Colours and values of Festivals

Amidst this daily maddenning crowd & the hussel and bussel of city life, we hardly get any time for releif and relaxation. However, thanks to our social reforms which gift us the festivals as a sprinkle of spice in our mechanical life schedule! Yes, it is these festive seasons which help us to sit back and enjoy the mood of holidays.

It is often said that though a year comprises of 12 months, we Bengalis , actually have 13 festivals to celebrate in a span of 12 months - "Baro Mashe Tero Parbon". Our zeal and enthusiasm exceeds even the number of months in a year! But under minute speculation, we will decipher that in today's life since career has taken the lion share of our daily activities (in order to keep pace with the rat race for a better life), we have almost given up or are unable to maintain the social norms of faily ties.Though many may say that these norms, like visiting the relatives, spending quality time with the elderly members and so on and so forth are backdated, yet these were in reality the bonds which tied up the families together. In today's nuclear family system, it is all but party and get together or shaking a leg or two at the discs, formulating the meaning of enjoyment.

However, credit goes to our Durga Puja, Shyama Puja, Holi, Poila Baishakh to mention a few such ocassions when we embrace our traditions. If not at other times but at least during the "sindoor Khela " on Dashami one can see even a very trendy lady stepping out of her jeans cladding a saree applying vermilion to other women in Puja Pandals.

We must not forget that our festivals are in other way, our roots , our retrospective to our foundations which teache us educate us about what we are and what is our origin. It is something that we will be passing on to our future generations. The world must have become fast, but our culture , our traditions will always play a great and a very significant part in our lives. Today apart from culture and tradition, the festivals also incurr as well as influence the commercial side in the society. For eg., during the various pujas in Bengal the number of advertisements that flank the road sides, actually bring forth the publicity of various commercial companies/ organisations on one hand while on the other, evolve new artists who come up with novel concepts enriching our art and culture to a great extent.

Nevertheless, we must remember that amidst the lime light, publicity & media stunts we should never lose the true essence of our festivals which unleashes moments of joy, brings us close to our very own foundations and enhances our bonds not as a successful doctor, enginneer or businessman but as a human being, making us responsible and dutiful towards our loved ones as well as our society.