So the Ganesh festival is here. Diwali is not too far
away and Christmas will follow. But perhaps the biggest ‘festival and the
reason to celebrate will the New year when the bane of 2020 will be over.
Hopefully that is.
By now the realisation has dawned that neither the
Ganesh festival, or Diwali and perhaps even Christmas will see the return of
the good old days. And it is this realisation which is not just important but a
sobering reality. The mantra is –stop planning or expecting. Just see this
period through
Hopes of a regular Ganesh Chaturthi have now died
down. The virus has ensured that. For that matter, even those considered
optimists are now hedging their bets whether Diwali or even Christmas could be
celebrated with the regular fervour.
For Nazima Shaikh felt the pandemic had brought about
a change in life and they had now adjusted to it. She said “One the thing that
was good about this change was that we could spend more time with our family,
and appreciate each other’s company because when we would invite or go about
wishing people we actually would never spend much time with family and would be
busy attending everyone else”. She added that Eid which meant celebration with
the whole family now could not happen, Nazima smiled and said the change had
been good and bad too but in the long run, everyone had to adjust.
The virus would also bring people closer. Roy Mathew
felt that family members and relatives were now even closer and were spending
more time talking to each other and would perhaps spend time during festivals
like Diwali and Christmas. He said “These festivals may not be celebrated in
their usual style but it will bring people closer”
One time builder and now social entrepreneur Kula
Shekhar Kantipudi said people never expected the goalposts to keep changing.
Today, India had one of the highest rates of infection in the world and people
understood the consequences of the virus. Today he said it was all about
survival for tens of thousands of people and many were now depending on their
friends. He said “ Many have lost jobs or endured massive salaries cuts
and they have to deal with all this. Stress levels are so high for a lot of
people. Families have had to adjust to the new reality some better than others.
I know of friends who have to lend money to close friends who have no jobs. The
stress of paying EMI’s and fees were getting too much. People are getting
together and helping each other out. Some are taking refuge in spirituality.
These are very tough times”.
Perhaps the most interesting response was given
by Smitha Bhandare Kamat an academic who said “
Civilisations have evolved, died and evolved again. Life and living or rather a
society are always in a state of flux. Change is inevitable. We have come full
circle and are back at the primal stage, where ‘Survival of the fittest’, still
stands true, though the rules of the game have been modified. We’re learning,
to adapt and adopt to the new way of life. I personally believe that even this
crisis will pass away, unifying, and leaving us stronger. And ‘hope’ will
always be the driving force. As for the feasts and festivities, we will always
find a new methodology to celebrate. At the moment I’m just thankful for God
grace and pray that God’s best creation will learn from its errors and emerge
out more humble, compassionate and humane”.
But there are die-hard
optimists. And Goa is Goa because of them. Savio Messias
hotelier, restaurateur and former President of the TTAG said “We will have a
very good Christmas and a good Diwali. We will find a cure by then, of that I
am sure. People are gradually getting used to the situation and are working out
their lives accordingly. We are quite optimistic business will improve as well
will be almost back to normal by the year-end. Life has to go on, virus or no
virus”.
