the head he continues, Education will open minds and give agreat platform to emerging great minds. This will also teach them thedifference between right and wrong, who to vote and who not to, questionthe authorities when they are wrong etc. It will also elevate the livingstandards of people in this country. Education is the key for developmentin my view and it should be given much more importance in todays worldthan we already are doing.

Shovana NarayanKathak Guru, A Living Legend and An Artist

The beautiful and calm danseuse Shovana Narayan, who is as wella known dedicated social activist, expressed Freedom for me issomething which should come from within, which should be felt

from within. If you are not free from inside, it will be reflected on theoutside. Internalisation is important learning step to identify our fearsand let go off them. We should be free from fear! Freedom from fearis the foremost attainment. We are educated and efficient but westill think there is somebody who would take care of us, who would doour work for us or that we need somebody to order or guide us work.What we forget is that we are actually FREE and are on our OWN.Nothing is going to happen if we dont face this reality and accept it.

And when we do that and on that day, we will have attained freedomin its true sense!

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Aneesha DalalAcclaimed Choreographer

The simple and elegant artist states - Corruption. If you askme, Id say it is corruption! It was always there but now it isgrowing bigger and eviler. We dont want that, do we? It is

an evil! The soft-spoken Aneesha also confesses that, I am half-British and half- Indian. But my half Indian part is more proud thananything else. I feel so proud to have such lineage. I am absolutelyproud to be an Indian. Just look around the country and we willfind every season, every colour, varied culture, ranges of culinarydelights and I could just go on and on. It is like living inside acountry which has many sub countries - Unity in Diversity!

Princess Chandini Singh

In my view, I think we should completely and absolutelyget independence from corruption, says the Princess ofSeohara. It is about time that we put an end to it. Also

when people are well-educated and enlightened, they vote for rightpeople to represent them at the higher level, I think half of our

problem will be solved by electing the right people. We all knowthat there are many negative things that exist in our society andwe see it all around us. We see it daily but we dont know whatmeasures should be taken to eradicate them. We lack of leadershipand guidance. Education will lead to electing right people, which inturn will lead to better execution of policies and decision-makingand ultimately a better and stronger nation, concludes PrincessChandini Singh.

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Vani TripathiNational Secretary BJP and Theater Activist

We are at a stage where we are growing. 65 years ofindependence is still young for a nation, exclaims Vani.But having said that we surely have to eradicate diseases,

strengthen the youth with good education and make every person literate.Even with the GDP growth of 7-8% every year, we are challenged bysocio-economic depravity. It just saddens that our women, children, youthare in a disadvantaged position. Even after being the biggest democracywe are not able to eliminate poverty from our country. But we justcannot blame the politicians and government every time for everything.It is also not hidden that both the civil society namely non-governmentalinstitutions and governmental bodies are working alongside on the sameissues. But we have not reached a point where all these forces joinhands and work together. It will be much easier and stronger this way.

Also we all have now to contemplate within ourselves and take a bigstep towards the biggest evil corruption. This is achievable if we stoppointing fingers at each other and start thinking as one nation. That isindependence, conveys Tripathi.

Pandit Bhajan SoporiMusic Legend and Composer

India is a country of age old civilisation. As is its vastgeographical area, so is its linguistic and ethnic dimension.Our forefathers struggled to achieve national independence

which all of us respect and cherish today, expresses the musiclegend. We can only celebrate our independence in true sensewith a strong vision of reforms and in-depth involvement of everyindividual, be it in politics, art, culture, education, industry, etc.We need rejuvenation of leaderships and thoughts which helpin spreading and intensifying national patriotism. We need topropagate love for humanity in one thought as religion. Once every

citizen of the country starts to believe in oneness and humanismand respects every other living being, shuns evils of society likeunemployment, corruption, terrorisms, poverty, etc. then we willsee India emerging and shining as a strong country and rolemodel to other nations, wraps-up Pandit Bhajan Sopori.

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Madhu JainFashion Designer

Id say we should be free of Politicians! exclaims thecelebrated designer. I would also like to clear that I amneither pro-Congress or pro-BJP or any other party but I am

pro-People. We dont have Ram Rajya or Gandhian rule whichour forefathers dreamt for us. The government makes various policiesand plans but due to lack of execution, the desired result is notattained. We are getting cheaper goods from foreign countries whicheven our labourers are capable of making. But our labourers andfarmers are committing suicide or leading a very poor life due tolack of employment and opportunities. We have to provide better

protection to our countrymen, take care of our poor and have betterleaders, she adds.

Fusion Life solicits our valuable readers toshare their thoughts with us on this.

We can be reached at fusionlife2011@gmail.com

Madhura PhatakA Celebrated Danseuse and An Artist

Ithink we are free! says the beautiful Khathak dancer. Problem lieswhen we take things for granted. We should be grateful that welive in a nation where there is freedom of speech; that we have a

democracy and we have rights to value. We are just too distracted to noticeall this. We want everything to be said and done but we dont take theinitiative to strengthen ourselves. We like to play the blame game and pointfingers but forget that we fought against the British rule as ONE. So afterthey are gone we should remain one and think as one. Take a small example- our nation is not as clean as other countries. So who is responsible forthis? Of course we are and we only can clean it! People should be taughtcivic sense at a young age. We absolutely are lacking in that area. Takingresponsibility and civic sense are the most important things to gain at thispoint of time, gasps Phatak!