Arrived.Fresh.New - With Ugadi

I woke up to an auspicious morning. Yes. Today is UGADI- a festival that marks the beginning of a new year in a few cultures in south India. Yug refers to era and Adi means Beginning and hence this festival is the beginning of a new year according to the Hindu lunar calendar. It is celebrated with great fanfare in the Indian states of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Ugadi is celebrated on the "Shukla Paksha" of the first month of "Chaithra Masa" i.e. during the spring month ('Vasanta-Rutu').The onset of spring marks a beginning of new life with plants acquiring new life. The Panchangam (Hindu calendar) is calculated using Ugadi or the spring season as the first month.It is the beginning of a new Hindu Lunar calendar with a change in moon’s orbit starting from today. People, on this day , are to wake up early!! Have an oil bath, visit temple and spend the day with friends and relatives with sweets doing the rounds.

But joy aside, I think, complacency has crept into our society when it comes to celebrating festivals. The underlying aim of these events seems to have been lost in years of habitual celebration. Have we ever thought of assessing their relevance to the modern society or rather I must say our relevance to these auspicious occasions?

Do these festivals still hold ideological relevance in modern life? Do we still yearn for these festivals because they a social message or the joy is purely out of the fact that it breaks the monotony of life for yet another day?

It’s quite disheartening and equally distressing to know that the variety of festivals we have inherited from our culture, today, hold not ideological but practical and materialistic importance. Today, festivals are identified for their fanfare and grandeur and not for the cause that has given us a reason to celebrate. Festivals have just remained to be imageries for meaningless indulgences.

How many of us actually know that Ugadi is a day when, supposedly, Brahma is known to have begun his creation (of earth), how many of us knew that this festival marks the beginning of spring season and therefore the new life’s beginning. The onset of spring also marks a beginning of new life with plants acquiring new life, shoots and leaves. The vibrancy of life and verdant fields, meadows full of colourful blossoms signify growth, prosperity and well-being. It is a tribute to Mother Nature and the festival is yet another characteristic feature of the Indian civilization – we have learnt to evolve in harmony with nature.


Festivals are social philanthropists. They aim at bringing together people from all walks of life. They are a reason to celebrate but never to forget they have a moral obligation. Festivals are the cause for socializing. They are for breaking the monotony from strenuous life . It is a reason to celebrate with people and spread joy and happiness all around.

With the advent of “modernity”, the intellectual tanks of people are drying up. Today to the college student, festival is a break from the mundane hours of lectures, to an IT pro, it is a reason to sleep late and start the day with the characteristic “Sunday brunch”. Where have all the granpa-grannma stories gone. Weren’t they supposed to have taught us why we do the things we do in our culture? The parental generation of today holds perhaps the last chord to the yester-years. Gone are the days when summers were meant for grandparents, when festivals ever had some meaning and when we ever bothered about knowing certain elements of our making.

Today, I still celebrate Ugadi but not knowing about it as much as my father did. Tomorrow, my child will just celebrate Ugadi and may be my grand-child will just take an off in the name of Ugadi.

Aim being no preacher but just a self-conscious man who begs to get back to his roots

Chirag

PS: No offence meant to anyone with this blog. His is not to target any particular group or people. Apologies if you feel offended.