Aisa Desh Hain Mera....

There was a talk on “Bharateeya samskruthi and festivals” at Ragi Gudda. It was a 1.30 hrs talk everyday for a week,scheduled just before Ugadi by Shataavadhani Dr.R.Ganesh.

Initially I wasn't that interested. But since it was something I had never ventured into, I thought I'll check it out. My colleagues were very much interested. I tagged along.

The talk was very good. It not only covered the main festivals celebrated in India, but also its significance. Not the religious, but the scientific and social significance. For eg: The need for a particular leaf/flower on festivals ensures the preservation of that species of flora. Isn't that a good enough reason to celebrate that festival? Caring for the environment in simple, yet effective ways. The orator also spoke about the interaction between family members/relatives during festivals which is not that common anymore because of dwindling familial values. Festivals give a reason for the family to unite at least for a day. I feel, even though you are not religiously inclined, festivals actually can be celebrated for these causes.

He explained each festival and its significance. I could attend only for 3 days during which he talked about Ugadi, Buddha Jayanti, Narsimha Jayanti [He gave a superb analogy about Narsimha avatara and our enlightenment, but I don't think I can do justice to it with my explanation], Shankara jayanti and a few others.

He talked about how the food in the festivals are actually more than tradition. They are significant/suitable for that season. For eg: The HesarabeLe Kosambari [a kind of dal, cucumber mixture] and Panaka [Lime juice] given during RamNavami have the "Sheeta" [cold] attribute which is helpful for us since this festival is at the start of summer. In plain terms it helps beat the heat! :-) It’s also not mandatory to do this just on one day. You can follow this throughout summer. He also spoke about how the various delicacies represent a particular type [Sheeta, Pittha etc] and how they together are beneficial to us. Most of this is common knowledge but still it doesn't cease to amaze me as to how our ancestors were so knowledgeable. We should definitely be proud of it.

The talk was in Kannada [some parts I could not decipher because of the pure kannada words he was using] and mostly Sanskrit terminologies. But going along with someone a little well-versed in this would help. [Thanks Sudks!] And thanks Kartha for introducing me to this.

All in all, the talk was very enlightening and I think it would be good if youngsters attend such talks. It removes the cloud of misinformation or rather ignorance and help us in understanding and spreading our rich culture, tradition. And also to find out that it is actually meaningful and not just rituals. [yeah..I agree some are just passed on with no definite meaning, but most of them still are meaningful. We are just unaware of it]

I didn't attend the entire series of talk, due to unavoidable reasons. But given an opportunity, we all should attend such talks. Yes, it might be too Hinduism centric for a few (I felt that way), but then you can always ignore the criticism/sarcasm and just absorb the good points.