E-Paper
Santa & Banta Claus
The wonderful thing about Christmas is that even if all of us are not overwhelmed by the inspiring force of the Christian God and his divine son, we tend to take the special day as the start of a boisterous ‘Western-style’ celebratory week.
The wonderful thing about Christmas is that even if all of us are not overwhelmed by the inspiring force of the Christian God and his divine son, we tend to take the special day as the start of a boisterous ‘Western-style’ celebratory week. It starts on Christmas Eve — with a mixture of jollity and spirits — and ends in the wee hours of December 31-January 1 — with a mixture of jollity and spirits. In a way, it’s an elongated version of Diwali with the additional virtue of being celebrated as a mainstream festival in the developed nations that we, like it or not, wish to join one day. The localised twists give it a special flavour as we see skinny men wearing Santa costumes outside restaurants trying to churn out a ‘Ho, ho, ho!’ with some of them adding the prefix of ‘Jai’ with their exclamations.
But we have a darn good suggestion that should make Christmas even more boisterous at least across the Indo-Gangetic plains where the good-natured Sardar (of the ‘Sardar jokes’ fame) can be seen as a desi version of St Nicholas, the original Father Christmas. And you don’t even have to really scour the length and breadth of Punjab to come up with an apt name — it already exists in the form of Santa...and his ever-faithful fellow raconteur Banta.
Santa-Banta jokes have been the staple for clean, fun desi humour much before those less funny ones involving Manmohan-Montek. Santa says something; Banta responds, Santa gives his crowning repartee that makes all of us break into stitches.
To brand Santa (and Banta) as an Indian Christmas special would not only cheer us up with double force but would also confirm our contribution to Christmas celebrations whether in Jesus’ birthplace in Palestine or in Santa Claus’ headquarters in the North Pole. So as you dig into that plum pudding and interrupt those carol singers, don’t hesitate to crack those nuggets celebrating Santa. And Banta.
