What is a festival? A celebration of what? Of what has happened in the past, for the reasons that our ancestors established rituals, and followed traditions...
Lokmanya Tilak started the Sarvajanik Mandals for Ganesh Utsav with a primary motto for bringing people together as a community to celebrate a festival and to be able to spread the message to a wider base at a particular time. Is that relevant today? What has Ganesh Utsav turned into now? More and more humungous sized idols, more chemicals, huge crowds, political powerplays, and huge environmental hazards! Take another example of Durga Puja, a primarily Bengali Festival which celebrates Maa Durga and her avataars, normally we'd expect it to be hugely popular in Bengal, accepted that Bombay is very secular and so on, but surprise suprise, the political parties in Bombay decide to give this festival a huge boost and we see Durga Pandals all across the city! I for one, spotted not less than 30 processions (for immersions) near Vasai in a span of 2 hours, 30! and out of all of them, only 1 was that of a Bengali Association, around 80% of them were supported by the Shiv Sena.
After all the immersions, what do we find? There was an email circulated around, which depicted the plight of all the idols that were washed on the shore, these remnants of "gods" were then mercilessly carried in trucks and dumped in grounds! Doesn't that shake people's sentiments? Is the fervor, the passion, the emotion only until you bid the idol into the waters? Doesn't it matter what happens to it afterwards? Probably not, because there are no voices that call for attention to the post-immersion scenario. The waters of our sea are polluted beyond belief. Just recently there was an article in the paper about the dead fish that were floating on the surface at Band Ganga. Dead fish, numbers in thousands... There is no other creature in this world who is so insensitive to others as man is, to mankind and to the environment. All this inspite of knowing what's right.
Now we come to the festival of Diwali! The festival of lights! Maybe we should call it, The Festival of Fake Lights and Loud Noise! There's a supposed 10 pm deadline, and it's 11 30 in the night while i'm typing this and the bombs are still bursting! Last night they went on till 2 am! Blatant disregard for peace and serenity. 90% of the people don't know why they're doing it, they don't know the relevance of the festival, they know feel any joy in it. It's become a marketing gimmick! Our disposable income is increasing, and there are always ways for us to dispense this money, one sparkler (the one that bursts into the air in many colours and so on) costs nothing less than 3,000/- Imagine that!
Sitting and staring out of my window, I notice that every 2 mins there's a huge bomb that bursts (the light and sound of which spreads in a spectrum) and there's a sparkler in the sky! It's a momentary fake light, and it's a loud unpleasant bomb! Why would any sane person wish to celebrate like this. And what are they celebrating? It's not like they don't have money throughout the year, they're shopping throughout, they've got lights throughout, it's just very fake.
I look at my maid, she's bought a fridge and a gas stove recently, and she's ever so happy! She's brought joy to her family through the fact that she's now able to upgrade her lifestyle. That's happiness, moving forward, growing...
The simple things and pleasures in life are the ones that people tend to disregard. It's so obvious now. People prefer to literally blow up their money, because there's no value for it anymore, easy come and easy go. It's much worse for those for whom it comes the hard way, why would they choose to let it flow so easily I don't understand!
I stopped bursting crackers (I always only had a fuljari, anar and a chakri, the small tiny gun was almost never used) when I was in the 5th std. My school used to collect money from all students which they'd normally spend on crackers, and would buy books, clothes and utensils for the orphanages around the city. I personally had visited two of them with my teachers when I was in the 7th.
The nature and environment is ours to conserve and ours to live in. The effects of these senseless activities are being borne by us. Increase in asthma cases, polluted lungs, polluted waters, rising Malaria, Dengue and Viral Fever cases, all these are just minor effects of the manifestations of the public. And one day it's all going to blow up in our faces, that day is going to come very soon.
Spread the word around. Stop bursting crackers, Stop supporting those politicians who want nothing more than that impression of yours to stamp their villainous acts. It's high time now.
Lokmanya Tilak started the Sarvajanik Mandals for Ganesh Utsav with a primary motto for bringing people together as a community to celebrate a festival and to be able to spread the message to a wider base at a particular time. Is that relevant today? What has Ganesh Utsav turned into now? More and more humungous sized idols, more chemicals, huge crowds, political powerplays, and huge environmental hazards! Take another example of Durga Puja, a primarily Bengali Festival which celebrates Maa Durga and her avataars, normally we'd expect it to be hugely popular in Bengal, accepted that Bombay is very secular and so on, but surprise suprise, the political parties in Bombay decide to give this festival a huge boost and we see Durga Pandals all across the city! I for one, spotted not less than 30 processions (for immersions) near Vasai in a span of 2 hours, 30! and out of all of them, only 1 was that of a Bengali Association, around 80% of them were supported by the Shiv Sena.
After all the immersions, what do we find? There was an email circulated around, which depicted the plight of all the idols that were washed on the shore, these remnants of "gods" were then mercilessly carried in trucks and dumped in grounds! Doesn't that shake people's sentiments? Is the fervor, the passion, the emotion only until you bid the idol into the waters? Doesn't it matter what happens to it afterwards? Probably not, because there are no voices that call for attention to the post-immersion scenario. The waters of our sea are polluted beyond belief. Just recently there was an article in the paper about the dead fish that were floating on the surface at Band Ganga. Dead fish, numbers in thousands... There is no other creature in this world who is so insensitive to others as man is, to mankind and to the environment. All this inspite of knowing what's right.
Now we come to the festival of Diwali! The festival of lights! Maybe we should call it, The Festival of Fake Lights and Loud Noise! There's a supposed 10 pm deadline, and it's 11 30 in the night while i'm typing this and the bombs are still bursting! Last night they went on till 2 am! Blatant disregard for peace and serenity. 90% of the people don't know why they're doing it, they don't know the relevance of the festival, they know feel any joy in it. It's become a marketing gimmick! Our disposable income is increasing, and there are always ways for us to dispense this money, one sparkler (the one that bursts into the air in many colours and so on) costs nothing less than 3,000/- Imagine that!
Sitting and staring out of my window, I notice that every 2 mins there's a huge bomb that bursts (the light and sound of which spreads in a spectrum) and there's a sparkler in the sky! It's a momentary fake light, and it's a loud unpleasant bomb! Why would any sane person wish to celebrate like this. And what are they celebrating? It's not like they don't have money throughout the year, they're shopping throughout, they've got lights throughout, it's just very fake.
I look at my maid, she's bought a fridge and a gas stove recently, and she's ever so happy! She's brought joy to her family through the fact that she's now able to upgrade her lifestyle. That's happiness, moving forward, growing...
The simple things and pleasures in life are the ones that people tend to disregard. It's so obvious now. People prefer to literally blow up their money, because there's no value for it anymore, easy come and easy go. It's much worse for those for whom it comes the hard way, why would they choose to let it flow so easily I don't understand!
I stopped bursting crackers (I always only had a fuljari, anar and a chakri, the small tiny gun was almost never used) when I was in the 5th std. My school used to collect money from all students which they'd normally spend on crackers, and would buy books, clothes and utensils for the orphanages around the city. I personally had visited two of them with my teachers when I was in the 7th.
The nature and environment is ours to conserve and ours to live in. The effects of these senseless activities are being borne by us. Increase in asthma cases, polluted lungs, polluted waters, rising Malaria, Dengue and Viral Fever cases, all these are just minor effects of the manifestations of the public. And one day it's all going to blow up in our faces, that day is going to come very soon.
Spread the word around. Stop bursting crackers, Stop supporting those politicians who want nothing more than that impression of yours to stamp their villainous acts. It's high time now.
Comments
And you're right...i hate to think of what happens to the seat water after all those idols & their painted bodies are immersed in the sea!
As such they are not a bad thing. The way it is currently being used by political goons to create disharmony and divisions is the real problem.