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It's that time of the year when despite the chaitra heat and
the dry wind from the north blowing over the plains make you
scurry for cover, there's an excitement in the air too. Naba-
Barsha in Bengal, Rongali Bihu in Assam, Baisakhi in Punjab,
whichever name it carries, the New Year according to the traditional
calendar is ready to be ushered in. It's exciting to watch the
crowds jostling for space on Kolkata's footpath stalls and haggling
over prices of new clothes. Same too in Guwahati where people
throng the streets coming even from villages to buy the latest
designer clothes for Bihu.
This is a different kind of New Year, not of parties and
clubs and belly dancers brought in by five star hotels to
entertain guests. The winter celebration introduced during
the colonial days. But this New Year smells different, bringing
back associations of centuries, a festival of the farmers
who launched the ploughing season during this period starting
with the new year. The food is different too, not cakes and
Christmas puddings, but pitha and payesh.
Some complain that Indian New Year has become as commercialised
as the year-end bash. And that shops hype the "Choitra
sale" to advertise their stocks, and restaurants scream
the Naba Barsha platter to attract more customers, and that's
it. But is it any use lamenting about 'changing times' and
dismissing this celebration as a marketing ruse? Things, tastes,
social trends, are never static. Even if it's ritualistic,
perhaps in a new format, there's value in the celebration
like this. A Bengali girl who cannot think of wearing anything
else than a pair of jeans or salwar suits round the year is
more likely to don a saree on the Poila Baisakh day. Likewise,
an Assamese woman will wear only 'mekhela chador', the two-piece
hand-woven apparel on the Bihu day. The food too, at home
or restaurant, veers towards the traditional.
Times are a changing, of course! In Assam preparing the traditional
delicacy of pitha with ground 'Bara' rice and filled with
ground sesame seed and jaggery is a must but today its preparation
is almost confined to the villages. Urban women, confined
to flats and without the infrastructure cannot dream of grinding
the rice on mortar and pestle but they serve guests pitha
anyway, buying it from village women. In fact, many village
women make good money during the season. Likewise, the custom
of giving the gamocha, handwoven towels to the menfolk continues.
Time was when the women would weave them at the home themselves;
today they are mostly woven in the looms of Tamil Nadu! Today
across the Brahmaputra valley the vibrating Bihu dance and
competition for Bihu Queen in city functions; the age-old
man-woman courtship dance performed in village fields has
now moved to the stage. But the charm of the dance has remained
and the beat of the dhol still pulsates the blood of the young
and old.
In Kolkata, the rush to offer puja on the New Year day, the
decorated arches of the shops announcing the opening of the
hal-khata for the next financial year and the sweetmeat shops
doing brisk business create a different atmosphere altogether.
As our culture has become more urban-centric, and lifestyle
too has changed, these little reminders of traditional festivities
are important landmarks in the 365 day calendar. On such days
less than ordinary, we go back to our roots, even though cursorily.
Perhaps some young ones' curiosity is raised about the community's
past and that's a plus.
The point is, even in westernised lifestyles these customs
are still followed. It's no use being cynical and mourn that
'everything is gone'. Change is a fact of life and if the
seeds of tradition is carried on through celebrations like
Naba Barsha then it's fine. As long as the special meanings
of special days do not disappear forever.
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