Friends of mine were handed national flags by their watchmen in the first week of August. Some had to sign pamphlets distributed by their building secretaries, requesting them all to fly the flags outside their windows for Independence Day. It is only when the BMC made a few announcements related to this that I heard about the fabulous ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign though.

Apparently, the BMC distributed 5 lakh flags in wards across the city to celebrate our 75th Independence Day. There were also press releases announcing the presence of 600 hoardings in Marathi, Hindi and English, along with banners near bus stops, gardens, cinema halls, malls, and hospitals. Audio clips were also played in gardens, on radio and local cable channels. This is apart from similar initiatives by other state governments, and I found a slew of websites that helped explain what this campaign was meant to do. I was sure it would finally prove, without a doubt, that we really were an independent nation, despite what some people have been saying for the past eight years or so.