Independence Day
31 states. 1618 languages. 6400 castes. 6 religions. 6 ethnic groups. 29 major festivals. ONE COUNTRY. It's India's 65th Independence Day today. 65 years since a 1947 August 15th, when the tricolor first went up. 65 years of freedom. Through hard patches and rockiness, we have stuck as a nation, despite all our differences. Today I went to the hospital regarding my asthma, and the girl sitting next to me was North Indian. She spoke a language I couldn't understand, wore her saffron-paste differently from the way we wear it, and her mother's sari was draped in an exact inversion of the way my mother usually does it. Despite all that, though, I could see her typing on her phone: a message about India, about Independence Day, about the 15th of August that anyone who is proud to be an Indian will surely always remember as the day when India first became a nation of her own. India, at least according to me, is not just a nation. It seems impossible that so many...