Small acts of everyday freedom go a long way in establishing who we are as a people, and who we may want to become as a society and a nation. From a vegetable vendor who built her life up from scratch to a Commonwealth Games silver medallist who gave up higher education for long jump, from a small-town girl finding her feet in a big metropolis to an actor who holds on to his privacy by keeping away the smartphone, ahead of Independence Day, we bring you stories of little acts of defiance, endless notes of possibilities