Many countries lined up to greet the young seventy-seven-year-old on Independence Day a few days ago. "Happy Birthday, India!" said China. May you become as great a superpower as I am!"

"I already am," smiled India, "with a billion and quarter people who can think what they want, say what they'd like to and not get butchered in Tiananmen Square when trying to express themselves! I am a super power!"

"May your rulers rule long!" sniggered Bangladesh.

"Ah," smiled India indulgently, "they rule as long as my people wish them too, not like yours, overthrown by a treacherous army and college students."

Tibet, who had been standing behind, went up to India, "I wish you peace, my friend!"

"Thank you," said India, hugging the bleeding country, "I wish you the same; that you be allowed to get back the freedom you deserve, that the great dragon bully who crushes your people will be thrown out and your Dalai Lama may return."

"But there is bloodshed in your country!" cried Burma, "People are lynched and raped!"

"But," whispered the young seventy-seven-year-old, "I have courts not guns. A constitution, not military law, and even if these courts take time, they bring justice to all!"

"Happy Birthday, India!" shouted the confident voice of the USA. "I didn't see any gold medals won at the Olympics, though!"

"Ah no Mr America, we're too busy winning with IT and software and gearing up to beat your economy in a decade or two!"

"You have a million soldiers," said Russia after greeting India, "Send some over, we'll pay you good money."

"Ah no, bringing down legitimate governments is not our cup of tea Putin, even if you gift us an aircraft carrier free!"

And then, close to the birthday party, two men, long dead, walked together. One with a cigar stuck in an arrogant, determined bulldog face, the other, bespectacled, with only a loin cloth and walking stick, kept abreast.

"Look at the countries around," said Churchill with a smirk, "at China, Korea, Malaysia, they have progressed far more than your people have."

Gandhiji smiled, "My people are free, their minds unshackled!"

"And that?" asked Churchill, pointing down, "Lynching and love jihad gangs?"

A tear rolled down the eye of the Father of The Nation. "As much as freedom moulds heroes, so also does it breed bullies," he said slowly, "but the heroes we have are men of valour who when they take on the bullies will finally win like I did for the country. Men of courage are slowly being fashioned and they are slowly being heard. The freedom I won for them gives them courage to speak."

The national anthem was played. The Mahatma shouted "Jai Hind," as he clearly heard the Englishman next to him doing the same, and he smiled for a country he loved!