Banishing the Union Jack
Mrs. Kanakavalli K. Iyengar is a retired lawyer who lives in Chennai. Wife of ICS officer (Late) K K Iyengar, she lived in Calcutta and Delhi just before India won independence. She has since lived in Meerut, Shimla and most parts of the North East, before settling down in Madras in 1960, where she worked in the Madras High Court. Here are her memories of the flag-hoisting ceremony and what followed.
Independence Day. Oh, what a joy it was for me, so young and yet so privileged! I was the seventeen-year-old wife of an Accountant General in the Central Revenues Department.
Words cannot describe how thrilled I was when we were invited to the flag-hoisting ceremony to be held in the evening of 15 August 1947. I would be in a select audience that would see our own flag going up for the first time, forever to banish the Union Jack.
We had been invited to the President's party in the beautiful Rose Garden too.
Image: Mr. and Mrs. K. K. Iyengar stand outside their official home in Meerut. Photo Courtesy: Mrs. K. K. Iyengar (Unauthorised reproduction is prohibited.)
