"India is the land of festivals, write an essay on this topic”, Ah, what are you thinking, this was my class six holidays homework! ye hi na? Yes it was. And what did you do then to finish it off? Copied it, pasted it, got it dictated, tried writing it….just finished it off. Right?
Today we are not given any such topics to write essays on but life has taught us that Indian festivals are much more than pieces of literary composition or red marks on the calendar. They are the method of telling us that life is way above the toiling activity that we have made it to be. These are diversions from the mundane daily chores that we assume is life. They give us an opportunity to live than to exist. Rushing to work early in the morning we just manage to smile at the neighbourhood aunt or wave at the friend next door. We go to corporate dinners but are too buys to invite friends over for a tete a tete. Day after day passes and converts to months, years and decades. A gray hair or a new developed wrinkle makes us realize how time has flown and how much we have missed. One fine day we grow old, retire and realize: Shit, I did not relish what was to be enjoyed, I did not get naughty or childlike when it was time to be just myself! Is it? Do our lives actually get so prosaic? Hey, come on …of course they don’t!
Thanks to the festivals that give us a chance to do bizarre things like splash colour on one another and get weird under the effect of Bhaang. Some of them give us an opportunity to meet one and all on the pretext of sharing sweets or distributing savaiyaan, others let us dance to the beats of a dhol around the fire. We get an excuse to pamper ourselves by buying cosmetics and bangles for a festival and an occasion to squeeze our inner selves and do some daan on a particular date. The sun or the moon is worshipped and even the children and the husband made to feel special, the holy snan is valued and even the earthen lamps remembered after ages, we are fortunate to dance crazily with Daandiaas in hand and shout Ganpatti Morya loudest in a big mob. So much and much more.
The celebrations tell us that life is good, gala and worth the merrymaking. The jubilant atmosphere makes us realize that those around us, those who form our world share our joys. It tells us that it is wonderful and more beautiful when we all smile together, laugh in a group and act mad collectively. The carnival of cooperation is the feather in the cap of the tyohaars.
Well well, but all is not all that well with the recent trend of celebrations. The whole family gathers in front of the idiot box to witness the Star Plus Holi celebrations, to see what Kumkum is wearing to the Diwali party, to judge which couple featured best in the Karvachauth Antakshri. Is this why we have an off on these days? The Gujiya exchange has shrunk to sms forwarding. The new age woes of the fiesta days are many, but with Holi here, the mood is too jolly to dwell upon these dark sides. Let’s leave the sad part of the discussion for some other day, when there are no gala festivities round the corner. Hey but wait, in India, such a day would be tough, rather impossible to get. So, what is the worry! Let us get into the best of our dresses and pick our Pichkaris…only Gulal, did you say? Well well, as I already told you, these occasions bring out the mischievous kid in us…so be prepared for bhallas of bhaang and balloons flying down terraces…. Happy Holi. . . . . . . . . .
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