Festival fiasco

Vizagites have been traditionally celebrating festivals such as Sankranti, Shivaratri, and Vinayaka Chaturthi for several years with great enthusiasm. Festivals are a time for rejoicing and connecting with our roots. We have a cosmopolitan population and it is natural that certain festivals like Holi, Deepavali and Durga Puja, normally ethnic to communities from different parts of India, have been adapted by locals and gained in popularity in recent years.With cultural diversity, festival traditions pass on from one community to another, and in the process, the way the festival is celebrated goes through change, giving it a local flavor and relevance.
Private limited to public unlimited
In Vizag's earlier years, a few well organised functions would cater to a large number of people from all over the town. Serious purohits would recite mantras and conduct the proceedings for the entire duration of the festival. Families would visit the pandals dressed in their fineries, pray at the venue, collect their prasadam, and make a modest donation in the hundi. Some would even stay to watch the cultural programme in the evening. Some festivals were a family affair; they were practiced in a small personal and modest way with family and friends. Soon these occasions became larger and larger. In recent times, it has transmuted from a personal, family or community ritual to an epic extravaganza.
The age of enterprise
Some enterprising youngsters discovered that with a minimum investment of printing a receipt book and going around in groups, they could collect enough money to buy a Plaster of Paris (POP) idol, erect a rented pandal on the street, lay out a few plastic chairs and rent the loudest public address system from which they could forcefully entertain their neighborhood 24-hours non-stop with the latest item number songs accompanied with suggestive heaving and panting sounds quite inappropriate to the occasion. Soon, every local cultural club, auto-rickshaw stand and miscellaneous union and society was in the business. At the end of the festival, after these pandals have inflicted themselves upon the neighbourhood, they open their hundi box and distribute the spoils among themselves. Due to the large numbers of organisers involved in the mini enterprise, the fund sharing phase generally ended up in acrimony and brawls spawning even more pandals next year.
Immodest immersions
Almost every large festival results in pollution of different types. As is the practice all over India, idols must be immersed in a water body at the end of the festival. The idols are generally carried by trucks, carts, on shoulders or by hand, depending on how large the idol is. There was a time when Vinayakas were little handmade mud or clay pieces placed on a betel leaf and worshipped. Now, since POP idols can be mass manufactured and painted with the most garish lead-based paints, their capacity to impact their environment has multiplied thousand fold. Every year the idols get bigger and more in numbers. As we Vizagites have a sea, every idol, large and small, ends up in our sea along with the various plastic paraphernalia that comes with the pandal. Unfortunately all the idols that get dumped into the sea land right back on our beach. For the next few days an army of cleaners and hundreds of trucks are deployed to clean up our beaches.
Shock & awe
With the proliferation of pandals, there is a pandal or two or three in every neighbourhood. Every pandal can afford to rent microphones, music systems, powerful amplifiers and speakers the size of small houses. They start with an hour of "hella � hella � mike testing �123�", then bombard the hapless local residents from morning to night with a combination of chanting prayers, lewd film music and � heaven forbid � some local talent who brays tunelessly all evening. Fortunately, the day arrives when the circus has to move to the beach. The pandal is carried on trucks, trailers, mini-vans or flat rickshaws, accompanied by the entire sound system, to the beach from early evening till the wee hours of the morning. Along the way, the pious youth blast the roadside apartments with 10,000 watts of disco music, drunken screams and a display of horrid gyrating dances that make the Gods tremble with shock and awe.
Glory to plastic
Prasadam is a big part of festivals. Some people must believe that as per our ancient texts prasadam can only be served in plastic bowls and water in plastic sachets. The devotees must then toss these plastic containers and water sachets on the ground or the nearest drain as a part of the ritual. These plastics must remain on earth till the end of the plasti-kalyuga, when the earth ends or till the GVMC sweepers come and carry it all away.
Karthik masam and Giri Pradakshina
The emperor of pollution is Karthik Masam, which is celebrated in November. From celebrating our natural God-given environment, it has become a celebration of plastic cups, sachets, Styrofoam and foil laminated plates. The problem is that the same picnic spots that attract Vizagites because of their quiet green beauty become a spot for drunken revelry and an ugly dumping ground for non-biodegradable waste. The crown prince of pollution and vying for 1st spot is Vizag's �Giri Pradakshina', the devotional walk around the Simhachalam hill which has now become a mega event. It is obvious that this long journey will leave the walkers thirsty. Well-meaning social bodies provide drinking water in sachets to these walkers, who then leave a 35-km long trail of ankle deep plastic sachets on the road. Those well-meaning social organisations, while supplying the sachets, do not feel necessary to also provide bins to collect the empty sachets and help GVMC with their clearing efforts.
What's your problem?
One may as well ask why we should be concerned about these religious festivals. After all, India has always been a society that exults in religious freedom. The problem is that everyone has a right to do their own thing as long as it does not impact others adversely. We are okay with some inconvenience but for God's sake don't overdo it and kill Vizag. Due to our innate copycat nature, every festival just grows larger and larger. Giri Pradakshina devotees will grow from 3 lakh to 10 lakh soon. Last year, 200 police personnel were employed for crowd control, next year we will need a 1,000. Most festivals obstruct traffic, cause unnecessary sound pollution and mess up our city and beach. Cleaning up the mess and keeping law and order is paid for by our tax money. Money that could be better spent on tangible things like maintaining our heritage sites, providing public amenities, repairing government schools and so on.
So what's the solution?
Behavioral modification is not easy. Someone in authority has to show steely resolve. Here are a few things that can be done. Every pandal must be licensed by GVMC, which must levy a steep license fee. This will reduce the numbers by 50%. Pandals must use organic prasadam containers made of adda leaves. All pandals must be obliged to have large litter bins. Loud speakers with amplifiers above 15 watts must be banned. The POP idol makers, generally from other states, that set up camp everywhere in Vizag to make the idols must be sent packing. During Karthik Masam, GVMC officials assisted by NGO volunteers must be deployed in every picnic spot and must insist that all containers (including booze bottles) that were brought for the picnic are taken back. The Giri Pradakshina event must become plastic free, adequate drinking water tanks with non-contact drinking faucets must be used instead of plastic water sachets. Most importantly, a tough new attitude must be displayed by the authorities. This will certainly change the way these festivals are conducted and clean up our act. After all, cleanliness is next to Godliness.
(The writer is an environmentalist and a social commentator. He can be reached at sohan.hatangadi@gmail.com)