Another Ganeshotsav, Need Introspection.

Another Ganeshotsav; am in a reflective mood. Hm. Need introspection. Some "chintan baithak" such as the one the right wingers are doing. Guess introspection has gone sour. Now even Arun Shourie is aiming brickbats at the top brass. Does anyone know what went wrong? I feel Jaswant Singh has been wronged and that he has a right to his opinion. The very concept of democratic dissent is misunderstood in India. I guess the right to democratic dissent is the cornerstone of democracy. I also (rather pompously, after all, who am I in the BJP pecking order?) think the BJP top brass has acted unilaterally without doing much "chintan" in their "baithak."

The singing, the music, the air of festivities, the eating of modaks and sweetmeats, it’s infectious. Yesterday saw this rambunctious crowd throwing red powder, dancing to loud beats of the drums, clanging of cymbals, spilling over the road, stopping traffic, general revelry everywhere. Last Sunday spent the whole day writing in my eyrie on the second floor. What’s so great about that? From this space that is growing to be a favourite haunt I could hear sounds of aartis, songs, a lot of religious reverberations, so to speak. Wonder how everyone names their Ganesha as the area’s “Raja” or king. There’s a CBD cha Raja (CBD’s King) in my locality.

Now I am not against religious celebrations, I say, being a spiritual person myself, we need it for spiritual solace. But has the intensity increased? Colleagues in the office are fasting, keeping the vows made for “Shravan” and then “Shradh” and then “Nav Ratri” and then “Diwali” and then “Bhau Bheej” and then “Laxmi Poojan” and then, so on, and so forth.... (Whew!) How do they do all this? I am amazed. Judging by the money spent in such celebration I wonder how people manage to meet their expenses in these recessionary times. Well, that’s my only worry.