(Illustration: Suvajit Dey)In a small village in West Bengal, every year on 26th January, a young schoolteacher called Akhtar organised a picnic for the children of the village. On India’s Republic Day, with schools closed and no family-oriented activities, as there are on religious festivals, the children missed nothing by being away from the village. Akhtar knew most of the children personally, either as students at his school or as their private tutor. Then he took the children for a picnic, which they called a ‘feastie’, to a little copse about a couple of miles away, not far from the edge of the highway. On this Republic Day, I hope that Akhtar is holding his feastie as usual, and I expect there will be a few extra goodies for the children on this special 70th anniversary.

Source: Indian Express January 25, 2020 19:48 UTC