I-Day in Bangalore as seen while on a ride

I did not have any specific plans for I-Day as I was puppy-sitting. But the cyclist in me got the better of me and I joined the I-Day critical mass ride. As I rode on Mysore Road, I saw flags hoisted on some buildigs and street vendors selling flags and little badges. One big relief was that there were very few plastic ones being sold compared to previous years.. some improvement.. One particular I-day celebration caught my eye from the top of the flyover.. it was of a Muslim girls school. All the students were dressed in spotless white clothes from head to toe, including their head/face covering. Made me ponder if this was really freedom.. I did not want to think too much and raced down the flyover.

There were 20 other cyclists gathered at the Press Club gates in Cubbon Park. We started after fixing the Indian flag onto one of the cyclists and rode along Vidhan Soudha and Parade grounds, attracting some attention, including from a journalist from CNBC.

I rode back on the same flyover to find a bunch of enthusiastic guys put up a huge flag on the shoulder of the flyover.. thatz the biggest Indian flag I have seen so far. I got down to take some pix and there was this guy on a scooter who had stopped too to be part of the excitement, or so I thought.. but what this guy said really spoilt the spirit of freedom of secular India. There was a mosque in the background and he did not want me to cover that in the pix.. how absurd! I just ignored him and did not care to even respond to him.

I had almost reached home when I saw 2 kids walking home from school.. one of them had the little badge on, but the other did not. I went back and put my badge on the other kid and she gave me a big smile and both posed for a neat snap :)

All in all, it was 4 hrs well spent on Independence Day.

Jai Hind