SAARE JASHNO SE BADA JASHN , AZAADI KI WOH PEHLI GHADI , 15TH AUGUST KA MADHYA RATRA , 12 BAJE

India is always known as a country of maximum festivals. There are festivals celebrated by different religions and communities, there are festivals like Diwali, Holi, Id, Christmas and Navroj, there are festivals to celebrate sessions , harvests and festivals to celebrate anything and everything that gives Indian a reason to celebrate.... But, never has there been a bigger , more colourfull and a festival that will be remembered for all time , like the festival and entire country celebrated like one family on the night of August 15 when the clock struck 12 midnight which ushered in a new dawn for India - Ali Peter John

The struggle for freedom had been fought for almost 100 years and had picked up with the coming in of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Lok Manya Tilak, Pandit JawaharLal Nehru, Moulana Azad and many others.

There was violence most of the time and the British who were ruling over India tried every wild way to beat down the Indians, but when Gandhi launched Ahimsa, his method of fighting violence with non-violence, the mighty British empire had to surrender and it decided to grant Independence to the people of India and a free and Independent country called India for Bharat or Hindustan was born .

I am not talking about the Independence of Pakistan which was declared one day before it was declared in India, because that is not my interest or focus right now .

I am now full of the spirit of the first Independence Day and how it was celebrated in Bombay, especially....

Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru was making his historic speech in parliament in which he talked about India's " tryst with destiny" and his line , " tonight as the world sleeps, India wakes up to a new dawn of freedom " has become an immortal part of Indian history .

With that speech began an unbelievable gush of joy which led to various kinds of expressions to the joy of being a free and an Independent country.

It was perhaps the first time when Indians forgot all their differences about cast , religion and other major differences of which the British were taking advantage of, and literally every man , woman and child was out in the streets to take part in large processions ecstatic singing, dancing and slogan shouting .

There were elaborate fireworks and different kinds of bands playing in every corner. There were some minor disturbances too , but on the whole , it was a night without end of celebrations that gave the very word a new definition and meaning....

I wish i was a part of that grand and sacred celebration, but I was not so fortunate as I was born three years later when the spirit of celebration was slowly going down and writers like K A Abbas and poets like Sahir Ludhiandi saw the first signs of that spirit of the joy and happiness of freedom taking a slow but sure plunge .

It was during one of my many meetings with Dev Anand that I was with him on one Independence Day when the country was celebrating Independence day , but the celebrations now were so very painfully prefrent from that first Independence day .

We were talking about how so much had changed within the first 60 years of our being and Independent country and Dev looped a blend of excitement and sadness and his mood changed when I asked him to go into a flashback on that first Independence Day .

He was back to being his original self and began talking, " I was still struggling to find a place of my own as an actor. I had done my first two or three films but I was still not sure about were I would reach in the competitive world of hindi flims .

And then towards the beginning of 1947, all of us Indian were confident that freedom would be ours in a few months Pandit Nehru had assured Indian that freedom would be our right within a short time .

The excitement had started mounting in July 1947 and 15th August was the day the British government would handover their charge to over India to Indians .

I cannot not still imagine that moment at 12 midnight when I an entirely unknown young man in the city of Bombay walked out into the streets and mingled with people who were celebrating Independence Day.

I too sang and dance with the teeming crowds and had all the sweets and cold drinks that were being distributed in every corner .

I walked from Dadar to the Gate Way of India and what I saw is registered in my mind , in my heart and in my eyes and those scenes can never leave me as long as I live ".

Dev went into a trance when he told me , " I had rarely had the opportunity to meet any of the big stars of the time but on that night I found my self embracing , crying and dancing with some of the biggest stars like Prithviraj Kapoor and his sons , Raj , Shammi and Shashi ,and my brother Chetan Anand and Balraj Sahani I was dancing with Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor , Nargis, Kamini Kaushal, Nutan , her mother Shobhna Samarth and Sitara Devi and we were all part of one group as we walked in dance and sang all through the areas of the city .

I have heard talks about unity and communal harmony, but never has this values proved themselves like they did on that joyful and hopeful night " .

Dev would have gone on and on with his description of that night , but he suddenly saw a group of hoodlums carying the Tiranga in their hands and dancing to some crude hindi flim songs and dancing more vigorously as they had Swigs of liquor and even had the temerity to call Dev come down and join them in their boisterous drunken dancing.

Dev held his head in both his hands and I could see tears forming in his eyes as he slumped into his chair .

And after a few minutes of closing his eyes , he looked at me and said , " kya humko aisi azaadi chaahhiye thi ?

Kya hamare logon ne apni jaane issi azaadi ke liye kurbaan ki thi ? Yeh woh khwaab ho hi nahi sakti jisse humne uss raat dekhi thi " .

Dev was very disappointed with the way India was going. He even turned a politician and was against the congress party and spoke out openly against any steps taken by the ruling government that went against the interest of the people. He could never bow to the powers that be even if he had to loose something personally.

MAINE DEV SAHAB KO SIRF TEEN BAAR ROTE HUE DEKHA THA , PEHLI BAAR JAB SURAIYYA KI NANI NE USSE APNI POTI SE SHAADI KARNE SE INKAAR KIYA THA , DUSRI BAAR JAB UNKI BETI DEVINA KA BREAK UP HUA THA, AUR AB JAB UNHONE TIRANGE KA BEZZATI HOTE HUE DEKHA THA .

- Ali Peter John