"Are you going to join the Army?"

It's India's Republic Day today - celebrating the day the constitution came into effect in 1950 and India became a sovereign nation. It's marked with a huge parade in Delhi involving the cream of the armed forces and then various cultural displays from each state.

Been watching it on TV this morning on CNN-IBN and very quickly got irritated as hell with the coverage.

ANCHOR: Let's go now to Anjali in Nashik. Anjali, what's the importance of Republic Day to the schoolchildren you're indoctrinating - er, interviewing?

ANJALI: Let's ask them. (To schoolboy) Are you going to join the Army?

SCHOOLBOY: No, I think I'd like to join the Air Force.

ANJALI: Why?

SCHOOLBOY: Er... so I can fly in the sky.

ANJALI: (impatiently) And to serve your country?

SCHOOLBOY: Oh, yes. To serve the country too.

You get the general idea. And I don't mean to rain on the parade, but I can't help thinking there's something really tacky about showing off all those missiles and tanks. It's embarrassing. It feels like a big, national display of insecurity. I mean, look at the size of those missiles. Really.


As Freud might have said: "Sometimes an Agni intermediate-range ballistic missile is just an Agni intermediate-range ballistic missile. But mostly it's a big, fat phallic symbol."