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WE have a number of festivals, or celebrations, in the country; some are region-specific, like the Bihu in Assam, others are specific to a particular religion, like Holi and Deepavali among Hindus or Eid-ul-Fitr among Muslims. These special occasions are eagerly waited for, the eagerness being most pronounced among the young. Many cannot wait for the actual date, and begin the celebrations before the festival, as we see every year when Deepavali comes around. The fireworks light up the night skies all over the country for at least two days before, and for a number of days afterwards. There is clearly too much joy to be expressed in one night, and obviously far too many firecrackers.
Occasions such as these bring much joy to millions of people; new clothes are bought, there is feasting and the greeting of relatives and friends and a general expression of goodwill. In a world which tends to be ridden with tensions of different kinds, such joyous occasions are prized events, as it is then possible to put aside worries and dark thoughts and drift in the present and its gaiety, as in deliciously cool water. No one needs to tell them to be happy, and a shrill promotion of the festival is quite unnecessary.
There are other occasions which are not so joyous, but more reverent, like the Kumbh Mela, or the holy month of Ramzan. The joyous occasions may, and often do, have their origins in religious events but become much more, with their becoming social occasions when people gather to enjoy themselves. Perhaps there is some reverence also present, as during the Durga Puja; on the days of the Puja thousands attend anjali, the morning prayers, and arati, the evening prayer to the Goddess. But many go to arati for what follows - the `cultural' presentations of the evening, which could range from recitals by celebrated artistes to a play done with great energy by local enthusiasts. Still other occasions have their origin in the bringing in of the harvest, or similar occasions for community joy and thanksgiving, like Onam, or the beginning of a new year like Baisakhi.
What all these have in common is that the joy originates from the people themselves, happiness shared with the family, then with relatives and friends and then with the community. Just how they are observed have become traditions handed down through the generations; but while the essentials may remain the same, a great deal of contemporary enjoyment is added to them in a variety of ways. This only increases the vitality of the tradition as it passes from one generation to another.
One of the major and even astonishing achievements - if one can call it that - of independent India has been the successful conversion of our two national days, Independence Day and Republic Day, into festivals of goodwill and joy. Not in the manner of, say, Onam, or Raksha Bandhan, but in a more freewheeling way. It has become usual for families to go out in the afternoons or evenings to parks, or to the zoo, or to other places of interest like the Purana Qila (Old Fort) in Delhi, or to the Marina in Chennai merely to enjoy a few carefree moments together. Lots of tiny flags are sold and children hand them from windows and doors; many cars, taxis and autorickshaws display them on their windshields. Thanks to television, many thousands watch the Prime Minister's address to the nation from the Red Fort on Independence Day and the Republic Day parade - these have become, in fact, the high points of the two respective days, following which people give themselves over to a relaxed enjoyment.
The British brought us two such festive occasions - Christmas and New Year. Both days have become occasions for joyous celebrations, sometimes too joyous, certainly, but there is much happiness floating about in the air on both days. And what is the kind of celebration? Merely enjoying the occasions, meeting friends and relations. True, there is an awareness that Christmas is basically a religious festival, but New Year is a purely social occasion. It may be the Gregorian New Year; but then it is the Gregorian calendar everyone uses. So New Year's Eve becomes a huge event, with much jubilation as midnight approaches.
In recent years, however, there has been a valiant attempt by the media to foist a new festival on people and this is one occasion where the media - print and electronic - have hopelessly over reached themselves. This is Valentine's Day. In India there may have been some peripheral awareness of it in years past, and that too by the small minority who sought to or were, by circumstances obliged to be more Western in behaviour and in ideas. Then came television, and more relevantly, the transnational broadcasts, which were for the most part American in origin. Suddenly, Valentine's Day was made out to be the day of love; and, following the style set by the Americans a large number of private television channels began to carry programmes on Valentine's Day. Perhaps they wanted to promote the sale of Valentine's Day cards, or generate extra SMS business for cellphone companies, or whatever. The reasons are really not important. The fact is that they have not been able to make any impression worth the name.
Getting a few wealthy youngsters to `make out' on February 14 means nothing at all; getting groups of self-conscious young people to say one line about The Day to a television journalist with a wide grin pasted on his or her face also means nothing at all. In fact, it was embarrassing. The youngsters fumbled, did not know a thing about Valentine, said everyone should be happy, and then two or three had a clever idea and said every day is about love, so every day is Valentine's Day. It was all very very sad.
What happened on Valentine's Day? Nothing, except that television channels went into a frenzy and had these shots of self-conscious giggling youngsters. How did they actually celebrate Valentine's Day? By going to parties? Perhaps the affluent did. And the others? Did they gather in `romantic' places and kiss or hold hands? My guess is they did nothing of the kind. They did whatever they do every day. Looking around our sprawling, raucous metropolitan cities no one would have noticed anything at all that made a difference, except a few shops bravely putting up Valentine's Day signs (usually hearts). Did anyone see anything like the joy one sees on the streets during New Year's Eve?
This is an example of the media trying to create an event and an excellent example for all those institutions trying to teach mass communications of how the media cannot do so. They can report an event, they can even give it a bit of a spin, as the BBC did to their coverage of the Iraq War, but they cannot cook up what does not exist. Valentine's Day comes and goes and for most Indians it is a non-event.
This is what makes the violent rage of the Shiv Sena and the Bajrang Dal so difficult to understand. What were they so full of hatred about? But perhaps it is just a way of getting the media to notice them. Would they ever start a violent protest against New Year's Eve? Naturally not, because the people are celebrating it - common people, in their millions.
That is a time to hide the trishuls and swastikas; but when there are not any people involved worth the name, then they can tear down signs and posters that try ineffectually to promote Valentine's Day.
We are, as someone presciently said, like that only.
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