Though Life In Metro was a film based on life in India’s premier city, Mumbai, most of us would agree that it illustrated the decay of human perspective on life in general. The answer to it lies in learning to celebrate life and its various seasons
Goans, who have never needed too much of an excuse to celebrate life, recently had a gala time celebrating the annual Monsoon festival, which marks ‘San Joao’, the feast of John, the Baptist.
The festival, that traces its lineage to the Portugese rule over the state, sees the Goans celebrate by jumping into rivers, ponds and wells amidst very heavy and persistent rains. Before jumping, though, the men make sure that they wear ‘copel’ or crowns of flowers and grass, sing traditional songs and dance – all amidst heavy rains!
Heavily decorated boats row up the Chapora River from several areas in Goa, as hundreds of people cheer and make merry in rains.
The day is also about all things traditional – be it the food, clothes, music or dance. As with most things in India, the more one goes towards the villages, the Goan monsoon festival takes more traditional forms.
Now which of the aforementioned is an activity that can’t take place in Ahmedabad? We have lakes, we have a river (which has water at least in the monsoon ;-)) and we have wells too. Getting hold of boats for a festive race or rowing in the Sabarmati should not be a problem. In a city where the festival of Holi is basically about dancing under water sprinklers to the tunes of a local DJ, dancing in the rain can barely be a handicap, right? 
And yet, getting stuck with the nitty-gritty would be akin missing the tree for the woods. The issue here is not the activities that constitute a monsoon festival. The issue is that of the spirit to live life to the fullest – even in a season in which many modern-day machines (read ‘workaholic’) like you and me feel ‘grounded by bad weather’.
Bad weather? The human race seems to be completely losing the perspective in life. When was life ever meant to chain ourselves in the rat race. In a world where a lot of human lives are dependent upon the non-working of a small medical syringe of a terrorist (refer to recent bombings in the UK), how far would our daily rat race be taking us anyway!
Let’s not fall into the trap GLOVADIs, let’s not get sucked into the never-ending pursuit of ‘nothing in particular’.
Whatever the late-night shows on news channels (!) might say about reincarnation, let’s get this straight – we have got only one life. And it would be wastefully stupid of us to not make the most of it. If the giants of Indian politics ended up merely as crow-droppings-laden statues on cross-roads across India; if a true-blue superstar of Hindi films like Bharat Bhushan had died amidst poverty; if hundreds of sports-persons who represented India died because they could not afford medicines, then what are we going to achieve by having an extra sales pitch, an extra zero on stock market or an extra award against our name?
Everything that we are doing is being done by millions of others across the globe. And thousands of them are doing better than us, without having to sacrifice the real meaning of life. A lot of such smart ones are living in Goa.
Come, let’s discover life in our everyday life! Come let’s discover the romance in rains. Come, let’s hold hands of our beloveds and walk in rain. Come, let’s see how beautiful we all look in rains. Come, let’s see how beautiful life looks in rain. Come, let’s have Ahmedabad Monsoon Festival.
