Culture for Krishna : The Young India

Kartikey Sehgal

(The author attends Krishna Janmashtami Celebrations)

The hostess introduced the dancers and said that it is important to teach dance to young Indian girls. “Indian Classical Dance instills discipline into women. It is important for Indian culture.”

She also spoke about the Bollywood impact on children; implying that we need to move beyond recognising film dance as a substitute for traditional dance.
We saw a classical dance on a song from Lagaan, “Radha Kaise na Jale”; another one on “Kahe Chede Mohe” from Devdas. A young girl danced to ‘Chomaso’, a Rajasthani folk song that I often hum.

All this to celebrate the birthday of Krishna. Surely, birthdays are reasons to celebrate talent and human vitality.

The image of Krishna was placed alongside the image of Goddess Durga. She is important, the hostess agreed with me. Then she showed me her lucky charm, a Durga mala. She speaks the English language, she is a dance teacher, and she likes her Indian philosophy. Would you call her superstitious?
We also talked of the importance of the female form in Indian culture. And how ‘modern’ ‘educated’ people, who are still wearing the colonial fragrance, like to complain about superstitions.

The hostess was the commander-in-chief of the celebrations. She welcomed the guest and made sure they take the prasadam, a cup of delicious home-made lassi, served by the cheerful kitchen-workers.
A woman organising festivities is not a new concept in India. But we (I) come across complainers who know almost nothing of the country but are adept at pointing out cultural mistakes.

The Decorations.

The Gods.

Dressed to Perform

The hostess introduces the young dancers.

An Aside:
Close to midnight, a husband asks his wife…What is going on?
The wife says… As usual, you don’t know what’s going on… a secret of our long married life.

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The Young India

Culture for Krishna

on August 21, 2009

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