Critic - My Well wisher

We often come across a situation where we feel hurt for ourselves out of some random conversation or else get hurt on feedback given by a friend. Of Course, a negative feedback. And now you are thinking of the unseen horns and excused grown nails of your friend that hurt you. You picture them as critic and feel lost. You are hurt for the feedback and feel low. It is not at times about the feedback which is expected it Is about who gave it that matters. You feel like you friend stabbed you in the back and you tend to carry that stab along with you lifelong.

I am talking about the misunderstanding and the ego fights among the loved ones or friends. We tend to hold very flowery and goody image of a friend we hold a rough and hurting image of a critic.   

Putting some light on it lets us see how the critic helps us improve or show better performance. How important is to have a critic in life?  Every friend should be a critic to make you understand where you stand. We have often seen in movies that the best of friends get away from each other due to some ego issues or silly issues. We watch it till end thinking why do people never sit across the table and just speak about. Why carry those silly egos and fights. We come easily for opinion for others to overcome. Being a critic is easy art obtained by many of us. You can just shake it off like a hairy fluffy doggy, ignore the haters, try and prove them wrong or welcome your critic along, to direct you. It would be less rattling if we were surrounded by cheerleaders and encouragers isn’t it?

But too often your biggest critic is someone you love, you share every part of bit, someone you are closer to. If you come up with an exclusive idea of your next venture and you are told about all the negatives possibilities, limitations and terrible outcomes and hundreds of reasons for not doing it. Does that put you off??

Your critic can be your biggest asset

1.     Your critic will find all the faults in your plans, probably he /she could see something, think something that you cannot see. That gives you a different insight. They may sound like fault finding but believe that are actual loopholes.

2.     Sometimes hearing other people speak gives your thought an ignite, and   courage to speak.

3.     Your critic may help you approach you had not thought of, which your future customer may voice up.

4.     Your critic wants you to be just you, do not get it twisted thinking he /she is just about negativity for you. As that would bring the best of you.

Critics are not essentially, bad you need one who can show you the worst possibilities and overcome obstacles. It is better to have a genuine critic   than having a foolish friend.

We have a saying Marathi “Nindakache ghar asave shejari”. Which means you should have a critic neighbour. The famous appraisal system in the organisation is not only about salary rise but Feedback from your critic, you boss, and who actually helps you to grow. You may immediately not feel very happy about the feedback but in long term you will realise, most things you have learned in life are  in hard times, having critics around.  

So let the critic be…..and grow.


Ganpati Bappa Morya

 

Nationalist and freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak was the man who turned the private Ganapati Festival into Public festival. Basically, he found the need to bridge the beliefs between people and there could have been no better options than Ganpati Bappa and Shivaji Maharaj. He started celebrating Shivajayanti and Ganesh Utsav. We all know Ganesh Utsav is a ten-day-long festival celebrated in Maharashtra. Now as people travelled in different states and countries they carried their celebrations and beliefs with them. Tilak choose Ganesh festival as Ganpati was “The God for every man” and “Common Man,” this helped him getting people of all upper and lower caste, Brahmins and non-Brahmins together and fight against the British who did not allow public gatherings in those days.

Ganesh Utsav then and now

Earlier idols were made up of clay, or say mud only which later turned to POP and use of other chemicals involved in making the idol more beautiful and presentable. Resulting in water pollution on immersion of idols after the tenth day due to the chemical use.

Earlier ten days were celebrated along with cultural events like dance, drama, musical night and debates but that was all related to the religious content or freedom struggle. But today we celebrate with dance and drams etc irrespective of religious content.

Earlier the festival was like “EK GAAV EK GANAPATI” today we completely fail on this concept. Though the cities have also become larger and expanded their limits there is no count of mandals around, every society and every defined area has their Ganpati festival, their own Ganesh Mandal. There is no outline of events followed, no defined structure. It’s just about competition among us comparing the height of the idol and the expenses done against the festival.

The regional celebration is now a National celebration and more of political celebration. Collecting donations for the idol was earlier as per the wish of donor, but now it’s more of threat and fixed amount irrespective of your wish for the local businessman’s.  

Today it’s just about endless meaningless music along with bare bodies moving on it in front of huge gigantic statues and pandals. Going by some figures there were 3000 pandals in Mumbai in 1995 which turned to 12000 by 2016.

Ganpati Bappa is the god of wisdom and prosperity. We all love him as the favourite god and for his Modaks. Can we make this celebration better by making small changes in it? This year we do not have many Pandals, taking this as an opportunity

Ø Can we make changes in our celebrations? Some villages have taken the initiative of “EK GAAV EK GANAPATI”.

Ø The idols are limited to 2 feet only. Above all this, there would be no assembling of people and no procession as well. But there are still POP idols. Can we all go for eco-friendly Ganesh idols, idols out of the paper mash, natural colours, and natural red and black Clay?

    Can we have some structure of celebration relevant to our culture?

Ø Can we try and make it less noisy, and more meaning full.          

Ø Can we all take up Tilak’s agenda and limit the number of idols. Of course, today making idols is one of the biggest annual businesses, but we will have to be hard and take a step ahead. In fact, going ahead can we learn pottery skills and try and make our own idols.

Ø Can we make Athravashirsha an everyday event for?

Ø Can we contribute less to noise and air pollution?

Ø Events like dancing are also forms of art to be conducted but can that be something classical, something religious.

Ø Let’s organise a competition that will enrich our lives.

    Mind it; it’s just not a celebration or festival. People tend to follow so many auspicious things at home, treat the same idol with so much belief and respect but same people fail to follow it in public mandals. What an irony! This year we need to take extra care during Ganesh festival. Let us stay at home, avoid visiting public places and sarvajanik mandals. Try spending this Ganesh festival with your Ganpati idol at your place. Let us pray Bappa for the eradication of all the diseases and sufferings around and may Bappa bless you all health and wisdom.   

Ganpati Bappa Morya,pudhchya varshi lawkar ya……..2021