By Debasish Chowdhury
The arrival of autumn in our part of the globe, since time immemorial, marks the onset of a fresh season of festivity. The autumn of our love and longing this time, however, seems somewhat hesitant in announcing its arrival. Thick clouds in an overcast sky, courtesy the delayed monsoon, appear unwilling to yield its control over the horizon. The inflated rivers overflowing their banks inundated vast expanse of the landmass in the plains. The fury of floods wreaked havoc resulting in loss of lives and property. Scores of families are suffering due to unwarranted destabilisation of their occupational engagements adding further to the toils of their already hard life. The azure blue bedecked with torn patches of cotton white cloud drifting leisurely in it, a canvas typical of the autumn sky, seems yet to gain control of the sky to accord it with its gorgeous festive attire. The composite effect of all these natural hostilities, it seems, have fashioned a dampening impact on the much sought after festive flavour. The near absence of the typical smiling nature that we are accustomed to associate as an inseparable element of this autumn carnival we are so used to celebrating all over the country in a variety of formats; different in texture though one and the same in spirit; therefore appears somewhat subdued. Yet, another season of festival has already come calling by, even though its arrival this time does appear somewhat quiet in character.
Festivals in this ancient land almost invariably have a religious connect. Over the ages, the character of the festival celebrations in this ancient land has evolved to transform themselves as social and cultural fiestas serving as powerful platforms for a soft and cordial blending of the varied cultural and social ethos prevalent amongst people living here. Festivals in this land have long ceased to remain strictly confined only to a particular religious group or sect and usually fashion themselves as socio-cultural events. Christmas is not celebrated by the Christians alone; neither is Id a festival of the Muslims or Dussehra a Hindu only festival. Provided that one is willing and attentive enough to experience the nature of the cross-cultural intermingling typical of any festival season celebrated over here, the city marketing zones as well as the actual festival celebration plots in a particular location may indeed be the place to look for. Festivals in India, irrespective of their genesis, indeed are grand platforms for facilitating dialogues and cross cultural discourses amongst the variegated socio-cultural and religious dispensations that typically define the very essence of the people of this land.
A grand reliving force as they happen to be, festivals usually treat us here with wonderful recess time thereby favouring us with the opportunity to look beyond the confines of our narrow self in a bid to foster a deeper understanding of the self, the time and the milieu we have been destined to live in. Festivals, in a deeper sense, are expressions of the eternal prayer that remains inherent in every bud to blossom; they are expressions of the eternal desire to lift us up from the experiences of the shadow of falsehood to the realm of abiding truth; they are manifest desire seeking to elevate us up from the state of an unending darkness to the state of enduring radiance; they are expressions of our desire to move from death unto eternity. Festivals, therefore are dear to us. We long for them to visit us even if we, at times, find it difficult to fit in them as a part of their reassuring spirit.
Yet, despite the enthusiasm that one normally associates with the season of festivity, festivals, for a majority of us have now ceased to be an experience of unblemished joy. Soaring commodity prices, the confused socio-cultural settings we have assigned to ourselves for living in, the rather frequent violent outbursts destroying precious innocent lives and families, natural calamities that strike us at regular intervals and a host of other such things; few of them natural; others a by-product of our own follies and misadventures contribute significantly to the dilution of the festive spirit of joy that we desperately seek to experience during a festival season. And yet, when festivals come knocking at our doors, we do make desperate efforts to try to at least temporarily shelve all our inhibitions and reorganize ourselves to make the best out of the trying times that otherwise keep us engaged throughout the year.
Currently passing through what can easily be described as one of the toughest times in the annals of history, this land of festivity is struggling hard to revive in it the elusive festive mood it longs to have. The rampant corruption indulged in by those holding public office have made life miserable for the majority. The fratricidal conflicts and clashes that erupt at regularly intervals at this or that location leading to mindless violence and countless innocent deaths have also significantly compromised our existence as civilised social beings. Be it on the ground of caste, communal, ethnic or whatever else divide we may think of, an atmosphere of mistrust and disbelief rules the roost while all that we have traditionally been claiming as our prized heritage appears to have been given accorded an unceremonious farewell. Governance appears non-existent and politics of the day clearly is at an all-time low. A sitting Chief Minister of a state mimicking the Prime Minister on a live TV Show or insisting in public even before the police report was available on the complaint of a rape victim that her story is a mere concoction to malign her government reflect beyond doubt the cheap level of decency to which our political bosses are capable of stooping to. The ever rising number of rapes, killings and molestation bids reported regularly by the media vividly describe the sinking level of our moral standing.
And in spite of all such things that depreciate the essence of our civilised human existence, festivals do visit us at regular intervals offering us the opportunity to pause a while, to reflect and rethink, and perhaps even to recall the many heroes; some celebrated though not emulated in life and many more unsung and forgotten; who by their acts and deeds made valiant efforts to uphold the essence of the eternal human spirit. One such unsung noble soul that one may fondly recall can perhaps be Smti Madhuben Kadi. In July 2008 when terrorists triggered off a series of bomb blasts in the city of Ahmedabad, Smti Kadi, wife of an insignificant roadside vendor at Raipur, was grievously hurt and eventually succumbed to her injury. The blast claimed her at a time when she was busy assisting her husband in managing the little shop that used to be the only source of their family sustenance. Moments before she finally slipped into the chilling hands of death, she, overriding her writhing pain as also the ordeals that life made her go through, expressed her dying desire that her eyes be donated to help someone else light up his world. No cursing, no blaming, and coming from a victim of a mindless murderous assault, it was an expression so powerful that it instantly rekindles faith in humanity and lifts our hearts a little notch up with a divine humanitarian spirit. It surely was a call to revisit and relive our own human conscience.
A little less than two and a half millennium ago, Lord Gautama Buddha, one of the great masters who once adored this land, in response to a request by Ananda, one of his close disciples, to be enlightened on as to where or to whom he should go to clear his doubts once the Lord ceases to be, replied from his death bed,‘ Go nowhere. Ask your own conscience. Be your own light.’ Down the millenniums that have gone by, we seem to have forgotten that gem of an advice or could it be that the ‘conscience’ Lord Buddha has referred to has gone completely missing in us?
We light our little homes at night as that is a necessity. Seldom do we note that the little light we put on in our home also segregate us from the vast expanse of the world that remains steeped in darkness at nightfall. Festivals light up our worlds in a bigger way thereby offering us an opportunity to merge our homes with the outer world. Return of each festival, therefore, is an invite to amend our ways and ideas to ensure, even if not for us, at least for our posterity, a brighter, loving and peaceful existence. Even for those who, either owing to their own misadventures and distorted vision or due to unavoidable circumstantial exigencies, seem to have compromised their inherent capacity to foster an improved and positive outlook towards life, festival seasons are grand opportunities to reclaim for themselves, through candid detour in solemn self-affirmation, the way to loftier attainments. Shall we then seize this approaching festive opportunity to have a hard look at things that perhaps have gone wrong with us? May we take the plunge to get on from here and to build on our vision of a tomorrow that would ensure, if not for us, at least for our children, a new vibrant world order of our cherished dream and desire?
Debasish Chowdhury is Principal, Women’s College, Shillong.