United colours of India

For her, Independence Day isn't just synonymous with wearing white, hoisting a flag and watching the parade on television.

Not one to be impressed by ceremony, Soha Ali Khan instead looks forward to the day because it generates media debates and raises questions that are otherwise left unasked on most days.
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On the occasion of Independence Day, CS gets Soha talking:

Desi girl
I'm not the conventional patriot, but I still have a sense of national pride. I'm proud of all that India stands foru00a0 its diversity, secularism and democracy.



Having said that, there are many things that I'm not so proud of too, like corruption. It's unfortunate that none of us have any faith in the system and that we, as a country, haven't tapped our full potential.

You still read stories about intolerance, especially in places like Kashmir. Oppressive customs like honour killings still prevail, and in that regard, not much has changed since 1947. These are worrying trends, but it is difficult to see how I can change them.

Memories come flooding in...
But, I'm very thankful to my country for what it has given me. I have been raised in a very secular and multi-cultural environment. My mother is a Hindu and my father is Muslim and of course, Rabindranath Tagore was a distant relative of my mom's.

Growing up in a government area in a city like Delhi where the sense of politics is stronger than other cities, I would always look forward to Republic and Independence Day parades.

At school, we would enact plays on the freedom struggle and it was a lot of fun so much so that it inculcated a strong patriotic sentiment in me. But now I look forward to the day because of the discussion that it generatesu00a0what we've achieved as a country and what we can achieve.

Independent me
To me, independence is synonymous with empowerment, and that includes financial independence to a great extent.

Now that I own my own home and pay my own bills, I can also make my own decisions and I know that my parents will accept them, whether they're happy or not.

Having said that, I still don't know how to cook or drive, so I'm not completely independent after all. But I hope that will change one day!