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New-age festivals
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Valentine's Day and Friendship Day have captured the imagination of today's youth. But does it mean that our traditional festivals are losing importance? The Metro Forum discusses the issue.
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NIKHIL IS probably your everyday college student. Just under 20, he never stops complaining about his monthly allowance. Not that the allowance is not good enough, but the real problem is his expenses.
They just continue to mount. Sometimes he spends money just because his friends do so, even though he is not convinced.
Two years ago, Nikhil didn't even know about Friendship Day, let alone Valentine's Day. That sure has changed. Nikhil finds more and more occasions to celebrate and that is the same for most people in his class.
Over the past few years, a lot of such occasions have emerged which seem to pose a threat to home-grown festivals and celebrations. That's precisely what the Metro Forum decided to deliberate on — The emergence of these occasions and whether they have taken the fizz out of traditional festivals.
The panel was characterised by diversity: M.S. Vaidyanathan, a senior bank executive, Pramod. N, a lecturer in a Management Institute, Lakshmi Jayaraman, a homemaker, Thilai Rajan, a senior executive and Nitin Rao, a young journalist.
The panel began by tracing the emergence of events like Friendship Day and Valentine's Day. Thilai Rajan called it an urban phenomenon that has been restricted to the larger metros. But according to him, that could soon change with smaller towns also feeling the impact.
He attributed such trends to the role of marketing, particularly by greeting card manufacturers. Pramod felt that the emergence of such occasions is the fallout of economic liberalisation and they are here to stay on the Indian calendar.
Vaidyanathan and Lakshmi Jayaraman blamed the media for the explosion of these occasions. Lakshmi wondered why some Indian festivals do not get the same degree of attention from the media as others.
The discussion progressed to examine whether the trends were restricted to specific age groups or socio-economic groups. Here again the panellists had slightly conflicting opinions. Pramod felt that it is reflective of a larger trend in Indian society and felt that such events cut across age groups.
Lakshmi on the other hand, was of the opinion that these were essentially a passing phase and affect only the youth. They are more zealous about such occasions and invariably the fervour dies with age and responsibility.
Nitin, the youngest on the panel, echoed Lakshmi's view. He has been through the same himself.
Thilai Rajan however, did not completely subscribe to that point of view. He felt that sometimes these occasions also provide a great opportunity to keep in touch with friends and this is not something that is restricted merely to the youth. The other interesting dimension that the panellists deliberated on was whether the occasions were gaining importance because of a lack of knowledge and interest in Indian festivals.
Vaidyanathan felt that it is certainly a trend that has emerged. Lakshmi Jayaraman opined it was unfortunate because Indian festivals have a lot of significance and interesting folklore associated with them. The discussion progressed towards examining the impact of these occasions on Indian festivals and more importantly whether these were a threat to our festivals. Vaidyanthan felt that the impact would be minimal. He said that Indians do not need occasions like Father's Day or Mother's Day to tell their parents that they care for them. It is part of our culture to do it anyway.
Pramod however felt that they will have an impact and that is not a negative trend.
Overall, the panellists felt that Indian festivals are here to stay. But one thing even the panellists accepted was the way we celebrate our festivals has changed. In today's urban India, paucity of time has been largely responsible for this change. Thilai Rajan pointed out how people in Chennai do not celebrate Navaratri the way it used to be celebrated even 10 or 15 years ago. This probably holds good for other festivals too. While there is still tremendous interest in these festivals, people skip a lot of rituals and some festivities due to lack of time or to cut costs.
In today's high-pressure work environment, people use these festival holidays as welcome breaks to unwind.
While Indian festivals are here to stay, there is no doubt that there is a gradual emergence of other occasions that call for celebration. Call it globalisation or media hype or marketing hard sell, they have begun to make their mark on the Indian calendars!
We invite feedback on the above discussion.
The next topic will be "Have satellite channels spelt disaster for Tamil cinema?" Those interested in participating may write to metroforum@thehindu.co.in before February 12.
ASHWIN RAJAGOPALAN
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