Festivals, concerts, weddings, and birthday celebrations are fascinating and appealing, thus adding colour to our lives, breaking the monotony of the mundane routine. Festivals promote diversity with a difference, promote neighbours to dialogue, increase creativity and improve our general psychological well being. People meet and greet each other, donning their best attire.The aura and the ambience of the event, scrumptious and sumptuous delights- is a feast for the eyes tantalising the taste buds.
As the festival of elections is in full swing, it reminded me of the beautiful times and connections that we built and shared together when we visited the polling station in our area to exercise our right. Reminiscing the words of an acquaintance over there, who asked me about my well-being, made me realise how long it had been since we could talk with each other. The guy who lived literally next door to me rarely got to go beyond “hi’s” and “hellos” because we were so engrossed in our own tiny worlds.
Nevertheless, the day was different. We were both in the queue for voting and chatted away for an hour and a half, expressing our heartfelt thanks to the directive from the election commission banning the use of mobile phones in the polling booth. Our phones didn’t distract us, and we had a real conversation. From politics to Bollywood, from IPL to the cricket world cup, from neighbours to our families, he told me that he was blessed with a baby girl a few weeks ago and it was sort of embarrassing for me that in spite of being neighbours, I was not even aware.
It was a similar sight everywhere in the queue, and people were expressing their hearts to each other. It was indeed an opportunity for neighbours to bond and gel together having some real conversations. The festival of democracy turned out to be a festival bigger than the traditional Diwali and New Year as we went beyond just exchanging pleasantries. We actually had a human-to-human interaction, and it was a sight to behold. In the queue, a young man was flaunting his general knowledge as he shared his perspective on every national and international issue being discussed around him. An interesting middle-aged man, who cracked jokes, made the ambience lovely and lively. Excited, first-time voters shared their enthusiasm, while the senior citizens gave the impression of “been there, done that.” It was a festival I enjoyed for a long time. Truly, it turned out to be the “Desh ka Mahatyohaar.”
{{/usCountry}}It was a similar sight everywhere in the queue, and people were expressing their hearts to each other. It was indeed an opportunity for neighbours to bond and gel together having some real conversations. The festival of democracy turned out to be a festival bigger than the traditional Diwali and New Year as we went beyond just exchanging pleasantries. We actually had a human-to-human interaction, and it was a sight to behold. In the queue, a young man was flaunting his general knowledge as he shared his perspective on every national and international issue being discussed around him. An interesting middle-aged man, who cracked jokes, made the ambience lovely and lively. Excited, first-time voters shared their enthusiasm, while the senior citizens gave the impression of “been there, done that.” It was a festival I enjoyed for a long time. Truly, it turned out to be the “Desh ka Mahatyohaar.”
{{/usCountry}}And before we knew it, it was our turn to vote. We got inked and ensured our participation in the world’s largest democracy. As we walked out, we promised to stay in touch and catch up regularly. “Hopefully it will not be during the next elections,” he quipped, and we laughed as we headed to our homes.
This festival was a wake-up call for all of us around who promised and pledged to be a part of each other’s happiness by sharing and living the moment together. Let’s hope the festival this time brings the cheer and makes us happy with new hope, new memories, new goals, and, of course, newer bonds and beliefs.
imartisood@gmail.com
The writer is a Chandigarh-based freelance contributor