Saturday, September 14, 2013

Festival season meltdown

I don’t see a single way how any festival celebrated these days is beneficial to society or the planet.

Let's take the example of Ganeshotsav, since it is currently the rage in all of Maharashtra. Traffic jams, noise pollution, discomfort to the elderly, sick and children, water pollution, political agendas. This festival, in its current form, is a curse to the city of Bombay. As is Navratri. As is Diwali. As are many other festivals. I don't see a boon.

The small matter of why on earth do we worship idols made of Plaster of Paris (POP) and toxic colours is an entirely separate tangent altogether, but keeping that aside, let's bring the "faith" element into consideration. How difficult is it to paint a beautiful Ganesh or Durga picture on a large canvas with non-toxic colours and worship it? For visarjan, how much easier would it be to splash water on the canvas and bid adieu to your favourite deity? No water pollution, no traffic jams.
Why do pandals play any music at any point of the day is beyond me. Perform aarti twice a day and be done with it. Why cause discomfort to every living being who hears those decibels blaring out of monstrous, torn-bass loudspeakers?
Besides, with the unreal spike in the number of Ganpati visarjans every year, I'm tempted to conclude that bringing Ganpati at our homes and societies has become more of a fashion statement disguised as faith. The way we damage our ecosystem and ourselves in the name of "God" is distressing.

The masses are morons and it's fascinating how we are such complete, collective morons. We create a nuisance for ourselves and then complain like we're shocked as to how the nuisance exists. Then again, we are a doomed, thankless race and deserve to perish eventually in the worst possible manner.



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