My commentary on the forthcoming non-music season.
https://sureshsubrahmanyan.blog/2020/10 ... is-season/
The Season 2020.
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Re: The Season 2020.
Reading my British news in The Guardian online, it seems that Christmas is cancelled this year too. Either cancelled, or the price to pay would be a 6-week complete lockdown starting right now (don't ask me: this is just what I read). In Britain, even non-christians are attached to christmas; even antichristians sneak some pleasure from the extended holiday and the opportunity to party with friends. The impact is hard to imagine. It is like cancelling Diwalli... or cancelling our Music Season.
Yes, yes, I know: don't all shout at me: I know it is not a disaster on the scale of the number of dead and suffering. Of course it isn't. (and we are giving it up to do our bit not to increase those numbers among each other). But it is our personal disaster. Instead of the high point of the year, it is, maybe, the low point.
Never mind. Let us be safe, let us be well. Let us meet in the Music Academy Canteen in December 2021!
We are left bereft too. Quite apart from the music itself, The absence of the travellers and visitors is like 2/3rd of my annual social life... gone. And covid has cancelled the other third anyway. It's a disaster.Those of us coming into Chennai from other parts of the country or further afield from across the seas, are going through a sense of being left bereft
Yes, yes, I know: don't all shout at me: I know it is not a disaster on the scale of the number of dead and suffering. Of course it isn't. (and we are giving it up to do our bit not to increase those numbers among each other). But it is our personal disaster. Instead of the high point of the year, it is, maybe, the low point.
Never mind. Let us be safe, let us be well. Let us meet in the Music Academy Canteen in December 2021!
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Re: The Season 2020.
I think it’s ok, Nick, to lament the little things we’ve lost. That is part of the impact of COVID too.Yes, yes, I know: don't all shout at me: I know it is not a disaster on the scale of the number of dead and suffering.
There’s a difference between this type of talk and the outrageous and callous things we might see from our leaders on the news.
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Re: The Season 2020.
More importantly, let's just be thankful we're alive and our lungs are fine. Some people I knew, aren't...
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Re: The Season 2020.
Yes... Thank you @Ranganayaki.
And... Yes, indeed, @SrinathK
And... Yes, indeed, @SrinathK
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Re: The Season 2020.
while on the subject, Sriram.v has posted a very responsible and sensible blogpost in his madras heritage series. He suggests that we in Chennai should skip this Deepaavali. He has rightly pointed out the disaster being caused in western countries like France, Germany, even
Sweden and England not to mention the USA, due to the second wave of covid. Though Tamilnadu government has done its best , people are a bit complacent and do not observer social distancing
and other safety measures.
It is also a sign of utter callousness to the tragedy around us. Christmas is different. The spirit of Love and Prayer. what does Deepavali in Tamilnadu signify?
Sweden and England not to mention the USA, due to the second wave of covid. Though Tamilnadu government has done its best , people are a bit complacent and do not observer social distancing
and other safety measures.
It is also a sign of utter callousness to the tragedy around us. Christmas is different. The spirit of Love and Prayer. what does Deepavali in Tamilnadu signify?
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Re: The Season 2020.
The same thing as Christmas.. we express it differently. We express our love through our phone calls, sharing the bhakshanams, visiting family and friends and sharing joy. It’s a time of auspiciousness and joy.
If you feel that the main thing about Diwali is the commercialism and the expense, Christmas is very much about that too. It’s a question of perspective. I don’t know if Diwali is stressful from that angle, but Christmas is certainly experienced that way in most families!
What’s skipping Diwali? Canceling festive spirit? You can transform Diwali through a collective decision. None of the usual grand purchases or wasteful fireworks, but doing something good collectively, organizing a transparent fund or a series of funds for a list of causes specially for Diwali, why not? Making Diwali bhakshanams, teaching children solidarity through sacrifice and giving, being joyful at home, why not?
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Re: The Season 2020.
https://sriramv.wordpress.com/2020/11/0 ... celebrated
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The objection to all the festivals in 2020 is the crowding . That applies to even glorious religious festivals even in Thiruppathi.
Even in normal times, Ranganathan street in TNagar Chennai allows us to barely walk through. So crowded. How would it be in DheepaavaLi times. I think , except in Tamiknadu, DheepavaLi is celebrated all over India in the way we in Taminadu celebrate Kaarthikai. no crowds.
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The objection to all the festivals in 2020 is the crowding . That applies to even glorious religious festivals even in Thiruppathi.
Even in normal times, Ranganathan street in TNagar Chennai allows us to barely walk through. So crowded. How would it be in DheepaavaLi times. I think , except in Tamiknadu, DheepavaLi is celebrated all over India in the way we in Taminadu celebrate Kaarthikai. no crowds.
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Re: The Season 2020.
I regret the effect on businesses, but it is the pre-festival shopping that is more worrying than the festivals themselves. I wonder how much covid was spread at the recent Kumaran-Silks stock clearance sale.
I have seen many a Diwali celebrated with fireworks on terraces and outside the front of houses. If the same thing is done this year, I doubt that it adds much danger of transmission. There may need to be changes, which people may find restrictive or even oppressive. Travel to native place and back should be considered carefuly; mixing of family members, especially elders with youngsters when they are not normally together, day by day, and probably more, but I'm not a medical man. I think that many people will not need to be told to take these precautions. But the thousands that throng to T Nagar shops didn't and won't.
I think that Diwali and Christmas are very comparable in the place that they hold in the hearts of those who celebrate them. One thing that makes Christmas perhaps more dangerous is the long hours spent by relatives, indoors, consuming food (etc).
The festivals are celebrated first in the heart, right? There is no reason why that cannot be shared, perhaps in fewer numbers and at greater distance and with appropriate precautions. Will the masses do that? I guess, sadly, we may as well ask if they will suddenly start driving with care and discipline. We'll see.
Can it be controlled? Probably not. Large-scale firework displays could be regulated, or even banned, but the folk on the street? Every street? Impossible.
Many, many people have just recently accepted change in the way that they celebrated Navaratri and Vijayadashimi. That is a good sign.
I have seen many a Diwali celebrated with fireworks on terraces and outside the front of houses. If the same thing is done this year, I doubt that it adds much danger of transmission. There may need to be changes, which people may find restrictive or even oppressive. Travel to native place and back should be considered carefuly; mixing of family members, especially elders with youngsters when they are not normally together, day by day, and probably more, but I'm not a medical man. I think that many people will not need to be told to take these precautions. But the thousands that throng to T Nagar shops didn't and won't.
I think that Diwali and Christmas are very comparable in the place that they hold in the hearts of those who celebrate them. One thing that makes Christmas perhaps more dangerous is the long hours spent by relatives, indoors, consuming food (etc).
The festivals are celebrated first in the heart, right? There is no reason why that cannot be shared, perhaps in fewer numbers and at greater distance and with appropriate precautions. Will the masses do that? I guess, sadly, we may as well ask if they will suddenly start driving with care and discipline. We'll see.
Can it be controlled? Probably not. Large-scale firework displays could be regulated, or even banned, but the folk on the street? Every street? Impossible.
Many, many people have just recently accepted change in the way that they celebrated Navaratri and Vijayadashimi. That is a good sign.
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Re: The Season 2020.
My heart bleeds for the writer who chose to write on such a commonplace topic and turned it into an all too familiar narrative.