A relative of mine, anxious to join his family before Holi, informed me that all Bihar and Jharkhand-bound trains were full and that he was unable to get even a wait-listed ticket in the run up to the popular festival. He urged me to arrange a ticket for him from New Delhi to Dhanbad. I instantly sensed how hard it must be to get tickets on the eves of Holi, Diwali and other such festivals. Despite the hardships, these festivals bring joy and celebration in our lives.
India is a land of festivals. Some festivals are region-specific, like Bihu of Assam. We also have festivals, which have their origins in the beginning of harvest - like Onam, Pongal and Baisakhi. Others are religion-specific, like Holi, Diwali, and Durga Puja among the Hindus, Id-Ul-Fitr among Muslims and Christmas among Christians.
These occasions, however, are social in nature and have people across religions celebrating them. For instance the New Year. It may be a Georgian New Year’s Day, but we follow the Georgian Calendar and do celebrate it in India. Christmas, too, has a fan following and has become a social festival, with non-Christians, too, using the occasion to make merry.
The youngsters don’t even wait for the actual day in some the festivals concerned and begin celebrating days in advance. One can find the boys and girls with their gulal-smeared cheeks on the city streets a week ahead of Holi. Similarly, they begin bursting fire-crackers much before the arrival of Diwali. One does not have to be from Bengal or from Ranchi to exchange gifts of clothes and sweets with their relatives during Durga Puja, or walk the streets full of pandals and share the joy- de-vivre during puja. In fact, the popular festivals like Diwali, Holi, Durga Puja, Id-ul-Fitr, Christmas spill onto the streets. These festivals are a source of pleasure for communities.
There is now an effort to foist on us a new festival known as Valentine’s Day. It is described as the festival of love. I personally noticed that few celebrated Valentine’s Day on Ranchi streets on February 14.
In Durga puja people put up pandals, attend “aartis”, exchange gifts, and wear new clothes. They sing Holi songs on Holi, spray colour and gulal on one another and eat special food. What do they do on Valentine’s Day? Are communities or the masses involved in it?
Replying to these questions my colleagues and friends informed me that couples, in love, spend private moments holding hands in Sidhu Kanho Park, Tagore Hill or elsewhere which offers a shelter from bad weather and prying eyes. But, I find that lovers do so every day - or whenever they have a chance - at these parks and it’s not that they wait for Valentine’s Day to spend the moment of privacy.
Then I saw TV channels spending hours on programmes on Valentine’s Day and some newspapers’ thriving on lifestyle and leisure columns full of titillating pictures and stories about the “celebration”, which I did not even notice on the streets .
I can now bluntly say that the electronics and print media simply over react on Valentine’s Day, which is hardly celebrated. The mobile phone companies have a business interest in keeping this festival alive for it generates extra SMSes and calls.
And the over-zealous Bajrang Dal and VHP outfits go out with trishuls and batons to hunt for couples more for publicity than concern to check “western influence”. These outfits, too, have a vested interest in keeping this festival alive, which does not exist for vast majority of people across India. Contrary to it, Holi, or any other Indian festival, are mass festivals of love and sharing that has offered joy to many since time immemorial.
Celebrate those in style. Wishing you a happy and colourful Holi.
