Sixty-seven years have been enough time
to level the hysteria of that day
when Nehru’s voice intoned ‘the midnight hour’
in brown English, distinctly so, that day.
The obedient servant syndrome that day
overthrown, one with independence done
away with, once and for all, on that day,
the servant his master’s role to take on -
to transform, as the breath of new-born India
formulated in English terms that day,
in the spirit of modern times, in clear
sight the nation born of the world that day.
India capitulated on that day
to the British way of thinking, the law
and order, internal cohesion, that day
courtesy of the railway, evermore
the framework of its wide democracy,
individual rights secured on that day
at war with prejudice, consistency
of effort India’s duty, to make that day.
