Festivals in times of COVID: What’s life without festivals?

We have 13 festivals in 12 months. But the fear of COVID has taken the joy out of festivities this year and the 250-year old Ram Leela in Varanasi was put off, reflects Mrinal Pande

Festivals in times of COVID: What’s life without festivals?
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Mrinal Pande

Indians are described as Utsav Priyah, lovers of rowdy festivals. The word Utsav itself comes from Sanskrit Stavan, meaning running over! So Utsav means an event (or a chain thereof) literally brimming over with joy. Festivals have always stood for elaborate stages and overdressed crowds of people cooking too much, eating too much, inviting too many and roaming about collectively as rowdy Mela trippers! This is what a real festive season means to most Indians.

But in 2020, it’s been a rather sad home coming for Ma Durga. The raucous, rowdy Ram Lilas ending with crackers, food, toys and glitter for all, have also been missing. Festivities have been replaced by pale reflections of the traditional plays upon gigantic LED screens. With the ban on any large, loud and lurid public gatherings, and lavishly decorated closed Pandals are also missing. Gone is the colourful Dussera elephant parade in Mysuru down South. The famed Ram Lila of Ram Nagar in Varanasi, staged each year for the past 237 years, too was missed.

No traditional Ram Lila was held at Laxman ka Kila in Ayodhya either. Only virtual beaming of the play on screens entertained the crowd on remote although political stars like Manoj Tiwari, Ravi Kishan, Raza Murad and Vindu Dara Singh enacted various roles. Thus, the great Indian bonhomie on display during the monthlong festive season stands cruelly muted.

Most of the elderly, more at risk than the others, did their pooja indoors. The elderly priests, a store house of information about rituals, the traditional Anand Melas in neighbourhoods, and community kitchens that morphed after Dussera into Diwali Melas were all missed. Pandal hopping by the young and the very young, resplendent in traditional attires, did not amuse the grown-ups.

The young, for whom the festive season meant buying fancy clothes, merry Pandal hopping, flirtatious Dandiya and dancing and eating non-stop, have been a little more mobile and adventurous than the elders. But what use is mobility if all pretty faces and carefully styled hair must remain hidden and buried under ugly masks. What use are fancy attires if there are no appreciative glances and whistles following you. Why practice Dandiya steps at all? There is no dancing the night away. Pictures of hospital staff dancing in Hazmat suits going viral on social media seem straight out of a Zombie horror movie and a poor substitute!

Na ji Na, as they say in Delhi.


Once upon a time (some 12 months ago) people would joke that Bengalis living outside Bengal flocked to Kolkata or home for Pujo while all wise Calcuttans went out of town leaving the teeming and raucous city, glittering with cleverly lit streets and Pandals to the outsiders. All celebrations went virtual with people offering prayers and Anjali on line. At the Poojo Pandals a system of tokens were put in place. Collect your token, gather a bag of sanitized Prasad and go, go, go!

From Varanasi comes news that the nearly two and a half century old tradition of Ram Lila started by Goswami Tulsidas, was not staged this year. So, the family of the priest of the Sankat Mochan temple hit upon the idea of using wooden puppets in place of actual actors and beamed it online for the Bhakts. They have also urged the faithful to buy masks of the deities, the monkey and bear kings and demons, and mount their very own Ram Lila shows at home!

In Delhi where the big Ram Lila at Ramlila Maidan has been more of a political event than a religious one with the PM and Sonia Gandhi routinely firing the celebratory arrows to set fire to the image of Ravan, with the effigy then snapping with a crackle and pop amidst a fantastic firework show, has also been stalled.

Talking to cousins up in the hills with whom one shared many childhood memories of Ram Lilas (the one in Almora is 160-years old) also elicited the same laconic answers. No Leela, just a virtual one recorded in Karnatak Khola Muhalla would be beamed. The only interesting point being that this year a girl played Ram. She was Sita last year. This Ramlila hath sisterhood replacing a male Ram in the Covid Year. So much for the romance of Ram Lilas!

While taking a walk in the Lodhi gardens, I asked the guards why a large number of rhesus monkeys seemed to have suddenly descended upon the park, complete with babies and red bottomed alpha males leading mummy monkeys.

“Kya batayein Mata ji ?” (What shall we say, Mother), the guard said, “Iss baras Ramlila tau hui nahin, Durga maiya bhi Mandir ke bheeter hi bund hain, so Hanuman Baba ne apni Sena bhej dee hai iss Vatika mein shayad” (This year there are no Ramlilas and Ma Durga has been put inside enclosed temples, so possibly the Monkey god, Lord Hanuman has sent his army to this garden!)

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