Our National-Flag is a reminder for all of us that success attends only those who persevere, who see the goals steadily and aim for it unswervingly, who persevere with dedication and faith in the cause they are fighting for. Our National-Flag reminds us about the faith of controlling our own destiny by ourselves. True, you can do very little with faith alone, but you can do nothing without it.

For me patriotism means to live and let live. Farmers in the rural area believe in this principle. They live close to nature, till our lands, work in our fields to produce the food and fiber we need. Unfortunately, elites in our country do not involve these good people in the process of development and snatch away instruments of development from their hands. Rural people do not require preaching for tolerance, patriotism, communal harmony and sustainable development. They no longer trust or respect the elites, who spout the facile rhetoric of rural development or poverty alleviation in order to maintain their power and affluence.

It was just at the dawn of our independence that I was posted as a research scientist at the government dairy research institute in Anand, Gujarat. It was in finding ways to use the time that I came into contact with some rather remarkable people who were grappling with the problem of exploitation by middleman in the dairy sector. The belief that through cooperation of milk producers an alternate institution can be created for strengthening their position. This pushed us to a path of long struggle to ensure India's number one position in milk production in the world. We used cooperation not just as an ideology, but as a logical necessity to grapple with the problems rural producers were facing. It matches with the spirit of freedom struggle, "to swim and sink together in a common Indian nationality", that the National-Flag symbolizes.

The man who leads the move to line his village street gutters and the woman who leads the movement to cooperatise the village's milk business are the patriots. They do not wait for the immediate opportunity to fly away to a greener pasture. Unlike many of our elites, who are ready to sell our country for their own advantage, the rural folk silently work to preserve and strengthen the spirit of India, live and let live. They are the true patriots.

In chess, as a tradition the flag is always displayed alongside the player. Since chess is widely a Russian dominated sport, when the Indian flag is unfurled, it gives me a sense of pride and responsibility towards my nation. Many people tend to confuse the Hungarian and Italian flag with ours because of the similarity of colors. Since we have a defining symbol in the Asoka Chakra, the Indian flag looks unique.