As I walk towards the mall, richly decorated with multi-coloured lights arranged in various patterns, I am greeted by a wave of crowd. A wave that seems never ending. I stand in a queue to be frisked and to have my bag pack examined. The guard greets me “Happy Diwali”. I am surprised, though I wish him back with a smile. All around me the stores are decorated with bright lights, most of them full with people. Sale advertisements scream out to me. “Buy! Buy! Buy!” they seem to say.
As I walk around, I have to be careful not to come in between an on-going “photo-shoot”. There is a large group gathered ahead – possibly an on-going “event”, one of those small events where you can get a gift or two if you sing or dance or do something else the organizers want you to do. Mobile and gadget stores are full of young people, trying the latest thing in the market. The food court is full of people sitting and eating – large groups of the entire family, smaller groups of couples or friends, and a lonely soul or two, lost in the crowd.
It is the same everywhere. College hostels are brightly lit but a few are staying back at the hostel, owing perhaps to lack of tickets to go back home. They walk the corridor, perhaps the only person on that particular floor. Friends and room-mates have left for home. One is surprised to find another person, quickly nodding to the other so as to avoid a conversation and moving on. Sitting in room, a small string of coloured bulbs brightening up the otherwise dim place, listening to songs on their mobile phones or sitting and putting “Happy Diwali” posts on Facebook or other social networking websites.
The streets have a crowd, heading nowhere. Cars full of families coming back from the temple in the early evening hours, heading back to their home, or perhaps heading back from a relatives’ place. Excited children anxiously wait for the moment when they can get a chance to show off their crackers and their clothes to their neighbours and friends.
Through all this, there is another set of people - ignored. On the streets one can see young men on bikes going to make a home-delivery for pizza or something else. One can see the auto-drivers trying to find passengers that lie in the general direction that brings them closer to their home. Small or large “outlets” that are desperately trying to sell last minute set of crackers – at dramatically reduced price, hoping to pack up and head back home soon. The security guards standing outside malls and other shops, watching and waiting for the shop to close so that they can head back home.
Sales assistants at stores waiting for the manager to call it a day; young men and women organizing those “events” at mall, laughing and enjoying with you while internally waiting for the fun and frolic to be over so that they can take a break, head back home, perhaps enjoy the night with their families. Daily wage workers and other staff, hoping to get the last minute festival bonus so that they can buy a box of sweets when heading back to their families. Young corporates at offices that work through and through, waiting for the moment they can call it a day and rush back home. Throughout the crowd, there is a general sense of urgency and restlessness.
On an overall note, the scales have changed. The times have changed. The moment festive season comes around, the shopping spree starts. However, of late the trends are electronics. New mobile phones and cameras. All online stores have huge sales on clothing and electronics. The trend has changed to “Swipe! Buy! Swipe”. More and more people buy themselves things they do not need just to come to terms with the trends.
The Diwali diya has changed from the traditional ghee diya to oil based to wax based diyas being sold in packs and designs. Liquor shops have a longer queue in front of them. The community get-together timings have reduced. The fireworks display has slowly evolved into a subtle competition on who gets the best “stuff” in the colony and who has the best fireworks display. Neighbours, while smiling to each other, gently try and out-do the other by buying a product which is “one-step higher” than their neighbour. Trends have also shifted from the traditional box of sweets to fancier stuff. More and more people opt for buying and sending gifts online, saving themselves the hassle of finding something in the crowded stores and then getting it to their loved one.
People living alone and who could not go back home, adapt a different strategy. Few coop up inside their room, spending time online or staring out of a window (or else walking on a semi-illuminated terrace), watching the fireworks with a stolid expression. Quite a few head out and stay at a mall, blending in the crowd to have “company”. For most, festival time is all about ordering better food and perhaps buying themselves something they don’t need. More and more number of youngsters prefer “watching” the display these days rather than participating in activity. Sweets have been replaced with boxes of chocolates, imported and packed exclusively for the occasion.
Festival lights have lost their meaning. The degree of decoration at homes and stores get better every year, yet the inner zeal is missing. Atheists peek out of their homes wondering if they can put decoration just for the heck of it or would they be called a hypocrite. Environmentalists go on and on about the pollution and noise levels. The festival, for more and more number every year, is losing its meaning.
It seems that the youth has developed a wall inside them. Especially the ones who stay away from family and company. A wall behind which they hide, telling themselves and others that they are strong and that “loneliness” does not touch them, yet taking out the feeling in more subtle ways which they do not realize.
A major portion of us hide behind the e-wall. Festival is more about updating statuses and putting up edited photographs than sitting and having an actual conversation with someone. Love is shared through “tagged” photographs and gifts sent through electronic channels rather than an actual moment shared. As the years advance, we will keep walling ourselves in. It seems that over time it shall become a word for a large number – a word that would signify online (and otherwise) shopping, impersonal lights and decorations that mean nothing and an excuse to further detach ourselves from each other. Diwali has become Thee-Wall-In, an excuse to wall ourselves in, and also Thee-Wall-e, an excuse to hide behind the electronics.
Hope you had a good Thee-Wall-e too!
- Parekh, Pravesh
November 04, 2013;
02:20 AM
