Disclaimer: This is a rant post. If you don't agree with the contents of this post then please feel free to scroll away. I am only as interested in knowing and understanding your views, as you are in knowing and understanding mine.
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I am neither a die-hard animal rights activist, nor a born-again sustainability expert; neither an arm-chair liberal, nor a pseudo-secular. I am just an average guy who finds this commoditization, gamification and dehumanisation of festivals, horribly irritating and dangerous - an average guy who usually keeps these views to himself as he doesnt want to piss over someone else's parade or get into a mud-slinging match with the easily offended zealots.
If you have lived long enough, you'd probably agree that these days all festivals sound and smell the same - sound of blaring loudspeakers or fire crackers and smell of smoke emanating from the same. Be it Uttarayan, Diwali, Navratri or Holi - mindless cacophony is a common characteristic. I talk about Hindu festivals, not because I dont want to offend the 'minority communities', but because I am a Hindu and only know a thing or two about Hindu festivals. I am sure that the situation is just the same, if not worse, during festivals across most religions.
Every festival is becoming one more excuse for personal, community and political one-upmanship. Everyone wants a larger loudspeaker, louder firecracker and spend more than the next guy, house or lane. And in the midst of all this nonsense, a sizeable part of the population gets grinded in - the infants, old, infirm, the non-humans and the ones who just want some quietude.
I understand the importance of festivals - they feed the economy, bring us together as a family and community, and give us a much-desired break from work. But can't people be a little more civic, sensitive and considerate of everyone's situation? Cant people just think for a while before bursting loud firecrackers into the night and that too near hospitals? Cant people understand that washing the streets with animal blood is not a good idea?
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After-thought: They can't and they wont. People only voice their minds over social media, they seldom change it there. I have pretty much resigned to the fate that festivals are only going to get worse with each passing year. They have become an occupational hazard of being 'human'.
***
I am neither a die-hard animal rights activist, nor a born-again sustainability expert; neither an arm-chair liberal, nor a pseudo-secular. I am just an average guy who finds this commoditization, gamification and dehumanisation of festivals, horribly irritating and dangerous - an average guy who usually keeps these views to himself as he doesnt want to piss over someone else's parade or get into a mud-slinging match with the easily offended zealots.
If you have lived long enough, you'd probably agree that these days all festivals sound and smell the same - sound of blaring loudspeakers or fire crackers and smell of smoke emanating from the same. Be it Uttarayan, Diwali, Navratri or Holi - mindless cacophony is a common characteristic. I talk about Hindu festivals, not because I dont want to offend the 'minority communities', but because I am a Hindu and only know a thing or two about Hindu festivals. I am sure that the situation is just the same, if not worse, during festivals across most religions.
Every festival is becoming one more excuse for personal, community and political one-upmanship. Everyone wants a larger loudspeaker, louder firecracker and spend more than the next guy, house or lane. And in the midst of all this nonsense, a sizeable part of the population gets grinded in - the infants, old, infirm, the non-humans and the ones who just want some quietude.
I understand the importance of festivals - they feed the economy, bring us together as a family and community, and give us a much-desired break from work. But can't people be a little more civic, sensitive and considerate of everyone's situation? Cant people just think for a while before bursting loud firecrackers into the night and that too near hospitals? Cant people understand that washing the streets with animal blood is not a good idea?
***
After-thought: They can't and they wont. People only voice their minds over social media, they seldom change it there. I have pretty much resigned to the fate that festivals are only going to get worse with each passing year. They have become an occupational hazard of being 'human'.
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