How good would you feel if someone intrudes into your house and forcefully feeds you with the most tasteless dish you dislike the most?
I remember a TV commercial that spoke on the similar lines. An elderly couple sitting in a park is disturbed by an insensitive smoker who sits next to them and drags on. When the elderly man understands that the smoker won’t either go away or stop smoking, he gets up, buys a plate of some eatable and stuffs the mouth of the smoker. The smoker is knocked for a six and asks for an explanation. The elderly man says, ‘you stuffed our noses and lungs with the cigar smoke without our permission. We are also doing just the same’. An eye for an eye! The smoker in the ad understands the message and apologizes to the couple and leaves. But not everyone is at least as level-headed as the smoker in the ad.
This morning when I heard wild screams and horrifying laughter of a group of youngsters, I realized that the festival of Holi is once again here to agonize me and my family. It brought memories of previous year back alive. Last year on the day of Holi the campus was literally terrorized. A group of my colleagues was patrolling the living quarters of lecturers in appallingly dirty, scanty (for a lecturer) clothing, hooting, poking fun at and howling at their victims. They carried buckets of synthetic colours dissolved in water, eggs (rotten?), tomatoes, bags of mud, etc. to bathe their victims with. At around 7 in the morning you would hear a knock at your door. If you opened unawares, you would be bathed in the most disgusting sticky, coloured liquids. Your house you keep clean would be dirtied. Your clothes you care for would instantly become useless for future use. Your skin would be stained for days with synthetic colours. Your mood would be spoiled for the day by the time the extreme negative rambunctious campaign left your house. By the grace of god and the vigilant help of my neighbours I was saved from the ordeal of being abused colourfully last year. But the offensive in front of my house continued for hours and the soldiers of colour waited outside my door for many hours to forcefully make me enjoy the festival of colours!
“Knock knock”: there they are! This year’s offensive is begun. I am angered. My blood boils. The mere memory of last year’s ordeal infuriates me. But I have decided not to open my door. I have decided to shut out the limiting forces. Let them jeer at their own meaninglessness at my door. I won’t answer my doorbell because there is an ideology beyond that door that is not open for dialogue.
The multicultural society we live in demands us to be more tolerant to our fraternity. If someone needs some free space, we are bound to give that space. When we stop giving that space, we call ourselves racist, xenophobic, intolerant, totalitarian, autocratic, despotic, dictatorial and jingoistic. These tendencies come out of every drop of colour we spray on someone who doesn’t want to be coloured.
I demand my space in this society. I need my space where I can open my door to your celebrations and participate in the way I want to participate. I don’t want to be forced to celebrate the way you want because we live in a democracy. Respect my freedom. If you don’t, I will demand for my rights as well. If you dirty my house I will need you to come in and clean my house. If you dirty my clothes I will need you to buy new clothes for me. If you spoil my mood I will need you to compensate for my loss.
We began with a question- How good would you feel if someone intrudes into your house and forcefully feeds you with the most tasteless dish you dislike the most? You answer for me. Oh boy! We live in a strange world. A celebration can be many things on the same day! Wish you all a very happy holi. Enjoy.
