India: Kanpur still carries traditional flag hoisting of Meston Road

Kanpur: We are celebrating the 75th anniversary of our freedom here today. The locals cannot forget the two locations in the city where freedom fighters' memories still reverberate in the atmospheric air.

One is Meston Road which is a bustling market today. But the residents of the locality have not forgotten the tradition of hoisting the national flag at midnight as had been started by the Congressmen and others on the intervening time of August 14 and 15 in the year 1947.

Following that tradition, there was celebrated the I-day with the bursting of fireworks. People of the area participated in large numbers.

While at the Nana Rao Park the occasion was also celebrated. A Boodha Bargad tree reminds of those 144 freedom fighters who were hanged there 75 years ago. The sprawling banyan tree no longer stands at the park area but a little stump keeps the past memory alive.