Missing elements of puja pandals
11 Oct 2012 10:25 PM GMT
The season of festivity in India has begun. The season begins with Durga puja in most parts of India. Puja pandals become the most happening places in the localities where they are set up. In most parts of our country these pandals attract a large number of visitors, believers or atheists. Believers throng the pandals for their devotion to the Goddess Durga and they join atheists in enjoying the food and cultural facets attached to these pandals. The numbers of pandals and visitors are increasing every year, but the inner charm of the pandals are missing now. The reasons are obvious. Market forces have not spared these pandals either. Now most of the spaces in and around the pandals are occupied by companies and businesses that have hardly anything to do with the puja and other related activities. You can find car and motorcycle companies in the pandals. Banks, insurance companies and other companies with their financial products are seen wooing visitors aggressively. Now business of education also capture stalls to sell the seats at attractive and exclusive ‘festival bonanza rates’. Every product and service that has a marketing wing can be seen occupying stalls in pandals where sales executive get bushed while maintaining measured smiles.
The presence of these publicity hunters is not subtle either. Most of the times they do not do any effort to create a campaign that suits the mood of puja. They create a bizarre atmosphere with weird flex hoardings and posters. To make matters worse, they add loud and filthy music to attract customers. It hurts most when in many pandals you see stalls playing the cheapest possible item songs while the puja is on. When it comes to food, you do not go to such places to have pizzas and burgers. The food you look for during such outings, you find their vendors positioning themselves with their products in some corners where people could not park their car or bikes and organisers could not sell that place to ‘sponsors’. Now we hardly find craftsmen, folk artists and street food vendors in pandals. They have lost their grounds and if they are found also they are installed by the agents who buy space in pandals.
Theme pandals have still left some scope for artists who are in profession of setting up pandals and they are doing good business also, but in this professional era, event managers play a major role and seize major portions of profit. Now even credits for pandals are given to event management companies instead of artists. Market has captured everything that motivates artists. Sculptors are the lone exceptions who still manage to get credit for their work, but when they also will run out of luck, one cannot say for sure.
The biggest loser in this new culture of pandal is music. Pandals of Durga puja were not famous because of idols of the Goddess Durga only, but for the stage that they provided to the vocalists, instrumentalists and dancers. Connoisseurs of music came from every class… from socialites to rickshaw pullers. I fondly remember my school days in Patna when rickshaw pullers used to call it a day early and position their rickshaws in their favourite puja grounds and pandals from where they could have got the best glimpse of the performing artistes. I have come across many artistes who recall their memories of such concerts in Patna where they got most apt appreciation from rickshaw pullers. Many of us were exposed to little nuances of Indian classical music in very tender age in concerts of such puja pandals. These concerts had artistes of highest statures and many times from both the streams – Hindustani as well as Carnatic. This happened in many towns, small and big. In villages too folk artists had good number of admirers and stages there could fetch them sufficient funds as well to sustain their livelihood. Things have changed there also because digital options are replacing them not only because they are cheap, but because the ‘variety’ that they offer. People blame organisers for such decay of this wonderful tradition that patronised every art form for centuries, but organisers are not from other planet. We all are to be blamed, who have lost zeal to value the tradition. We cry foul for the fall of an ideology, for corruption in public life, but we refuse to even notice the impact of our indifference towards such rampant attack on our tradition. We do count the numbers of tigers, peacocks and make schemes and policies to protect them, but we hardly have any policy through which we could have done survey and could have known the numbers of art forms that have gone extinct. When I take my children to pandals during Durga puja and I find them getting bored within an hour, I know how lucky was my generation when we used to go out with sunset and come back home only after sunrise mesmerised with the performances and other charms of puja pandals. Let’s do something. Apart from trees, rivers etc, we also need to protect our tradition for better future of our children.
Akilesh Jha is a civil servant. The views expresssed are his own.
The presence of these publicity hunters is not subtle either. Most of the times they do not do any effort to create a campaign that suits the mood of puja. They create a bizarre atmosphere with weird flex hoardings and posters. To make matters worse, they add loud and filthy music to attract customers. It hurts most when in many pandals you see stalls playing the cheapest possible item songs while the puja is on. When it comes to food, you do not go to such places to have pizzas and burgers. The food you look for during such outings, you find their vendors positioning themselves with their products in some corners where people could not park their car or bikes and organisers could not sell that place to ‘sponsors’. Now we hardly find craftsmen, folk artists and street food vendors in pandals. They have lost their grounds and if they are found also they are installed by the agents who buy space in pandals.
Theme pandals have still left some scope for artists who are in profession of setting up pandals and they are doing good business also, but in this professional era, event managers play a major role and seize major portions of profit. Now even credits for pandals are given to event management companies instead of artists. Market has captured everything that motivates artists. Sculptors are the lone exceptions who still manage to get credit for their work, but when they also will run out of luck, one cannot say for sure.
The biggest loser in this new culture of pandal is music. Pandals of Durga puja were not famous because of idols of the Goddess Durga only, but for the stage that they provided to the vocalists, instrumentalists and dancers. Connoisseurs of music came from every class… from socialites to rickshaw pullers. I fondly remember my school days in Patna when rickshaw pullers used to call it a day early and position their rickshaws in their favourite puja grounds and pandals from where they could have got the best glimpse of the performing artistes. I have come across many artistes who recall their memories of such concerts in Patna where they got most apt appreciation from rickshaw pullers. Many of us were exposed to little nuances of Indian classical music in very tender age in concerts of such puja pandals. These concerts had artistes of highest statures and many times from both the streams – Hindustani as well as Carnatic. This happened in many towns, small and big. In villages too folk artists had good number of admirers and stages there could fetch them sufficient funds as well to sustain their livelihood. Things have changed there also because digital options are replacing them not only because they are cheap, but because the ‘variety’ that they offer. People blame organisers for such decay of this wonderful tradition that patronised every art form for centuries, but organisers are not from other planet. We all are to be blamed, who have lost zeal to value the tradition. We cry foul for the fall of an ideology, for corruption in public life, but we refuse to even notice the impact of our indifference towards such rampant attack on our tradition. We do count the numbers of tigers, peacocks and make schemes and policies to protect them, but we hardly have any policy through which we could have done survey and could have known the numbers of art forms that have gone extinct. When I take my children to pandals during Durga puja and I find them getting bored within an hour, I know how lucky was my generation when we used to go out with sunset and come back home only after sunrise mesmerised with the performances and other charms of puja pandals. Let’s do something. Apart from trees, rivers etc, we also need to protect our tradition for better future of our children.
Akilesh Jha is a civil servant. The views expresssed are his own.
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