IF NOT THIS, WHAT IS FESTIVITY ?

 He weather is wonderful, a gentle breeze is blowing, somebody is playing a tune on the Surbahar, (a string instrument, a little bit like Sitar) some more people are accompanying on pakhavaj,  I am in the company of friends whose heads are nodding rhythmically to the tunes, occassionaly they open their eyes and raise their arms in appreciation of the mastery of the musicians. One teenaged girl is arranging some of the 200 odd `diyas ‘ lit in front of the stage . Interspersed with potted plants, the diya’s are kept on a `jaali’ made with red bricks.  A hundred flames flicker with the breeze and create a delight for photographers. The atmosphere is beautiful, even idyllic.  The setting is `other worldly’. 

I am not dreaming, All this is not happening on a posh house boat in the backwaters of Munnar and I haven’t paid a fortune to be here. In fact I have paid nothing, zero rupees and zero paisas to partake these pleasures.

I am in Viraasat, the 15 day annual cultural bonanza in Dehradun and have been lucky to get a seat in the third row from the stage. The performing group is Sh. Gundecha, the leading pakhawaj player of India.  The girl who is arranging the Diyas is a volunteer like dozens of others who are helping to organize this Jamboree of an event. It brings together Painters, singers, musicians, dancers, craftsmen, poets and many other performers of different hues and nationalities. No wonder the venue is bursting at the seams. It has become an annual habit for the ordinary citizens of Dehradun and a complete addiction for the `Culture Vultures’ of Dehradun. It is no surprise that performer after performer congratulates the people for being Quiet and patient.  Congratulations Dehradun, you have won a place in the hearts of performers who really appreciate an appreciative audience.

I have often written that cities have a character much like people. This annual event makes Dehradun  a much culturally aware  and learned city.  It graduates to be counted in the list of  capital cities  as it grows taller every year with the completion of the event.  It has given us all  a chance to listen to a Galaxy of Performers at Virasat including many Padma honour holders and also Bharat Ratna’s.

Viraasat is organized by some crazy individuals who I am told beg and borrow money to organize this festival, they then beg the artists to perform here at reasonable prices. Then they beg the thousands of people who come to listen to the top performers of the country (and from abroad). They beg the people to not litter the venue, keep their mobile phones switched off and to remain seated during performances. (Lately they also have to beg some individuals to not disrupt the proceedings who are saying that local artists are not included).

Organizers please continue to be crazy, please continue to beg and borrow, we the audience promise that we shall behave, even pay a small entrance fee,  Sponsors please keep your Purse strings loose for making these events possible. Weather gods , please be kind as you have been this time. Protestors, join the fun and be a part of this movement, or become national level performers to be included. 

The primary purpose for writing this piece is to thank the organizers who no doubt think at some point that organizing Viraasat is a thankless job.  The media has stopped writing about the effort it takes to organize it because its regularity gives the impression that it all happens in `auto’ mode. 

I can speak for myself and maybe for some others too, that year after year, we enjoy the music,  the lights, the candles, the mela (fair) like atmosphere, the food, the handicrafts and the general `everybody wins’ sort of mood. Thank you very much organizers, you just made my year.

This for me is Diwali. If not this, what is festivity?

 

 

Param Jigyasu

published in GP on the 31st oct 2013

 

PLEASE LEAVE MY SUNDAY ALONE

 There seems to be something wrong with us as a society. We are working seven days a week. We will go crazy very soon, we might even get overheated  and explode. As it is we have a six days a week  I fear that  14.28 : 85.72 Ratio of holiday to working days  in a six day week  is much worse than 28.57: 71.43 ratio of a five days a week.  The ratio  is 1:6 compared with  2:5 of a five day a week.

My biggest complaint is against Schools. They have something happening every Sunday. Extra classes, registeration,  sports day practice, marathon race, marching practice, student body meetings, self improvement workshops, play practice  and what have you.

Why ? Is six days not enough, is one extra hour every day not enough. When will the children learn to wash their own sports shoes and help in the house, when will they get an oil massage and when will they learn to bind their own books, paint a fence, mend the bicycle, polish the car,  go for helping out their grandmother, buy vegetables,  when will they go to Church,  Arya Samaj and the Gurudwara who have their programmes on Sundays. Will the children ever be able to do `Kar seva’. Will they be able to do community service ever in their life if they have spent a majority of their Sundays in their formative years doing this that and the rest in Schools.

I have been planning a picnic with  some four families for the last 8 to 10 weeks on a Sunday. Children in these families are of various ages and go to different schools. Its  just not being possible. All the children and their parents have some or the other school duty.

Mothers, specially working mothers have so much work to do on a Sunday, wash some extra clothes, do some essential shopping, call on their own mothers, , get the sofa fabric changed, mend  some clothes, hang a picture, get their hair dyed, get some other stuff done at the parlour, tend to the garden, wash the window panes, make pickle, read a book, some magazines, do some special cooking, rearrange their cupboard, do some winter/summer putting away of clothes.  It is for this reason that mothers hate this business of having to get children ready and drop/pick children from School on a Sunday. Dear School `wallahs', please return my children to me, i have lent them to you for six days.

My second complaint is against people who are friends but who want to sell something to you. Dear friends , please don’t sell anything to me on a Sunday, unless i ask you for it.  

My third complaint and the most serious one is against those people who tend to keep those meetings/ pieces of work for a Sunday which require the maximum amount of uninterrupted time. If such a person is your boss, or a client if you are a working professional, then you are going to hate him with your guts. Dear Boss please  reform, finish your work latest by Saturday evening and leave your subordinates alone who are single and who have wash their clothes and meet their girlfriends,  you also go out  to fly a kite with your children, the fear is they will never learn from anyone other than their father.

There is a fourth group of people who are even more irritating. They ask what you are doing on a Sunday and when you tell them that you are thinking of re-potting some of the rose bushes and redoing the vegetable patch, they think that you are being ridiculous and you would be better off discussing balance sheets which are ` already overdue’.  They will tell you that picnics are for kids and watching movies is for bored housewifes and washing the car is a waste of time and going out cycling is giving too much trouble to your body. A big BOO to this kind.  Discussing and doing leftover work is a better use of time .

I hope the readers will agree that letting your hair down and roaming around the whole day in pyjamas and not doing too much sensible things on a Sunday is equally important.

Why don’t we work properly and really hard in the six available days?. We shall  discuss that another day but for the time being please have some fun on a Sunday and don’t ruin it for someone else too.

 

Param Jigyasu

 

HOW WILL THEY CELEBRATE GANDHI JAYANTI

 I am thinking about our poor local Netas (leaders). They won’t have anything to say in front of Mahatma Gandhi’s  on this 2nd of October after  garlanding his statue.  

 I say this because it is my humble expectation that people  would go to the Samadhi of Bapu, the father of our nation  on that day, put their hand on their heart and say, this is what I have done for the people of this country in the past year, I have served the `Daridranarayan’ in these ways. This is how I have used my position of power to benefit some others who are in need.  I educated some children, pulled so many people out of poverty and so on.

That is not going to happen because our men and women in the government would have  nothing to say. They will spend only two minutes in front of the Samadhi, because the heart to heart chat is going to be of a small duration.

Neta is not going to tell Gandhiji about the shooting incident by one of their own MLA’s  perhaps in a drunken state upon a lot of others , Even the man who has been shot has been made to keep quite. FIR lodged under pressure of the opposition in the assembly. If that man was a thin chap wearing a beard, the security  chaps would have shot him dead  there and then. The Macho man is himself not going to be seen within a mile of the Samadhi.

Netaji is not going to have a confession about dragging his feet in the matter of rescue and rehabilitation of the poor in the hills after the Recent Floods.  Netaji will not speak about the arrogance of his officers in dealing with the problems stated by the ruling partys and the opposition’s MLA’s and the junior officers .

Babu’s  will not tell Gandhiji about the mining where thousands of trucks move with political patronage.  The various ministers will not talk of moneys collected in transfers, promotions and recruitment.  Gandhiji would perhaps not  understand the  need to bribe someone to get a certain ‘plum’ posting because he may not  understand that some postings had more potential of ` upar ki kamai’ than the others. I am sure that our netas will not spend any time explaining this.

The Neta’s will not tell Gandhiji about the cat fight that occurred in Mussoorie on 15th of august about who gets to pull the rope to unfurl the national flag on the city square, no ,no, they would feel so small in talking about this. Its another matter that they may have actually become very small when they did the wonderful arm-wrestling show.

Netas may have some things to tell about the human suffering  in the past three months in the hills, they may tell Gandhiji that petrol now costs Rs 80, the same as onions, the US dollar which used to cost Rs 1 in his time costs Rs 65 and the British pound is Rs 100. If a Britisher could buy one metre of  cloth then , with the same money he can buy 100 metres. Gandhiji is going to be very sad to hear all this. The Neta actually will not waste time in telling all this. The neta will probably just keep quiet.

I suspect that  netas will wear their imported watches, their terry-cot  Safari Suits, take a seat in a convoy of cars to reach home, have  a drink of scotch whiskey  and go to bed.

 

Param Jigyasu