Hello readers. Well, since I started writing against the double-edged society in our country, people have been slashing out at me for being unfriendly and harsh. News for them is, here's some more.
But first, my dear readers, I humbly ask of you to rewind a few years more than a decade and think- what did we do during holidays or festivals? Bought balloons, toys, lots of melody chocolates, spent quality time with our families and of course stood for at least ten minutes or more in front of the idols or the ceremonies. We walked with sandals, sometimes barefoot too, and friendships, family-bonding, all had their healthy share of time.
Okay. End of dream. What do we do now? Oh, I forgot, in the mean time, we have grown up. I am going to give you a picture of a typical present-day festival in my state.
It was Puja season and probably all of East India has holidays in this season. So here was I, tired of racing for nothing with this world, wasting off my holidays also. I thought to visit the nearby celebrations, for a change. There has been enigmatic rise in population, one could see from the roaring crowd. I walked towards the raised dais slowly where the idol of Goddess Laxmi, adorned with colorful saree and flowers and jewels.The aarti ceremony that took place was grand where the praises of the goddess were sung describing her gumption and valor. The sweet fragrance of incense added to the charm. Oh! How beautiful! I sighed in satisfaction. And then the moment of realization struck. Where were all the people, I wondered!
Just as I got out of the pandal, I saw them- all cluttered around in small eateries and bargain shops and a variety of other stalls in the pallishree mela that was held this time during the puja. So that's why they come to a puja nowadays, I thought. One fine gentleman bargained a Rs 750 item all the way down to Rs 250, and then decided against buying it! All the hard work of 20 minutes and the shopkeeper didn't even get a penny! No doubt why those shopkeepers behave rudely with the customers now-a-days! Half of the grown-ups were talking with their friends in their hi-tech phones while the odd grandma attended the aarti ceremony with the maid of the house. The children, also grown-ups, seemed to be clinging on to the moment for tradition's sake. Poor goddess!! I say this not because am an atheist… I do believe in the grace and divinity of the Gods…. But because I saw people were eager to finish off the proceedings during the puja ASAP and get back to the other attractions during the Puja(Read on and find out for yourself)
The ladies at the Pallishree Mela were busy in doing two things- gossip.. and shopping.I couldn’t figure out which one out of the two things they were doing more!! (Some of them seemed keen on shoplifting too!) I would rather shoot myself in the foot than endure the torture of shopping with ladies during a festival.. I sighed!! No matter what store they went to.. "I don't like this", "this is too itchy", "this is too big", "I'm hungry", "Do you have this item or that or that or that.."(which they aren't selling and she knows fully well but can't accept that), "this isn't the right color".. etc. Even the eatery stalls weren’t being spared.. a few seemingly well mannered ladies(well mannered I say coz they were sweet talking.. the epitome of politeness and humility ha!!) for the sake of taste were tasting one by one each of the available item in the shops.. their most commonly used phrases… bhaiya can I taste some of these? How does that thing taste!! Is that thing there mitha or teekha.. Na this doesn’t taste that good what else do you have??Observing these peculiarly strange behaviour.. I remembered a quote I had read somewhere.. It goes like this:”Where women are concerned.. The unexpected always happens…” I mean why aren't they a little less complex? But, after all, ladies are ladies,and that is the beauty of it… I guessed, and moved on to the cultural acts.
The cultural acts were amazing with the paika dance form which attracted me the most. It's a form of battle dance. They danced a fiery battle dance while drums played on. It was more like a clarion call urging the dancers to get ready for a fiery battle ahead. The vigor and physical excitement of the dancers was worthy of notice. I enjoyed the most there. But what shot my resentment to top-notch was that this was being witnessed by a handful of individuals. I asked to one of the performers, "Don't you feel disheartened with this low turnout?" Said he, "What to do! Our work is to try and revive these cultures and we would continue doing that. People say they follow western culture now. They don't know how famous is our dances in the west. Idiots have learned to wear sunglasses and tiny dresses only." I could not agree more. There was time for gossip and dirty politics but no time for appreciation of art of top level.
Speaking of dance and time for appreciation brings into my mind another sight worth mentioning which I observed on my way back to home from the mela.… Right across the place where pallishree mela was being held some 500 mts apart there was an orchestra band with juvenile dance girls for crowd entertainment….. well such an enormous crowd was being entertained that day that it virtually brought all the traffic into a standstill… as for the dancing girls and their costumes as well as the dual meaning songs and tunes they were dancing to…I better leave that to your imagination!!! No wonder why such a crowd had gathered for “ENTERTAINMENT”
Well, there was some more time, but all these things had already flared up my rage against the dual views of today's society again. Lest I vent out all my frustration on someone, I quickly returned home and started writing!! The question I asked myself is we call ourselves culturally civilized race of the 21st century… Are we really??? Well the happenings around us don’t quite prove our claim to be correct… In fact the facts and statistics (of crime rate, oppression, atrocities against women and a hell lot of other such issues) speak otherwise!!
