Celebrating Bogus Bhogi and Pongal
On Wednesday Jan 13 Tamil Nadu celebrated Bhogi. A festival celebrated on the last day of the last month of the Tamil year. This is the time of the year when I become that much more heavier. In a way pongal can be said as the New year in Tamil Nadu. People say Bhogi is about burning the old and starting afresh.
Perhaps we were never good at metaphors or we just refuse to dont want to understand. No wonder the Indian constitution is one of the longest, given we find loopholes to exploit.We Indians have the best brains in the world. No one knows better than us about how to misconstrue quotes like the above.
We asked Dubakoor Guru and he came out with this to help them
How to create artificial mist in Chennai and justify it?
1. Burn lots of paper and bed sheets.
2. If people question why? say you are burning new and starting afresh and that is the essence of bhogi
3. If that doesn't convince them, then say they are destroy our culture
4. Burn tyres which give away smoke and irritate the enforcers.
5. Say you did this for supporting the claim “Changing Chennai” and you trying to bring Ooty to Chennai
6. When people wake up in the morning they would think they are in Ooty; flights would be delayed; people cant drive cars easily and Say poor get their revenge on the rich who are exploiting them.
It is really a pain in the ass when i see people doing these kind of stuff. They piss on train tracks, burn wastes, pollute the river. 20 years of my life has been done in and only change i see is the amount of smoke, which is increasing.
You wouldn't believe me. I dont litter on the road. I keep the trash in my pant pockets or throw in the dustbin. Just when i do that, people so casually throw the wastes. This is one time when Gandhi’s “be the change you want to be” wont work
One thing I have observed is that the majority of people committing these acts are people who are old, new to the city, have no idea about technology and still think snake swallows the son when an eclipse occurs.
At least the coming generation is somewhat better than the oldies. But still the young people from lower strata are absolutely uneducated about the effects of their act of burning things for the sake of it.
Another Insight I would like to share is about the difference how us and the west celebrate the year.Their new year starts with a hang over; ours with garlands hung around the house; A hell a lot of money is burnt in alcohol and partying by them; we quite literally burn the old things. One thing is that we people wish happy new year on not our new year but their year.
GOod thoughts... Nanum kupaya road la podama, bag kula vechukitu kuppa thottila poduven :):) THis is how my mom taught me da :)
ReplyDeleteGood thoughts indeed :) It has been too long since I saw a Sun-filled January 13th courtesy all the smoke - read also crap - that goes in the air. You hit the nail right on the head when you talked about the burning-the-old-welcoming-the-new spiel. After all, there are so many other ways of doing it.
ReplyDeleteIn connection with Bhogi, I am reminded of the famous Vivek joke from Saami where he stops pple from burning clothes - oh, I DO know pple who do that - asking them to give it instead to poor children. :)
While you are right in talking about awareness being important in enabling people to understand the noxious effects of deeds, I guess it is equally right that those who are aware and educated aren't all that 'conscious' either. Good that you keep trash and throw it away when you find a can; know quite a few friends like that.
But a long way to go for the crowd! :)
vivek sami paduthala seira mathiri senga than urupaduvanga... instead of the bedsheets and waste they burn, they can burn the stupidity inside!! nala sona neee!
ReplyDeleteIt's good to know there are people who think that way too..!
ReplyDeleteBe the change you wish to see in the world...
You keep doing what's in ur hand..n world will be a better place to live in..!!:)
@ Meow
ReplyDeleteVery nice to hear that
@ Srini
ReplyDeletethanks for view. What i meant by uneducated is not people who are devoid of education but are devoid of education about the environment. I have observed for 3 years now now this what i found out. The oldies who lived in an under developed India are the one who are doing in majority ( underline the word majority).
@ Hary
ReplyDeleteExactly they can do that. Hopefully they dont burn their head to burn the stupidity :-)
@ Jaunty Anima
ReplyDeleteYep Anima that is all we can do. Do our best and hope everything will fall in place.
oh here you talk of the south and i have loads of such things to share of the so-called mumbai city! be it any festival it has to cause harm in some form or the other! i really want to know when the be-change-you-want-to-see attitude works as well...
ReplyDelete:)
@ Neha
ReplyDeleteI guess many cities in India are like that very sad :(
Many people are so silly to throw waste things in public, even we try to teach them they neglect to say that we single person stop throwing things, nothing is going to change. they never realize that collections of drop is flood.
ReplyDelete@ jeevan
ReplyDeleteYes one man can change the world only in rajni , vijay and shankar films :)