no shades of grey

I am a proud Indian…I love the tradition, the culture, the festivities and the general bonhomie that surrounds it…what I dislike is the cacophony that accompanies it…no major Indian festival (apart from Eid and Christmas) is celebrated quietly…they are almost always loud and noisy…deafening to say the least…

Which reminds me that the Maharashtra government had in the past enforced a 10pm deadline on playing music in open air as it very rightly causes disturbance to those who reach home after a dogged day at work and have to go through the grind the next thereby trying to snatch a few hours of sleep…I remember a furore that took place over the Dandiya celebrations since people wanted it extended beyond 10pm…so why is it that Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Dahi Handi are allowed to go way past the deadline…

During Diwali, crackers are burst from the wee hours of morning till past midnight…and it has a pattern (at least from what I have observed since my childhood)…all the less noisy firecrackers like sparklers, chakris, paoos, colourful rockets etc. are burnt in the evenings…but once you decide to hit the sack there come the biggies…sutlis, tajmahal, laxmi, and the most irritating of them all lavangi…all these are called ‘bombs’…and they go on throughout the night…one after the other…the lavangi especially is the one I detest the most…goes of in short spans and at quick intervals…you can’t enjoy watching the television, listening to some music or speaking on the phone in peace…all this in the name of enjoyment and tradition….

During Ganpati and Dahi Handi, you have loudspeakers blaring filmy music till late night…and the creative music companies come up with devotional lyrics set to the tunes of bollywood songs…so you have Ganesh aartis on the tunes of “beedi jalaile”, “kajra re” or “babuji zara dheere chalo”…try singing these lines to the tune of Kajra Re: “deva re deva re tu bhaktancha bappa re” or ” sukhakarta tu vighnaharta…dustancha kari nash re nash re” to the tunes of “beedi jalaile” or “kanhaiya kahe pakde kalai…ja jake tod de yeh haandi…oh tooti tooti tooti tooti haandi tooti” to the tunes of “babuji zara dheere chalo”…totally uncalled for…and not at all devotional…

At the risk of sounding like a spoilsport, I would like to remind these people that while its all right to bring your enthusiasm in the open, it is also important to preserve the thought behind the festival. After all Lokmanya Tilak started the sarvajanik ganesh utsav with a very noble thought…however I increasingly find that the thought notwithstanding, these revelries have now taken on a hooliganistic attitude. During Holi you can barely travel safely without a stray water baloon or handful of colour making you its target…ditto with other festivals where you find the organisers merrily drunk near the religious pandals at the end of the day…I have personally witnessed a squabble between some drunk members of a sarvajanik mitra mandal over discrepancy in the collection box…imagine all this before the visarjan and under Lord’s eys…

And not to forget the vargani or chanda or donation one is supposed to dole out…during festivals you tend to lose track of how many neighbourhood mandals come for donation and nothing less than Rs. 101/-. And after all this, if you can’t enjoy a few hours of much needed sleep without your ears listening to dhinchik dhinchik and dhadam dhoodoom…then please forgive me, I don’t look forward to these festivals. We shouldn’t forget that while its fun for some its agony for others. Spare a thought for the sick and /or old, babies, pregnant mothers, school going children and others…I know what’s posion to some is nectar for others…but we can celebrate festivals with gusto and in the right spirit…only if we try…

yawn…time to hit the bed…i hope the dandiya dhols don’t begin…till such time can we have some silence please…

A cigarette can best be described as “a stick with fire on one end and a fool on the other”…a common joke…also a barbed wire thrown at us by non-smoking (or forced to be passive smoking) friends…well guys for all your efforts and good faith, the Indian Health Minister has decided to ban smoking from Oct 2, 08…

A very good initiative and having been a fool, I completely laud this move. We all know the ill-effects of smoking but somehow it doesn’t seem easy to kick the butt…at least i found it difficult coz earlier it was very easy to just step outside office and have a smoke…when people asked me why I smoked or what did I derive from it, I had no answer…coz honestly I didn’t know why I smoked or how it helped me…it was just that I was used to it (not addicted thankfully)…I felt it helped me clear my mind so I could think rationally…helped me deal with emotions…with negativity…with politics…. sometimes it helped lift my mood or just another way of sharing a good day…sometimes it helped me bond with peers, friends, bosses…sometimes it also helped me enjoy my drink….sometimes it helped me blend in with a ‘cool’ n ‘happening’ crowd…

But I gave it up…regular smoking that is…i still reach out for it ocassionally but I am trying to (rather determined to give it up)…and if I am still unable to, then am sure this new law will definitely leave me with no choice…but I am still glad for this law…it should have been implemented long time back…

However it brings me to a question that if smoking was bad, why then were cigarette companies allowed to function in the first place…why is that our governments have for so long enjoyed on the tax money generated by these tobacco companies? why is it that smoking is banned and not the manufacturing of cigarattes or beedis? shouldn’t the root cause be killed rather than the problem? and homo sapiens being the intelligent creatures they are, will surely find ways to beat this law…like cybercrime or any other kind of illegal and unlawful acts…

Hmmm…probably Mr. Anbumani Ramadoss has thought through this…so we won’t be having any more songs like “beedi jalaile”, “main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya…har fikr ko dhue mein udaata chala gaya”,  but as of now I remember a song that was my boss’ favourite “doston mein baitha main sutta pee raha…BC sutta…sutta na mila”…maybe this is the right time to re-release the John Abraham movie ‘No Smoking’…

Well…its been over a year since i started blogging…and I have never looked back since that fateful day. I have only my friends Tilak and Sherwin to thank for getting me hooked on to this…more importantly for giving me a way where I could be myself…talk the way I want…write the way I want…without having to fear prejudices, without having to edit…nothing…as free as a bird…and a huge thanks to all my friends who have read my articles and given me their bouquets and brickbats…each one counts…

As much as I would like to, I don’t get that time to regularly write a new post…ideally I would like to write one post everyday…there’s so much happening around me…that stirs me, angers me, infuriates me…saddens me…pleases me…so much to write and so little time…but I am glad I made a start…its made me less venomous…but not less aggressive…I would like for my blogging to make me less aggressive and a lil more calmer…doesn’t help in the corporate jungle to let your emotions cloud your thoughts or expressions…

But I guess (and fervently hope) that it will come in good time…till then happy anniversary to me 🙂