||Watch our flag fly high, as it waves up in the sky||

It wasn't her desire to be weaved in the ornaments of a beautiful girl,

She cried day and night when the British shook her pride,

They divided her children and ruined their minds,

Shackled and brain-dead they rummaged as foreign tribes,

It was then our bharatmata drowned in corrupted ocean

When they were pulling her life out it was only you who breathed life into her mouth

Your minds were without fears and so your heads were always held high,

You went from east to west,

You ran through the turmoil, gained it from your blood and sweat.

You granted your brothers born out of same womb of mother India

You protected us from the sabres of doom

More than heaven or arcadia, you loved your motherland.

We owe you with our lives,

Let us all strive to maintain what we achieved,

For all and once, let us realize this tree of freedom isn't out of water but their blood and tears!

"At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new...India discovers herself again."

- Jawaharlal Nehru (on Indian Independence Day, 1947)

Independence as per Webster dictionary means Freedom from control or influence of another or others. In another word we can say that Independence is the ability to function in a given area without depending upon another's help.

Independence in reading and writing is the ability to read and write anything one can say or understand in his or her language without depending upon another's help. Independence is the self-government of a nation, country, or state by its residents and population, or some portion thereof, generally exercising sovereignty.

India is country with lot diversity. It is believed that if you travel every 100 km the language dialect will change, if you travel every 500km there is a change in the way people live, if you travel every 200 km there is change in food habits, there are around 1000 languages and equal number religions and so wide is the people's thought.

India got her independence on 15th August 1947, after that building our country began at earnest making us one of the biggest super-powers in the world. We normally say that British ruled our country they exploited us. But, what they have given us is unity. They united our country. However, we remained united till their time only, what happened after that? Today in most of the families the two brothers are at daggers drawn with each other. Everyone under the sun has become self-centred. It is easy to blame others but there are some out there who made our country shine brightest, today on 72nd Independence day let us acknowledge few of these people who don't do lame-blame:

Jadav Payeng

When we talk about ordinary people bringing about change, we cannot afford to miss out on this man. He is the one who single-handedly converted a washed out land into a 1,360 acre forest. He started planting bamboo saplings when he was 16 years old. Today he is 47 and lives in his own forest, which is now also home to Bengal tigers, Indian rhinoceros, over 100 deer and rabbits, besides apes and several varieties of birds, including a large number of vultures.

Shachi Singh

There are very few people who get inspired by an incident so much that it changes their life's goal. When Shachi Singh saw a poor boy on a railway station, she decided to help all those kids who are living on streets, spending their days doing small-time odd jobs to earn their daily bread and butter. She started an organization, Ehsaas, which caters to the needs of such children. Thanks to her hard work, Lucknow station is now free of child labour. Her efforts made the government create child-friendly booths for lost children across 72 districts of Uttar Pradesh. From rescuing these children from manual labour to helping them live a decent life, Singh has been a support system for all these children and we respect her dedication for the cause.

Girish Badragond

He has been an innovator ever since he was in school. He would observe the mechanics and would try to fix broken things at his home. While he was at school, he would help engineering students finish their projects. As a 28-year old, he came to Bangalore from Bijapur District in Karnataka, with a laptop, a wireless router and a 1-way bus fare in 2006. Today, he is now solving some of India's biggest agricultural problems through his simple inventions. All this without even having a college degree!

Atul Bhide

He made sure that every house in a village got a toilet of its own. Sanitation is one of the biggest problems of India and somehow it has always been neglected in rural India. Atul Bhide started by constructing 10 toilets from his own money and then got the project sponsored to construct 200 toilets more. Involved in various community services, Bhide's dream is to change the mindset of the people and see an India where every house has a toilet.

Sunitha Krishnan

A victim of gang rape herself, Sunitha Krishnan has risen from the ashes to rescue others from trafficking. Her organization, Prajwala, has been rehabilitating the victims after rescuing them. Shelters have been built and a factory has been opened where skills like carpentry, welding, etc. are taught to the girls. As we see many cases of rapes and trafficking, we are filled with disgust. But this lady had the courage to do something about it. Through her blog she talks about the horrifying reality. Working with police and law enforcement agencies, Krishnan is making sure that no girl in the country faces this dreadful plight.

Shantilal Muttha

He is the man who brought water to drought-affected Beed. Maharashtra has been facing droughts for many years now. The parched lands and dried up wells are common sights every summer. Muttha is one of those people who witnessed the drought and saw the hardships of the people. He decided to change the situation and founded Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana' to solve the issue. He started his efforts by reviving various lakes and recharging wells, and as a result, about 2500 hectare of land received silt and the cumulative water storage capacity was increased by 20 lakh cubic metres. When most of the irrigation is dependent on rains, Muttha has appeared like a light at the end of a dark tunnel for these drought-affected farmers

Dr. Ranganayakulu Bodavala

In the times of 4G internet and smart phones, there are still some sections of the country which are struggling for electricity. While kerosene lamps look like a solution to light up these villages, they do more harm than good. Always active in the field of rural development, Dr. Bodavala planned to solve this issue. He launched OneChildOneLight' where he harnesses the power of the sun in these adverse conditions. The objective was to provide safe and affordable lighting to every underprivileged child through LED lights. Dr. Bodavala's initiative has reached out to over 4,30,000 children and targets to reach out to 12 crore children.

Ofcourse these aren't the only ones but there are many more such examples, today on the eve of Independence day we salute all of these leaders along with all those out there who were not mentioned here.

Jai Hind

Ten quotes from ten Heroes.

Let's see how many of you guess the heroes correctly from their words!

"One can quite understand vegetarianism. One can quite understand meat-eating. But it is difficult to understand why a person who is a flesh-eater should object to one kind of flesh, namely cow's flesh. This is an anomaly which call for explanation".

"If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher".

We must make it clear that revolution does not merely mean an upheaval or a sanguinary strife. Revolution necessarily implies the programme of systematic reconstruction of society on new and better adapted basis after complete destruction of the existing state of affairs".

"Don't see others doing better than you, beat your own records every day because success is a fight between you and yourself".

"Patriotism is religion and religion is love for India".

"No real change in history has been achieved on discussions."

"Without education wisdom was lost; without wisdom morals were lost; without morals development was lost; without development wealth was lost; without wealth the shudras were ruined; so much has happened through lack of education."

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

"Bombs and pistols do not make a revolution. The sword of revolution is sharpened on the whetting-stone of ideas."

"Manpower without unity is not a strength unless it is harmonised and united properly, then it becomes a spiritual power."