Not so Proud to be Indian

somewhere walking down the Manhattan avenues you can see a touch of India here and there. for we Indians, we take a lot of pride in explaining about the clothes on display or food on menu to our foreign counterparts. and we are very proud of our country at 60th independence day. last week new york got a little more of India than usual. there was incredible India at 60 function in Bryant park and south street seaport. which i thoroughly enjoyed. although two things were disappointment. one: a statement by colonial cousins on stage in front of what i can say the most number of desis i ever saw in new york together at one place ;stating" we know that we are celebrating 60 years of Independence and all that but WHATEVER, we are in new york people cheer up". was it really necessary to use words like "whatever" and "Independence and all that" just for a few claps and hoorays. i bet they got the maximum Boos. anyways secondly for the same function at south street seaport the Indian flag was all hoisted all over a ship late till 10pm well after the sunset. its an insult to hoist the national flag after sunset in India. even the dancers were merely waving the flag on their performance on song chak de. to add the icing on the cake this function was sponsored by the government of India. and i heard last week amir khan the actor got a notice from court because he attended a showroom opening on Independence day and the owner forgot to take the flags down before sunset. do the codes for our national flag do not apply in foreign country? that's not it,I work in hotel industry in new york . last week as we all know Sonia Gandhi was in new york. she happened to stay at an luxurious hotel. as Indians we all were very happy and proud. just a day before her arrival the hotel got an email from her staff clearly specifying that there should be no staff on Indian origin around the Indian mission apparently for "PRIVACY" reason. although they preferred a Chinese butler. and i though she came to NY to represent India at UN. i would have understood if she was here to talk with the US government but she was just to celebrate Gandhi jayanti as international non violence day. its was such an embarrassment to all the Indian staff at the hotel. maybe someone should tell her practice what you preach.