Many years ago, when I landed at Glasgow airport,
it happened to be Birthday of British (Scottish) poet
Robert Burns. As I was alighting from flight, every passenger was greeted by a
pleasant official of a private airline on the tarmac. He presented every
passenger with hallmark Scottish pride gifts, 1- A well bound book containing
collection of poems by Robert Burns and 2- A small bottle of scotch. Along with
these gifts, he also passed on pamphlets that provided celebratory program
schedules at various locations in city and a list of addresses of restaurants
that offered celebratory dinner with poet’s favorite dish, “haggis”.
Scotland is proud of her son, Robert Burns, who had died
nearly 250 years ago. His poems evoke Scottish nationalism. Certainly worthy of
emulating similar practice in our country with our heroes. My friends in
Scotland assured me that haggis is not really a tasteful dish that they can enjoy
and yet they never skip eating it on Burns’ birthday. Not only is it tradition,
eating it evokes pride and nationalism, much the same way national flag or
national anthem does.
May be some corporate houses can go out of their beaten path
and think of honoring their towns, traditions, literature, sanskriti etc. using
appropriate gifts on appropriate occasions. A well-made miniature Taj Mahal, a metallic
Shivaji, miniature Bridge of Hawrah, Mumbai Halawa, Puran Poli, Tulasi Ramayan.
The list can be endless. Every town and city has something to offer from its
history and tradition. Ministry of culture and tourism can enable this scheme.
