The morning sun rose and welcoming the Pongal day’s sun, I was sitting around. There was a sense of hurry at home to make things ready for Pongal, and more importantly before the so-called “Ragu Gaalam”. As if an earthquake is on the cards, people were roaming around and my entire plan to enjoy the morning sun was vanished. I was in no mood to waste my holiday, but little was the importance given to my cry. It was like everything is to be ready before 10.30 a.m., as if there is a party for delegates around. The basic reason of a festival is to bring the festive mood in being around with our kith and kin. The reason is in the corners and the blind practice holds centre-stage. The “Nalla Neram” and making things ready on time is gaining more importance than enjoying the morning sun and spending quality time with kith and kin.
On the other side, people tend to get carried away by the superstitions. Losing their nerves is the worst part of all. Why get tensed with your loved one, just because he/she is not ready to oblige to those superstitions and is not interested in your so-called offerings to GOD. Instead, why don’t you spend time with someone you love, cook at your own will, meet-up with your neighborhood and in the way celebrate Pongal. Pongal is a festival to be celebrated with all people around, not inside the four walls of your nuclear family.
Pongal is a village festival of sun to be celebrated in the open space in the midst of all kith and kin. This fundamental rule is scarce to find in cities, where it is a name-sake practice followed inside the roof. Why get tensed to follow other rules when there is something fundamentally wrong. People neither understand nor are they ready to lend their ears to what the younger generation says.
The saddest part of the entire episode is that people tend to blindly follow the practices framed by ancestors, neither do they know the reason for it nor are they keen to explore it. The practices followed are all the more out-dated and in no way does it serve the purpose for which it is brought in centuries ago.
“Why follow someone else’s footsteps, when you have your own to make it”
Its one of my major concern in recent days, and it paved way for a blog (which is long overdue).
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Pal
