A Date with Destiny

Long years ago we made a date with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially.

At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.

A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.

-- Original draft of Nehru's speech to the Constituent Assembly, 15th August 1947

The soul of this nation has found utterance, but not song.

That famous pledge waits to be redeemed still.

We make steady progress all round, but slowly, and tortuously

The spirit of India yearns to take wing.

That spirit lies in the individual Indian, struggling beneath the yoke of the system the spiritual heirs of Nehru bequeathed him. That spirit is stifled by those who fail to trust and empower the individual to decide and act in his own best interests.

That spirit shines through on the rare occasion when an individual guns himself to glory, in spite of, rather than in any way helped by the system.

Perhaps one day we will learn to celebrate the individual rather than the state.

Then, perhaps, more than a billion dates with destiny will be kept, and more than a billion promises redeemed, wholly and in full measure.

Perhaps another leader can then write another great speech, heralding another new age for India. Let's hope noone makes him or her substitute "tryst" in there ...