Every year coming of October month, fills us with inner joy as we start planning our tickets to home, new clothes make their way into our wardrobe, we could almost smell boxes of sweets and chocolates making their way home and cheat days to ditch the diet plan will finally be here.
But we are almost at the entrance of festive season, and this time nothing feels like festival.
With COVID 19 positive cases increasing rapidly and death toll scariest than ever before, we are constantly living under the threat of this deadly disease corona.
We are scared while leaving our house even to buy essentials. With government now focusing on improving economy than showing concern about health of people the situation is getting harder every day. Almost every restriction imposed earlier to control the spread of this disease has been lifted off. But has the situation improved? Well, definitely no, as per the figures available it has only worsened.
Challenges we are facing during this Festive Season
This year festivals don't excite us anymore. Newspapers are filled with news of employees being laid off, salary cuts to cope up with the loses, local markets are not gloomy anymore.
What phase have we entered, we are worried to make our way back homes because that may include the use of public transport and we could still not think about their sanitation properly carried out. It's not just the use of public transportation that terrifies us but also that if we are even mildly infected with virus, we would not like to carry it home along with us.
Although people have started visiting public places now but with less money in hand and to save it for the essentials, our shopping list has reduced to bare minimum and essentials stuff only.
Forecasting the situation even the shopkeepers are not in the mood of blocking their money as people have stopped turning to shop's for huge purchases. As the demand is reduced from customers so are the available options of products at the shop.
Scaring effects of Festivals Celebration
Recently Kerala has celebrated its biggest festival of the year Onam, and the after effects of the festival are very disturbing- 126% jump is observed in COVID19 cases which has placed Kerala in the third highest list of active cases behind Maharashtra and Karnataka, which is a serious issue for a relatively small state.
How COVID impacted Local melas
As the festival season arises so is the demand to renovate houses with new decorative items to give a refreshing look. Every year craft festival is being held in national capital which is attended by hundreds of artists from different regions of the country and enjoyed by millions of people. This year's festival has had the worst response in last 20 years. Many artists start preparing for this craft mela starting from the beginning of March, but this year hardly people showed up at the venue. Artists who were making 20 lakhs till Last year could hardly make even 1 Lakh to pay for the rent of the venue. The situation has turned dreadful for such artist and they are left with no other option than looking for ways to sell products online.
Durga Puja almost a weeklong festival is celebrated throughout the country with great zeal and enthusiasm. But this year it appears to have lost it's spark. Every year organizing committee plans special themes according to which pandals are decorated conveying a social message to the society. Pandal hopping, cultural performances, late night feasting are the most awaited activities. But this year all this has taken a backseat as the guidelines are to plan the puja without too many people.
Most of the organizing committees are still under dilemma either to have idol puja or just do ghat puja. Many cities have jointly decided to have a single pandal instead of multiple pandals usually set across small blocks or society. The main focus is to maintain sanitizing, social distancing and gathering of not more than 50 person at a time. Like every other thing happening digitally these days, puja committee has also decided to telecast the puja and home delivery of bhog to nearby areas.
Let’s stay Positive during this tough time
With everything turning negative this year festivals have lost their essence. However, we still wish to celebrate the festival with the same zeal and enthusiasm.
Amid all the chaos, let us just keep the negativity aside and pray for the wellbeing of all near and dear ones. It is fine if we can’t personally go and meet the relatives of family members let’s keep the festival spirit alive and should be happy even if they are not with us, their wishes are with us. Let’s make the best use of Digital Platform to stay connected with each other.
This is a tough time and this too shall pass!!
Till then Stay Happy and have a Happy Festive Season.
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