Standing still

April 29th is Israel's Independence day and today the day before is the Memorial day in remembrance of the soldiers. Actually the whole one week starting from April 21 to tomorrow is a memorial week. Last week was Memorial day for the Holocaust (remember Hitler, WW II ?) victims. On the eve of the memorial days, entertainment is blocked, only slow and sad melodies are played on TV and radio. On the holocaust memorial day and on the eve of the memorial day yesterday, a siren, just like the war siren goes through out the country and the whole country comes to a stand still for 2 minutes. Every x,y,z stands up and observes a 2 minute silence - even the cars on the road and this is what i caught last night when the siren was on. This is just amazing, i mean, bang on the middle of the road, just not stopping their cars, but they get off their cars and stand in attention for 2 minutes. Their patriotism and love for the country keeps them so united! I dont think they will ever stop surprising me - be it eating only those crackers during the 'no bread' Pesach week, average of 4 children per family, every teenager serving the country's defence forces, gun men casually walking amongst us... the list is endless.

Definitely not a thing i have witnessed in my own country. Patriotism, blah, it only appears on Mandira Bedi's saree or when Sachin cuts the Indian flag cake, Sania Mirza's disrespect.. all of the controversies.