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What
it Means to be an Indian
 For
some, the thoughts come easily, dripping with patriotism
or pure venom. For others, it needs hours of conversation
for the words and feelings, usually buried deep or hardly
ever considered, to surface. INDIA
TODAY presents frank, unguarded
thoughts of some of the best known -- and some totally
unknown -- people across the nation who make up the
fabric of India. After 50 years of Independence, this is
the voice of India, a reflection of who we are. It shows
how far we have come. And how far we need to go.
Interview by KALLI PURIE
Photograph by BANDEEP SINGH
 AMITABH BACHCHAN, Superstar, all-time icon
of Indian cinema
I am quite confident that at some point in the
lives of even this present generation there will be an
inner desire to want to know more -- looking beyond being
young and free and happy, or saying, "So what? Who
cares? We are this generation." And when that
happens, you needn't necessarily be in India.
My son went to study abroad at a very young age. Whenever
he wrote to us, he wrote in English, but signed in Hindi
-- Abhishek. It was the only Hindi he knew at that time.
After a couple of years, he came back and said, "I
want my flag." I said, "Why?" He said,
"I want to put it up in my room." It is just
that after a while you want your own identity.
If I had to make a film about the last 50 years of India,
the story would start off in a small town, Allahabad,
where I was born, and trace the travel of this individual
from a lower middle-class family, making his way up in
this modern, upbeat, fast-moving Mumbai.
HARIVANSHRAI BACHCHAN,
Freedom fighter, revolutionised Hindi poetry
On Independence Day, in 1947, we were all at home. We
hoisted the Indian flag. I asked the sweeper of the house
to hoist it. I still have that flag.
It's good that we have got Independence. We have made
tremendous progress.
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