The Season 2020.

Miscellaneous topics on Carnatic music
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sirsub11
Posts: 87
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 22:51

The Season 2020.

Post by sirsub11 »

My commentary on the forthcoming non-music season.


https://sureshsubrahmanyan.blog/2020/10 ... is-season/

Nick H
Posts: 9379
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03

Re: The Season 2020.

Post by Nick H »

Reading my British news in The Guardian online, it seems that Christmas is cancelled this year too. Either cancelled, or the price to pay would be a 6-week complete lockdown starting right now (don't ask me: this is just what I read). In Britain, even non-christians are attached to christmas; even antichristians sneak some pleasure from the extended holiday and the opportunity to party with friends. The impact is hard to imagine. It is like cancelling Diwalli... or cancelling our Music Season.
Those of us coming into Chennai from other parts of the country or further afield from across the seas, are going through a sense of being left bereft
We are left bereft too. Quite apart from the music itself, The absence of the travellers and visitors is like 2/3rd of my annual social life... gone. And covid has cancelled the other third anyway. It's a disaster.

Yes, yes, I know: don't all shout at me: I know it is not a disaster on the scale of the number of dead and suffering. Of course it isn't. (and we are giving it up to do our bit not to increase those numbers among each other). But it is our personal disaster. Instead of the high point of the year, it is, maybe, the low point.

Never mind. Let us be safe, let us be well. Let us meet in the Music Academy Canteen in December 2021! :)

Ranganayaki
Posts: 1760
Joined: 02 Jan 2011, 06:23

Re: The Season 2020.

Post by Ranganayaki »

Yes, yes, I know: don't all shout at me: I know it is not a disaster on the scale of the number of dead and suffering.
I think it’s ok, Nick, to lament the little things we’ve lost. That is part of the impact of COVID too.

There’s a difference between this type of talk and the outrageous and callous things we might see from our leaders on the news.

SrinathK
Posts: 2477
Joined: 13 Jan 2013, 16:10

Re: The Season 2020.

Post by SrinathK »

More importantly, let's just be thankful we're alive and our lungs are fine. Some people I knew, aren't...

Nick H
Posts: 9379
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03

Re: The Season 2020.

Post by Nick H »

Yes... Thank you @Ranganayaki.

And... Yes, indeed, @SrinathK

RSR
Posts: 3427
Joined: 11 Oct 2015, 23:31

Re: The Season 2020.

Post by RSR »

while on the subject, Sriram.v has posted a very responsible and sensible blogpost in his madras heritage series. He suggests that we in Chennai should skip this Deepaavali. He has rightly pointed out the disaster being caused in western countries like France, Germany, even
Sweden and England not to mention the USA, due to the second wave of covid. Though Tamilnadu government has done its best , people are a bit complacent and do not observer social distancing
and other safety measures.
It is also a sign of utter callousness to the tragedy around us. Christmas is different. The spirit of Love and Prayer. what does Deepavali in Tamilnadu signify?

Ranganayaki
Posts: 1760
Joined: 02 Jan 2011, 06:23

Re: The Season 2020.

Post by Ranganayaki »

RSR wrote: 02 Nov 2020, 10:38
It is also a sign of utter callousness to the tragedy around us. Christmas is different. The spirit of Love and Prayer. what does Deepavali in Tamilnadu signify?
The same thing as Christmas.. we express it differently. We express our love through our phone calls, sharing the bhakshanams, visiting family and friends and sharing joy. It’s a time of auspiciousness and joy.

If you feel that the main thing about Diwali is the commercialism and the expense, Christmas is very much about that too. It’s a question of perspective. I don’t know if Diwali is stressful from that angle, but Christmas is certainly experienced that way in most families!

What’s skipping Diwali? Canceling festive spirit? You can transform Diwali through a collective decision. None of the usual grand purchases or wasteful fireworks, but doing something good collectively, organizing a transparent fund or a series of funds for a list of causes specially for Diwali, why not? Making Diwali bhakshanams, teaching children solidarity through sacrifice and giving, being joyful at home, why not?

RSR
Posts: 3427
Joined: 11 Oct 2015, 23:31

Re: The Season 2020.

Post by RSR »

https://sriramv.wordpress.com/2020/11/0 ... celebrated
------------------------------------
The objection to all the festivals in 2020 is the crowding . That applies to even glorious religious festivals even in Thiruppathi.
Even in normal times, Ranganathan street in TNagar Chennai allows us to barely walk through. So crowded. How would it be in DheepaavaLi times. I think , except in Tamiknadu, DheepavaLi is celebrated all over India in the way we in Taminadu celebrate Kaarthikai. no crowds.

Nick H
Posts: 9379
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03

Re: The Season 2020.

Post by Nick H »

I regret the effect on businesses, but it is the pre-festival shopping that is more worrying than the festivals themselves. I wonder how much covid was spread at the recent Kumaran-Silks stock clearance sale.

I have seen many a Diwali celebrated with fireworks on terraces and outside the front of houses. If the same thing is done this year, I doubt that it adds much danger of transmission. There may need to be changes, which people may find restrictive or even oppressive. Travel to native place and back should be considered carefuly; mixing of family members, especially elders with youngsters when they are not normally together, day by day, and probably more, but I'm not a medical man. I think that many people will not need to be told to take these precautions. But the thousands that throng to T Nagar shops didn't and won't.

I think that Diwali and Christmas are very comparable in the place that they hold in the hearts of those who celebrate them. One thing that makes Christmas perhaps more dangerous is the long hours spent by relatives, indoors, consuming food (etc).

The festivals are celebrated first in the heart, right? There is no reason why that cannot be shared, perhaps in fewer numbers and at greater distance and with appropriate precautions. Will the masses do that? I guess, sadly, we may as well ask if they will suddenly start driving with care and discipline. We'll see.

Can it be controlled? Probably not. Large-scale firework displays could be regulated, or even banned, but the folk on the street? Every street? Impossible.

Many, many people have just recently accepted change in the way that they celebrated Navaratri and Vijayadashimi. That is a good sign.

ramamatya
Posts: 150
Joined: 16 Dec 2015, 11:04

Re: The Season 2020.

Post by ramamatya »

My heart bleeds for the writer who chose to write on such a commonplace topic and turned it into an all too familiar narrative.

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