Who do we belong to?

Who does the nation belong to and what is the role of the government. This is a question that has had me oscillating forever. When I was a student and full of hot blood, it was best used a socialist. The upliftment of the downtrodden and the poor was a priority. As I grew older and I wanted money to fuel my dreams and my passions, I was clear – survival of the fittest and capitalism is the best answer to the question of poverty. I think over the years capitalism has been largely successful in taking masses of people out of poverty, hunger and sickness. The free hand has been reasonably efficient in doing so at a large scale. Hence what is the role of the government? The Sarkar?

I find this question very difficult to answer in an unbiased fashion and way. What can I say that is not influenced by my money, success and life stage? Let’s look at a simple example – all of us rich folks hate the Ganapti celebration and the toll it takes on the traffic while we are going home. This dancing on the streets while taking the idol for immersion creates bottle necks and we rich people in cars ask – what on earth is going on? Shouldn’t all these be banned in a big commercial metropolis like Mumbai.

When I was growing up, dandiyas were like a big thing. All the gujju neighborhoods would organize massive dandiya festivals on the streets and they would dance till the wee hours of the morning. It became so big a fad that every neighborhood would organize this function right inside their colony, on whichever ground they could erect a basic pandal. It was the done thing. With the noise levels rising and the dance continuing till late, it was a matter of time that some people took objection to all the noise and started protesting. The gujjus fought back. It was their 9 nights of revelry.

This was the only time that women and men could dance together in pre liberalized India. There were no outlets for any of the young kids to go out and just hang out, let alone dance. Dance is an interesting thing. I think it is some kind of evolutionary thing where you allow your body to sway with abandon and it then takes over your mind. It allows you to flirt and exchange glances. It allows you to connect with someone matching step to step. Dandiya is the best form of this. The whole group agrees on the steps and then you match with each other – the timing being critical so that you hit the dandiyas at the same time. The whole group goes into a coordinated frenzy. The best part of this – then you twirl and move to the next dancer… multitudes of people dance with each other. Each one trying to coordinate with the other. It’s a perfect flirting sequence. No wonder it was so popular with the young kids who otherwise would shun anything so traditional. They invested their own moves, their own music and even called it a name – Disco Dandiya.

As the complaints grew, authorities took note and time limits were set. I remember at first they were often flouted butt soon enough the authorities were forced to act and the dancing would come to a close by 10 pm. That was the first body blow. The second and fatal body blow was simple – more options for the young kids. Enough discos and enough places with music where young kids could go and dance and inter mingle. Enough coffee shops and enough malls. You don’t need to dance in a community with elders watching when you simply can pub it (and get drunk as well).

This to my mind killed dandiyas completely and the gujjus simply moved on. Even in marriage ceremonies, they were taken off and replaced with dance parties with DJs, lights and daaru. But this craze didn’t die… it simply moved to the poorer sections of the society. Now dandiyas are often organized by poor ghettos and slums. They dance away with gay abandon in much the same way the gujjus of old used to. The pubs are out of reach for the poor and this is their outlet.

Ganapati celebrations are also similar. They get to get together and play music, dance away, hold compeitions and have langars. They all contribute  and often get political support and hold massive celebrations. At this stage when I see them dance and take to the roads for the processions, I am forced to be in a little bit of a dilemma. Who am I to pass judgment? Who am I to ask them to get out of the way?

As always the answer is somewhere in the middle. The poor need an outlet to enjoy and gather peacefully as a community. If we as rich asses think clearly, this is something we must promote. What’s a few days of inconvenience for fostering a community. Communities if handled well, tend to lower the crime rate and create an ecosystem that is self-dependent and economically prosperous. Studies have shown that great community living ensures a better health quotient than anything else. People take care of each other and people who retire live longer and continue to manage and grow the community. Often it’s seen that self-run communities like gymkhanas or housing societies rely on older people to run and manage them as they are ones with time. Today I was listening to a podcast that spoke about how spies are constantly worried about LOPs. LOPS? Little old people. These are people who have nothing to do but stand outside the balcony and watch other people and see patterns. They are ones that figure that things are wrong. They sit up at odd hours at night and keep a watch out. They are far more useful than what the society can imagine. In most movies and crime fiction as well as actual crime stories – it’s always the LOP that testifies. In fact once an Israeli spy ring was busted in Switzerland as they were reported behaving suspiciously around a house at 2 am by an old lady. Hah.

Jasmine is a secularist and is very annoyed that 500 rupees is added to our society maintenance charges towards society celebrations – that include Ganapati and holi and independence days etc. I agree it’s annoying and it should be voluntary. But on the other hand, this money ensures that we have society functions and that we know and recognize others in the society and socialize. We meet over such events especially for the free food on offer. Thanks to this a community develops and thanks to this people feel connected and thanks to this we work towards common goals and public goods like – cleanliness, upkeep, security etc. This increases the overall value of the property. The benefits far outweigh the costs, however communal or forced down upon.

This is the nature of human behavior. The downsides to this community is also when the society closes doors to outside ideas and talents. Societies in Mumbai, especially the older established societies with few tenants start making extra judicial laws like not allowing rental for singles or live in or work to refuse sale to people outside communities. I have argued before and studies show that a balance of renters and owners are required to bring about change. Too many renters and no one really cares about long term upkeep and too many owners and the society becomes rigid. This works as I have noticed for buildings as well as cities as a whole.

I think that religious festivities or any festivities must be encouraged but with rules that ensure that things don’t go out of hand. Fixed times and space allotted for the festivities with minimal impact outside of those directly involved may be created. Of course its gets crazy when one talks about some festivities becoming so large like the lalbaugh ka raja ganpati celebrations. The whole road outside needs to be blocked out. But on the flip side many of these generate donations that can be put to good use and least of all give employment opportunities to so many people. I like this as an income redistribution mechanism. As often seen, politicians get it right before most other professions.

Till then, I am going to be stuck in traffic, irritated and bored, spewing toxic emissions for future generations. Curse those bloody processions, I want to go home, while the meek inherit the earth.