Planters feeling short-changed Style and substance
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 04, 2012 -
Horticulture Minister Gaikhangam greets a farmer and inset the beauty queens :: Pix - TSE
Style over substance or substance over style ?
What would Kut festival be without the Miss Kut competition ?
Hasn't the inclusion of Miss Orange competition added that dash of colour and glitz to the Orange festival held at Tamenglong annually ?
At the same time, the Kachai Lemon festival and more recently the Sirarakhong Chilly festival are doing fine, sans the glamour associated with a beauty contest.
Ideally the two should overlap and complement each other, for there is no gain saying the fact that a food should taste as good as it is served.
This obviously did not seem to be the case with the 5th State Level Pineapple Festival held at Sendra on September 1, with some planters more than hinting that they have been short-changed by the glamour and glitz associated with the entertainment programmes, notably the Miss Pineapple contest.
No one would grudge these farmers their share of the credit in lending substance and adding weight to the festival, afterall it was a Pineapple Festival and not a Miss Manipur or a Miss Autumn competition.
Yet at the same time, the truth also stands that minus the entertainment programmes, the festival may not have been able to attract the kind of turn out as it did.
The answer therefore lies in a situation where the presence of people who tilled the soil to display the produce before the people and the people essaying the entertainment programmes complement each other.
Striking the balance may perhaps turn out to be the toughest part, for the argument between the entertainment value of a festival and the essence of the festival seems never ending.
Among the many titles that may come along with the crown of a beauty queen is ‘ambassador of a cause.’
Among the themes that festivals may carry, especially in a place like Manipur, is the underlining cord between the people and nature.
And so it is that Kut Festival, Lui-Ngaini, Kachai Lemon Festival, Sirarakhong Chilly Festival, Tamenglong Orange Festival, Pineapple Festival etc are all inextricably linked with the harvesting of a crop.
It is only right then that the entertainment programmes hosted in connection with these festivals should convey the core meaning of the festivals. Its effectiveness depends on how the medium of information is used to convey the message. One should not be allowed to overshadow the other. It is the balancing act that counts, ultimately.
Entertainment programmes are meant to draw in the crowd and the product under which the festival is organised should then be showcased to draw the attention of the crowd, which had been drawn in by the entertainment programmes.
This may sound boring and tedious, but then so are numerous human endeavours.
The entertaining part must be used to such effect that it helps to a certain extent in defusing the tediousness but not to the extent of grabbing the limelight at the cost of others.
Organising festivals is not a cake walk for sure.
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