DUBAI // Indians packed out their consulate on Friday to sing patriotic songs and wave tricolour flags to celebrate India’s 68th Independence Day.
More than 1,500 labourers, teachers and managers, along with theier children and other family members, clapped, danced and sang old classics and hit Bollywood songs.
For some packed into the consulate’s auditorium in Bur Dubai, it was their first time celebrating Independence Day in the Emirates.
“We brought our child here because we want her to understand what it is to be Indian,” said Amol Mane, 37, a software manager who was accompanied by his wife, Deepali, also 37, and four-year-old daughter Shalaka. The Manes have lived in the UAE for nine years.
“We felt a nostalgia here because, however long you are away from home, your sense of identity remains,” Mr Mane said.
Mrs Mane recalled, as a child, walking around her small village, Vani, in western India, singing songs every Independence Day.
“We wanted our daughter to have this experience,” she said. “We plan to tell her stories from our memories so she, too, feels a closeness, since we visit India only once a year.”
Indians sang patriotic songs from the 1880s such as Vande Mataram (I salute you mother), Hindi numbers from the 1960s such as Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo (O, people of my country) and classics such as Mere desh ki dharti (The soil of my country) to popular Bollywood numbers such as Jai Ho (Be victorious).
The songs were intended to help children to remember history lessons about freedom fighters who fought for independence from 200 years of British rule.
“I really liked the songs,” said nine-year-old Burhanuddin Kothari, who was among a lively family of 15 from Sharjah.
“Independence Day means freedom from the British.”
Consul general Anurag Bhushan asked people to remember those who dedicated their life to the struggle for freedom.
“We should hold on to that memory and their sacrifice,” he told the audience, who shouted slogans such as Bharat Mata ki jai (Long live Mother India). It should be our pledge to remember their dream. That is our responsibility.”