India, Jan. 26 -- By Suvir Saran

New Delhi [India], January 26 (ANI): Republic Day never arrives loudly for me. It comes the way memory does--softly, unexpectedly, carrying with it the smell of winter mornings and the echo of a song I learned before I knew what a constitution was.

There is a particular stillness to January in India. A pale sun hanging low, as if reluctant to interrupt the quiet. The air feels scrubbed clean. Flags flutter without frenzy. And somewhere in that hush, I always hear her voice again.

Mrs. Nalini Kumaran.

She was our music teacher. Gentle, precise, endlessly patient. The kind who believed that melody was a form of moral education. It was she who first taught us the National Cadet Corps anthem. We stood in r...