Some love lost

If you look at the way communities exist, there has been a change over the past few years. A few years ago you had people who knew their neighbors, doors were never locked, you were always welcome. Now people live in matchbox apartments, no one knows their next door neighbors, let alone the guy who lives down the block.

Communities now mean a whole different thing, certain civil movements, kitty party groups, people that belong to the same institutions, ‘communities’ on social media, are becoming the new faces of the word community.

Community, which referred to a larger gathering of people grouped together on the basis of beliefs, geography or whatever else, now has morphed into these mini communities that have many factors that define and sub-divide them.

Communities and festivals are closely interlinked, so if there is a change in the pattern of community there will definitely be a change in the way festivals are celebrated.

Festivals not only involve religious ones but all ones that are celebrated by the community at large such as Sankranti, Bonderam and the like. Communities used to be the driving force behind these festivals and were involved in every single aspect of it. Everyone was involved stretching across age groups, castes and religions.

Of late we have literature, film, food, wine, music and college events being termed as festivals as well. This fits very well with the way society is breaking itself down into mini communities.

This may all be very well and good, as society evolves and grows so do its communities and the way it celebrates its festivals and the kind of things it celebrates.

So if you look at the way the older festivals are celebrated you would notice certain changes. Things have gone from being public to private, available to a certain group, sometimes even at a certain price.

Newer arrivals are mostly private events that have commercial sponsors and cater to select communities. Some start off as public events that wish to reach out to all, for the community in the traditional sense of the word. Sadly these too are bitten by the capitalist bug sooner or later, an example of this is the Bangalore Habba.

This year the festival went on almost unseen and unheard by the public. You could call it a blink and you miss it affair. Festival regulars didn’t hear of it till the festival was over.

If we are to make a comparison between the festivals that were and the ones that are you can say that these lack the ability to hold an audience or should I say community captive for very long. They lack community involvement and hence fade away soon enough.

I have had the opportunity to witness this happen in my own short lifespan as well. I first moved to Goa permanently when I was nine years old, and it would be the first time I would be in the state for the infamous carnival.

I was thrilled to bits as any young child would be, it was my first carnival, one of many to come I thought.

So much color, splendor and fervor on the street was something I had never witnessed before in the stiff upper lipped Gulf. The best part of it all was I knew people that were participating. They smiled and waved, threw sweets into the crowd, and the next day I could tell people at school I knew the girl in the pink panther float.

Fast forward to ten years later, my love for the carnival died about the same time the Tuborg and other liquor companies had floats instead of my next door neighbor. The tacky colors were not bearable anymore as they meant nothing. The love, care and joy which went into making the event happen had vanished.

Floats were not made by families but designed by professionals, dance troupes were hired to plaster grins on their faces and jump about.

Youngsters use it as an excuse to be drunk in large numbers, in broad daylight on the main streets of their city. That is all it means any more, publicity for companies, intoxication for the youth and a free tee shirt if you are lucky enough to have one thrown at you, just about missing your face.

This is the situation not just with the carnival but with about every festival that exists in Goa and I am sure this is the case in other states as well.

We need to come to terms with the fact that there won’t be another Woodstock or festivals that had the same spirit because for anything to take place today it needs to be commercially viable. People are not willing to get out of their comfort zones to save the festivals they loved once upon a time.