Gudi Padwa: New Year Wishes to All of You

Gudi Padwa is celebrated on the first day of the Chaitra month as the New Year day by Maharashtrians. Also known as Ugadi in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, this festival marks the beginning of the spring season. People celebrate this festival with great spirit and joy.

Houses are cleaned prior to the festival. Colorful rangoli are designed at the entrance and people wear new clothes on this day. Maharashtrian delicacies like puran poli or sweet rotis, soonth pak, and usal are prepared.

On this day, gudis are hung outside the houses or in the localities. A 'gudi' is a pole on top of which an upturned brass or silver pot called a kalash is placed. The gudi is then covered with a colorful silk cloth. It is decorated with marigold flowers, mango leaves, and coconuts. The gudi is a symbol of nature's bounty. It is worshipped by offering sandalwood paste, turmeric, and vermilion. Then, boys and young men of the locality form a pyramid and the person on top of the pyramid breaks the coconut which is in the kalash.

My neighbors are Maharashtrians and every year on Gudi Padwa, they bring sweets or some kind of goodies to our house. Even though I am not staying in Maharashtra, my neighbors give me a feel of the Maharashtrian culture. I am very glad that my five year old child, who knew January 1^st as the New Year, has learned that New Year according to Hindu calendar is different. It is celebrated on the first day of the Chaitra month.

Traditionally, families are supposed to begin the festivities by eating the leaves of the neem tree. Sometimes, a paste of neem leaves is prepared and mixed with ajwain, jaggery, and tamarind. All the members of the family consume this paste, which is believed to purify the blood and strengthen the body’s immune system against diseases.

Taking Gudi Padwa to be the suitable occasion to sensitize people towards trees and environment, the Maharashtra State Social Forestry Department has planned to sell saplings of Neem trees through 300 stalls across the state on this auspicious day.

The festival of Gudi Padwa is considered very auspicious. People begin new ventures and also choose to buy gold, silver, or property on this day. With the launch of Tata Motor's Nano, auto dealers are all excited and are looking forward to a huge demand for the product. They expect a number of inquiries for bookings to come in on this day.

Celebrate Holi in Its True Essence

As a child, I took a special delight in the festival of Holi. Going out with friends with pichkaris in hand filled with different hues of gulal (or aabeer, as called in Bengali), it was indeed great fun. It all used to get started in the morning and continued till afternoon (although we wanted to continue it till the evening). After coming back home, completely drenched in colored water, we used to get a good bath. My mother had a tough time bathing me. Today, I do not play Holi anymore. In fact, I find it as one of those festivals which are celebrated in complete contrast to their significance.

Holi is a festival to celebrate the triumph of good over evil. However, today I find every bit of Holi celebration no less than an evil. To elucidate, I can begin with the use of colors in today's time. In most cases, we find people celebrating it with colors having strong chemical base. These chemicals can simply ruin somebody's life by causing strong allergies on skin and even, in the eyes. These colors can also destroy your hair. Some colors are so strong that your skin and scalp bear them for many days. We all know that there is an alternative to these chemical rich colors in the form of herbal colors. But, how many us really buy them. However, we are not alone to be blamed. This is because there are many shops that charge exorbitant price for the herbal colors, making them out of reach for the common man. So, if you have a sensitive skin, playing Holi is completely a “no”.

Let us now talk about the second evil that you witness every year during this festival. Holi, for many, is simply a festival where you can drink openly with your friends. Perhaps this is the reason why I could find a huge rush in every liquor shop, while on my way back home from work, just two days before Holi. The shops were flocked by men of every age- young, middle aged and old. No wonder, we get to read so many cases of drunken driving around the time of Holi. The cases of eve teasing are also on rise during Holi. In fact, drinking and misbehaving with women and young girls can be seen as a favorite way of celebrating Holi for many. However, molesting girls in the name of Holi has become quite a trend for many years now. Whether you are drunk or not, who wants to miss the opportunity of being close to girls and touch them? The countless number of television reports on all major news channels depicting the stories of helpless girls just after Holi simply brings tears into my eyes. This is the prime reason why girls stop playing it after attaining an age. They rather enjoy being at home with their parents and feel safe.

Holi is a festival that signifies truth, goodness and bravery. Can't we celebrate it in its true essence?

Let Us Abhor What Is Wicked This Holi

The slogan which says`Bura Na Maano Holi hai' is being completely misused by people nowadays. This slogan is being treated as an excuse to do anything like playing Holi forcibly with girls, molesting girls, throwing water balloons and stuff like that. It’s both sad and ridiculous that all our festivals are being celebrated in the wrong way.

When the festival of Holi began, it was meant to be celebrated with safe colors, but now it has become a sadist festival where people are deriving pleasure out of troubling others. Instead of good wishes and harmless colors, bad behavior and stuff like rotten tomatoes and eggs, grease, and permanent colors have come into the scheme of things.

Most of us have forgotten the first rule about Holi: Don’t play Holi with the unwilling. I remember the incident that took place with one of my friends after which she completely stopped playing Holi. Just like any other excited kid, my friend was out with her pichkaari to play Holi, when a big bully came and covered her entire face with grease. She went back home crying because there was no possible way to take it off. Finally, her mother had to resort to petrol to wash her face off. It was a complete nightmare for her and she never plays Holi after that. This is just one incident. Hundreds of such incidents take place every year during Holi.

Not only this, rowdy elements treat Holi as an appropriate time to get close to girls, some even trying to molest them. They indulge in all sorts of dirty acts like forcibly rubbing color on the faces of girls and misbehaving with them. The same thing was depicted in a serial where two girls from an NGO-house were shown walking when a group of guys forcibly rubbed colours on their faces. One of the girls slapped one of the guys. In retaliation, the group surrounded and forcibly molested her. It was broad daylight. The girl’s companion asked for help from the passerby, but none paid heed. This is not just a reel life incident, such incidences happen every year during Holi.

Adding to the woes is the trend of throwing water balloons. You will find groups of young boys at every nook and crevice of a road throwing balloons, full of water, weeks before the festival. They are not even bothered of the consequences it would lead to. So, when Holi approaching, you have to think twice before going out of your house.

Is this the kind of Holi we want? Just think. Are we not losing on the significance of the festival. If you agree with me, just watch yourself before taking any step and the result will be good for all.

Make Holi Fun: Use Herbal Colors

Holi, also called the Festival of Colors, is a popular Hindu spring festival observed in India, Guyana, Trinidad, the UK and Nepal. In West Bengal, Holi is also known as Dolyatra or Boshonto Utsav ("spring festival").

The festival begins by burning of the demoness Holika, Hiranyakashipu's sister, in huge bonfires at night. The next morning is the time to rejoice and celebrate. People move out of their houses to play Holi by throwing colored powder and water at each other. They greet each other and eat lots of mouth-watering delicacies, such as Gujiya, papad, sweets, and various other items that are a treat for everyone's taste buds. A special drink called thandai is prepared, sometimes containing bhang.

The day passes off in celebration and rejoice. It is only the next day that we get to see the newspaper full of heart-breaking news like a five year boy lost his eye-sight while playing Holi, many children developed temporary blindness, some people complaining about severe rashes all over their bodies, and so on. These are some of the harmful effects of playing Holi with chemically produced industrial dyes.

Gone are the days when people used to play Holi with natural colors and flowers. Now synthetically produced colors are being used to play Holi. These colors are associated with severe health hazards. The black pastes used in Holi is found to contain lead oxide which can result in renal failure. Silver color contains aluminium bromide and is found to be carcinogenic. Red color, on the other hand, contains mercury sulphate. The prussian blue used in the blue paste has been associated with contact dermatitis, while the copper sulphate in the green has been documented to cause eye allergy, puffiness and temporary blindness.

The colorants used in the dry colors, also called gulals, was found to be toxic, with heavy metals causing asthma, skin diseases and temporary blindness. Both of the commonly used bases in gulals—asbestos or silica—are associated with health issues.

Have we completely forgotten the meaning of the festival of Holi? Or have we turned insensitive towards others and even our own self? Holi is the festival when even the enemies unite and become friends again, and we are making this festival our own enemy. Colors, which are meant to spread brightness and joy all around, are being used to take away all the light and joy from someone's life. This is not what Holi is all about. Just ponder on this for a few minutes.

If you think that you want your Holi to be a festival of joy, start using natural colors. Herbal colors are safe for playing Holi and also have a medicinal significance. The colors are traditionally made of Neem, Kumkum, Haldi, Bilva, and other medicinal herbs prescribed by Āyurvedic doctors. So, no skin disease, no asthma, no temporary blindness, and no bad news on Holi this time. Play Holi with herbal colors.

Too Much of Media Attention to Valentine's Day

For past few years, no other festival has ever attracted so much of media attention than the Valentine's Day. In the era of globalization, the whole world has become one common place, with people of one country openly welcoming the culture of other nations. As a result, no festival can be considered as unique to one country or religion anymore. Like Christmas has become a universal festival, similarly, Durga Puja or Ganpati Puja are also celebrated with much pomp and show in many foreign countries. In such a scenario where people are no more prejudiced towards those belonging to other ethnic backgrounds, it is quite common for a festival like Valentine's Day to find acceptance worldwide.

In late nineties, some Hindu and Muslim activists did protest against the celebration of Valentine's Day in India. However, it did not have much impact on our society. Couples were free to express their love for each other. There were also many who did not want to celebrate this day because they did not attach much importance to the day. Whatever be the case, it was completely an individual's decision to celebrate it or not. It is only in recent times that we have started witnessing a lot surrounding the celebrations on this day. In fact, many state governments have started taking stringent steps to curb any kind of social unrest on this day. Why all this is happening? The answer is simple: too much of media attention to those handful of extremists who have been trying to gain some kind of political mileage by protesting against the V-day.

Who knew Muthalik ( the head of Sri Rama Sene) before his goons thrashed some young girls and boys sitting inside a Mangalore pub? For 1 week, we found all news channels showing detailed news reports on that episode, not to forget, the entire bio-data of this so-called Muthalik. Attracted by the wide scale media coverage on the nuisance created by Sri Rama Sene workers, many other big and small, extremist groups (both Hindu and Muslim) started raising their voice against the V-day. They were least bothered about protecting the rich Indian culture and heritage, their sole aim being able to gain some kind of media attention and publicity.

It's really pity that the Valentine's Day has been used by some groups for their political interests. Who is to be blamed for all this? It is only we who have given so much of attention to these groups for no reason. Second on the row to be blamed is our media for there is much more for them to capture and present to the viewers. The audience as well as the media need to be least bothered about groups like Sri Rama Sene and soon we will find them fight for better causes.

Changing Trends in The Gifts Meant For Your Valentine

14th February is a special day for the lovers. Known as the Valentine's Day or Saint Valentine's Day, this day has always been celebrated as a special occasion where two people freely express their love for each other and exchange Valentine's Day gifts.

In earlier times, this day was celebrated by sending mutual love notes. However, since the 19th century, sending of valentines in the form of greeting cards became a common phenomenon. Amongst all forms of greeting cards, the heart-shaped cards have always been the most popular. It is a true symbol of the passion that two people share. The real story, however, is the sacrifice made by Saint Valentine for his beloved. On being rejected by his mistress, he was so heartbroken that he sent his still-beating heart to her as a token of his eternal love for her. However, cards depicting doves and cupid along with the heart symbol are also equally liked by people. During mid 19th century, hand-made Valentine's Day cards also became immensely popular. In fact, till date, Valentine's Day greeting cards are being considered as the most ideal gift for this day. This is the reason why this day is the second largest card-buying day of the year, worldwide, after Christmas.

As time passed by, the celebration of this day of love started involving more interesting gifts. People started clubbing flowers, stuffed toys, perfumes, and even confectionery with attractive greeting cards as a gift for their beloved. While red roses are considered just perfect for this day, people have started experimenting with other flowers as well, such as orchids, lilies, tulips, and many other exotic varieties. However, no one can deny the charm that is offered by red roses. In fact, even today, a red rose is considered synonymous with Valentine's Day.

Gift shops all across the world have also started offering various confectionery items as Valentine's Day gifts. The most preferred of them all is a wide assortment of chocolates. Heart-shaped chocolates have always been a favorite with lovers. Those who want to go to that extra bit for their beloved also love to team up a bottle of champagne with creamy lemon tarts, scrumptious brownies, luscious tirramisu and tasty yule logs. Wow! It's heaven in a box! This, however, demands quite a good budget. One can also impress his/her partner on Valentine's Day by simply gifting a good perfume brand. Of late, gifting perfumes has also become no less than a trend.

Another popular trend in Valentine's Day gifts is giving of soft toys such as teddy bears. Although, you are not a kid anymore, you can still get a cute, little teddy bear from your partner on Valentine's Day. What if you get a box of chocolates along with it! Won't it be the best day of your life?

At the end of the day, everyone wants to offer something different on the Valentine's Day. This is the reason why gift shops are coming up with new ideas every year for the Valentine's Day.

Why Should You Feel Scared on This Valentine's Day?

Celebrated on February 14, Valentine's Day is a special day on which lovers express their love for each other. On this day, people exchange mutual love notes in the form of “Valentines”. Every year, over one billion valentine's cards are sent worldwide, making it the second largest card-selling holiday after Christmas. This day is also marked by the exchange of flowers, confectionery and various other valentines day gifts between lovers.

Couples make great plans for this day. They want to make this day truly memorable. This is true for the people of not only Western countries, but also India. Today, Valentines Day is more of a universal festival. Back to my hometown, Kolkata, which is known as the “City of Joy” (more rightly, “City of Love”), Valentine's Day has always been very special. Couples there are free to express their love for each other, and that too, well in front of the beautiful Victoria Memorial. People there are hardly interested in bothering these love birds.

However, not every place in India is as liberal as Kolkata. In recent times, there have been many incidents in different corners of India which are enough to terrorize love-bound couples. A handful of troublemakers who claim themselves to be the so-called guardians of “Indian Culture” have been protesting against this day. They label this Day as a Christian celebration that erodes our cultural foundation. If someone can ask them, “Who has given them the authority to assume the role of a moral police?” Where are these people when a girl is gang raped? Is this not against our rich culture and heritage? What these people do when a woman tourist is molested by some sick Indian? Does such an act not defame our nation? In most cases, they do not have any answer. Their sole purpose is to gain some political mileage at the cost of the festive mood on the V-Day.

The recent horrendous pub attack at Mangalore is enough to speak about the awful situation in India which is no better than Taliban. The attack was carried out by Sri Ram Sena that is led by Pramod Muthalik. In his recent interview, he felt no remorse on the incident (some young girls and boys were publicly thrashed and molested; their crime being only that they were sitting in a pub). He has proudly announced that his Sena is all ready to stop the celebrations on this Valentine's Day and will continue to do so even in future. Now, with that being said, how many of you can really gather the courage to celebrate the day with your beloved?

Although, the Chief Minister of Karnataka has assured that no one will be allowed to take law in their hands, the pub attack followed by the nation-wide outcry against the incident has encouraged groups like Ram Sena to create nuisance on the V-Day as well. Shouldn't government ban such terrorist groups, when they are doing nothing except terrorizing young girls and boys? Shouldn't the task of moral policing be left to parents? Shouldn't our government deal with a tough hand with these goons? If the answer to all these questions is “Yes”, I can once again start believing that we are living in a democratic country where showing your love for someone is not a crime.