Celebrations !

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

When clouds appear in the sky bringing the prospect of rain we celebrate in anticipation of a good harvest. When a babe is born we celebrate welcoming the new entrant to our world. When a girl attains puberty we celebrate with fertility rituals. Marriages do call for celebration of a new beginning in life. When death occurs drawing curtains on a life we also celebrate with different rituals in slow languid rhythms bidding farewell to a person who after life’s fitful fever sleeps well! The harvesting season brings hope for another year and naturally we celebrate with fanfare. Celebration naturally comes to man as life, whatever be its form and reality, is full of tension and natural and unnatural pain. Celebration is the compensation for the intricate web of pain which like the spider’s web enchains in soft threads unseen and unknown.

Celebration on one side is the joyous expression of gratitude to gods for their bounty, on another it is a propitiatory ritual to gods to grant wishes legitimate or illegitimate. It is also a snobbish showing off of wealth, scope and large hearted bohemian temper. There are yet others who lavish all they imagine on an occasion as if there is no tomorrow. As civilization advances, new gadgets flood the market and avenues of new opportunities to swell the purse and  bank accounts open up. The tone and temper of celebrations change from the alap to the jhala. Religious celebrations have undergone a sea change. The oil wick lamps have now been replaced by LED and psychedelic lighting supervised by qualified engineers. An earthen lamp, however, is kept in one corner as a symbolic relic of those dark centuries. The offering plates have grown in size, shape and material-brass to gold-,the images too have grown in size.  An austere Durga or a blissful Saraswati is now a supermodel of a multinational jeweller. The loud speakers blare through the night to far off miles.

The social occasions of revelry have gone up a few decibels. A birthday is celebrated with royal glamour as though after a long wait the Prince of Light is born to dispel all darkness from earth. The starters, the prandial spread will put to shame the grandeur of all descriptions in our epics. The classical sense of a banquet will appear ridiculous before the affluent imagination of an event manager. Marriages are so grand and ostentatious that a wise man is compelled to vow bachelorhood or just elopement with the loved one to a desert tent.

Political celebrations too are now loud and pompous. A victory in the Panchayat Elections or Parliament; the celebration of a political party attaining majority are now riotous with band, flags and festoons causing traffic jam and road blocks. Even a clean chit in a murder case is now an occasion for celebratory display of money and power. A football team emerging as champion in the English Premier League celebrates victory like a coronation.

No no , don’t take me wrong . I am not opposed to celebrations, for celebrations keep our zest of life alive. Human energy at its highest tension must be maintained to meet the challenges of nature and civilization; hence any victory or survival from the jaws of death must be celebrated with aplomb. But when a third of the world’s population is denied a few survival morsels why should the rich and powerful make a vulgar display of their joy? Moreover, so much food and goodies are wasted and thrown that heavens wonder at our stultifying luxury of self indulgence.

The world calls for celebrations. The early dew on the lotus petals, the crimson sun giving the wake up call to the late risers, the birds in clusters moving to search for food are all sights and events to celebrate in creation. Celebrate man‘s love for man, celebrate human dignity. Make mankind move together in a celebratory stance thanking the giver of life in his most beautiful creation. Celebrate the end of poverty, sickness and war. Make your every moment a celebration of being alive. The snobbish party and wasteful fanfare and drummery over small and natural joys of life are not needed; for they are celebrations in themselves. Celebrate the art and  creativity of man in creative ways. Celebrate humanism and man’s victory over the agents of death. Celebrate the elimination of crime and separation.

But man will celebrate his pride of being a father or his arrogance of being a hero in the tinsel world. These poor chaps should be pardoned. But when a celebration wastes what others’ need fervently there is no pardon. Celebrations should be judicious and humble, for, man is the noblest of creation and nobility ought to make us humble.