Festival of colour is upon all : Celebrate responsibl
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 21 2019 -

The festival of colour is on. Like in the past, this time too Manipur will literally shut down for full five days while the young folks and the not so young will frolic in colours and pichkari or squirt gun or water gun.

Shops will remain closed, attendance at Government offices will be minimal (According to the Government, the festival will be for two days, that is on March 21 and March 22), road blocks will be put up by young and not so young girls to collect money from passers by, the night will be filled with the sounds of drum beats and the usual noise that comes along with every Thabal Chongba.

Nothing wrong in letting one’s hair down during the time of the festival, but as is the case with Manipur, expect some over zealous youngsters to cross the limit of enjoying to enter the realm of hooliganism and this is best exemplified by youngsters zooming around on their fancy two wheelers, sans shirts.

In other words dangerous driving and in the process giving an entirely new meaning to the term ‘festival of colour.’

The basic understanding of the phrase riots of colour is a combination of things so woven that it has a powerful effect, mostly positive, but the riots of colour that is associated with Holi or Yaoshang as it is known in the local parlance may at times come to denote the literal meaning of the word riots.

And when there is a riot, everyone understands the madness that comes along with such a term and this is what has come to be generally associated with Yaoshang.

This is where it becomes important for all to realise that as with everything, celebrations too come with its share of responsibilities.

So celebrate the festival of colour, but let the celebration also come with its share of responsibilities.

This will make the five days extravaganza all that more meaningful.

Again as in the past, the print media will close for full five days and while journalists and non-journalists working in the newspaper houses will certainly welcome the five days break, it says something profound about how everything comes to a screeching halt during the Yaoshang break.

What will make this year’s Yaoshang different is definitely the looming Lok Sabha elections and this will definitely provide the right opportunity to the candidates to reach out to the people in the ways they think is the most effective.

This is where the people will need to exercise their faculties and ensure that their franchise right is not up for sale.

Sell your vote and the price one has to pay for the next five years could be expensive and Manipur has experienced this for decades.

So a nice cocktail of Parliamentary elections and Yaoshang is up ahead of the people and this is the time to demonstrate maturity of thoughts to get the best out of the two.

Not very often that the run up to a general election co-incides with Yaoshang.

Make the festival meaningful and also make the coming election more meaningful.