Let Freedom Ring

As you may or may not know, my end date here in India has been about as fluid as the Ganges River. When I agreed to come, the time period was 6-9 months, which is pretty ambiguous. Then because of certain projects being pushed back, I thought I might get to come home in mid May, as all I had to do was finish a simple remodel project. I sat down in March to come up with a schedule of two months that while ambitious, it was realistic. In the US, we could get the same done in a month or month and a half easy. The contractor himself said it would take 10 weeks.

Boy was I off. Way off. I mean, not even close. Although I had been here for several months and had already experienced one India construction project, and a very successful one at that, I didn’t realize just how challenging this job would be. I mean, the scope seems simple. Tear down a few walls, build a few offices, a new hand wash area in the cafeteria, replace some carpet and wallpaper, and call it a day. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. Remodels like this just aren’t done in India. Especially in buildings where employees are still working. Especially when many of your materials are stuck on a boat somewhere between the US and India. We are swimming in uncharted waters.

Before I knew it, mid May became the first of June. The first of June became mid-June so I could make it home in time for a wedding. Mid June became late June. Late June became getting home July 3^rd, just in time to drive to Kansas for possibly my favorite holiday. When I finally conceded defeat, that there was no way I’d be home for the 4^th, I was pretty upset. Not Christmas in Dixie upset, but pretty bummed that I was going to miss my family and fireworks and celebrating the independence of our great country on actual US soil. Luckily Andrea and Alan promised me at the time that they’d try to throw a 4^th of July party to try to make up for my disappointment. Did they ever come through!

But first, I need to explain my typical 4^th of July, if for no other reason than to remind myself how awesome it is. The day starts around 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning, when I set the alarm to wake up and light off the biggest Saturn Missile Battery that I could find in my fireworks shopping. Why? Tradition, that’s why. I’ve been doing it ever since I can remember. What better way to start the day than to wake up the fam and all of the surrounding neighbors than with a minute of screeches and explosions?! Later in the morning, we always dig out an ancient VHS tape that has an episode of Looney Tunes where Elmer Fudd battles a colony of ants with fireworks. Classic episode. Again, a family tradition that we’ve been doing as long as I can remember. The only reason we keep a VCR around the house is to watch that episode once a year. Later in the morning I usually light off some smaller fireworks with the nieces and nephews, or if we’re still cutting wheat as we usually are, help with harvest.



Possibly the greatest Looney Tunes episode ever.

Here’s where I need to bring up that 4^th of July is my favorite meal day of the year. Better than Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, all of them. Lunch is usually the one time a year mom makes her delicious fried chicken, accompanied by heaps of steaming real mashed potatoes and corn on the cop, and glass after glass of ice cold sun tea. For dessert, homemade cherry pie fresh out of the oven made with cherries picked from the trees out back, accompanied with vanilla ice cream. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Later that evening we head down the road three miles to River View Farm, where the granddaddy of all Independence Day celebrations is held. There we get together with my mom’s side of the family and have an amazing BBQ, which probably takes the cake as my favorite meal of the year. Burgers, brats, baked beans, taco salad, raspberry chipotle dip, all of my favorite BBQ foods accompanied by a few cold beers. It’s absolutely heaven. After our family BBQ other guests start arriving, bringing with them all sorts of homemade desserts that we enjoy with at least 3 different kinds of homemade ice cream. There is always homemade vanilla, strawberry, and lemon sherbet. Sometimes other flavors will make appearances as well. But it’s always homemade, and it’s always delicious.

After everyone’s bellies are full, we settle down for the show. The 4^th of July celebration on the farm was started by my Grandpa Art somewhere around 30 years ago (I think). Since then, it has become one of our most important and beloved family traditions. It’s not just eating and fireworks. After ice cream and before fireworks, there is always a speaker or two. In years past, Grandpa Art used to give a speech and then call upon people randomly to give an impromptu speech on what the 4^th of July or the family means to you. We’ve had speeches from nearly every family member, state representatives, members of the military, foreigners who have become US citizens, and the list goes on and on. The point is that we like to recognize what the holiday is, and not just for the fireworks and food. Sometimes we might even sing patriotic songs.

That being said, after all of the speeches and food, come what I must say is a very impressive fireworks display. My Uncle Jim is a wizard with fireworks shows, and I’ll say we probably have one of the most diverse shows around. We have what you might call three different stations. Closer to the crowd we have the fountains and roman candle station as well as a few smaller things. Just behind that, there is a board where we have pinwheel and Saxons. Then in the back, what we call the “pit” we have the bigger guys, the artillery shells and other giant monstrosities. Jim usually needs a crew of at least 3 people to pull off this type of show, and before this year, I’ve worked in the pit for the last 6 or 7 years. We work in perfect harmony with each other, someone always has a firework cued up and ready to go. Since the 90% of the fireworks are provided by the 70+ guests every year, we always let the crowd know who brought what before we light them off, so they can either be praised or chided for their purchases. Right around dusk, we have sparkler time. Everyone, no matter of their age, has to do at least one sparkler. And everyone does, as no one wants to be the one to break the tradition.

And that wraps up one of my favorite days of the year. So you can see why I might be bummed to not be back for it. And like Christmas, this might be the first time I’ve ever missed our family’s Independence Day celebration. And I don’t plan on missing it ever again.

Now back to this year’s celebration. I arrived at Andrea and Alan’s excited with what I saw. Jayme and Adam and their wives joined us, along with a couple of other Americans. We had quite the feast! We had Juicy Lucy’s (which are hamburgers stuffed with cheese and cermelized onions) which were incredible, corn on the cob, 7-Layer dip, Doritos, peanut butter pie, and even a blue cake with red and white frosting. It might be the best meal I’ve had in India. Everyone dressed as festively as they could with what they brought to India, and we had a grand old time.



Enjoying our delicious Indian BBQ!



Patriotism is delicious.



Andrea and Alan’s driver even went out and found some fireworks for us. They weren’t anything big, and weren’t exactly what you would call “safe”, as the fuses would burn for about .2 seconds before igniting the rockets, but they were fireworks, and that’s all that matters. We even had sparklers! I almost felt as though I could be back home in Kansas. We ended the night with a sing-a-long, passing a guitar around the circle. All in all, it was a perfect substitute and more than I could have ever asked for in an Indian Independence Day party.



Some of our fireworks...I didn't know that fireworks could actually be racist. Leave it to India. You can't really tell from this picture, but the one on the left is actually Jennifer Hudson. Do you think she knows an India Fireworks company is using her picture on their box?

Later that week on the actual 4^th of July, I brought Baskin Robbins (not exactly homemade ice cream but tasty nonetheless) to my construction site meeting for everyone, and explained to them the significance of 4^th of July in America. I tried not to rub it in that we gained our independence from the British about 175 years before India did. Later on in the meeting I had to get a little stern with my contractor, and it did feel a little funny to have to set down my spoon of ice cream to do some yelling. Usually I’m happy when I’m eating ice cream. Not this time.

Eventually July 3^rd became July 26^th, and I’m confident enough in that date to have booked my plane ticket.

I’m bummed that I missed my usual celebration, but some good came from it as well. I think almost as much as Thanksgiving,  4^th of July is a holiday to give thanks. I love America. I’m very thankful that I call it home. I’m thankful to our forefathers who fought so hard and sacrificed so much for our independence. I’m thankful to those who are still making sacrifices and serving our country overseas and at home. I’m thankful to have the opportunity to be truly free and everything that comes along with it. I’m thankful for my ancestors who persevered and settled in Kansas and lived a harder life than I’ll ever imagine. I’m thankful, and damn proud, to be an American.

India calls itself the world’s largest democracy. And I guess technically, they are right. Having 1.2 billion people in your country will let you claim a lot of things.  But make no mistake, they have a long way to go. Things I’ve witnessed here have made that very clear. Democracy is a good start, but several hurdles, some of which seem insurmountable, stand in the way of them being a first rate country. Human rights issues, corruption, infrastructure problems, lack of what you and I might refer to as "common sense" and so much more hold them back from being a truly free and truly great nation. I hope they get there someday, I really do. They have come a lot way, but still have twice as far to go.

If nothing else, being here on the 4^th of July really made me reflect on how good I (and we as Americans) have it. There is a big deal between first world problems and third world problems, and I hope that’s one of the things I take away from this experience. While the average American is sitting in their air conditioned houses complaining about gas prices or whatever else, an average Indian is doing whatever they can to scrape together a few rupees to buy enough rice to feed their family.  If nothing else, India has given me the gift of perspective.  On July 4^th 2013, while enjoying my homemade ice cream and fireworks at River View Farm, I hope it’s a gift that I remember.