Festivals galore

I don’t know how many of you are watching the new series “Outsourced” on NBC but if you are not, try and catch it. It’s actually quite funny. Set in India it’s a comedy about an all American white boy managing a call center and his experiences as he struggles to understand the language, food and culture. In the last episode, few of Todd’s employees convince him to take a half day for “Vindaloo day”, a concocted holiday. While I don’t intend to go into why they did this it did lead me to a different direction. Before I saw the episode, (I had DVR-ed it, which is a boon to my family! I don’t know how we survived without it) on the way to our hike I wished my husband a Happy Dasshera and he jokingly remarked (smart ass had already seen the “Happy Vindaloo day” episode), is this another one of your ridiculous holidays? Yes I do admit we have 864313132 holidays but really, why so mean? Anyway, I explained with a calm face what Dasshera was about, but afterward I could understand why he had a fit of laughter on knowing what Dasshera was about.

Dasshera is celebrated after 9 nights of dancing – and trust me it’s a LOT of fun! Young, old, big, small all sorts of people leave their homes to dance– in building courtyards, outdoor gyms converted into fancy mandaps – which can last until the wee hours of the morning. I too had participated in this madness for 9 nights leaving at 11 pm and sometimes not coming back home until 5 am the following morning. This 9 day dancing mania is called Navratri, which consists of garba (clapping hands and moving in a circle and dandiya, playing with sticks in a circle). “Nav” meaning 9 and “ratri” meaning nights. So the literal translation – 9 nights.

Durga Puja

On Dasshera, Ravana's effigy is burnt

During these 9 nights, the goddess Shakti/Durga is worshipped. Extremely elaborate statues of the Goddess are erected and her different forms are worshipped with intense fervor and devotion. At the end, on the 10^th day (called Dasshera) an effigy of Ravana – the ten headed monster who kidnapped Ram’s wife is burnt to celebrate the victory of good over evil. Now I know how ten headed monsters, elaborate Goddess statues, etc. can seem silly almost at the edge of ridiculous, but we must remember that whether or not these events actually took place the only intention was to tell a story using elaborate (yes extremely elaborate) imagination. The main purpose of these stories was to convey a message, prove a point and convince us that no matter what if we did the right thing, the right thing would happen to us. Satyamev Jayate in Sanskrit meaning the truth always wins wasn’t just a punch line in these stories but a motto, an abiding principle to live by.

It’s sad then how these stories are twisted and turned nowadays to serve a few people’s selfish ends. No wonder they sound ridiculous and funny!