Save Chandigarh’s gardens

ARM-chair “environmentalist” Daler Mehndi, masquerading as the messiah of Punjabi pop of our times, has left Chandigarhians high and dry, with his frenzied fans resorting to trampling of thousands of flowers at Daler Mehndi Nite at the Sector 36 Fragrance Garden of the City Beautiful.

They ruined the exotic garden by reducing it to a mere dumping ground for chocolate wrappers, coffee and coke cans and cups. The ugly tell-tale imprints of a huge dais, thousands of chairs and the barricade put up to regulate the flow of over-enthusiastic Daler fans storming the venue, the ravaged flower beds, hedges and gorgeous, velvety lawns that soothed the feet of innumerable morning walkers, speak volumes for the cruel hand of the devil in man.

The Nite turned out to be a nightmarish odyssey for the principal and students of MCM DAV College, at a stone’s throw from the venue. A few of the over-enthusiastic Daler buffs even dared to trespass into the college premises, by jumping over the walls and climbed the trees in the vicinity to have a clearer and closer view of their pop icon, with none around, including the city police manning the venue, to help them despite unending telephonic calls for help.

This not only speaks of the rising cult of rowdyism in Chandigarh but also of the collapse of the law and order machinery.

I vividly recall having witnessed a music function during my childhood days, at which, among the others who gave their performances, were melody queens, Surinder Kaur and Parkash Kaur and legendary folk singer Asa Singh Mastana. The highly appreciative audience had enjoyed the pulsating Punjabi folk music, with no semi-nude, nubile nymphets around to perform amorous dances with highly obscene body gestures. Hats off to Daler “bhaji” for this “innovative” addition to the Punjabi pop!

Taking a cue from this pop show, read flop show, the Chandigarh Administration should impose a blanket ban on such functions, at least on holding these in the city gardens. The fairs and festivals being organised at such places year after year must also be banned.

RAMESH K. DHIMAN
Chandigarh

Valentine’s Day in India

The recent practice of celebrating Valentine’s Day on February 14 every year by youngsters as also some “moms and dads” is getting strengthened. During the past few years a dramatic change in its celebrations has occurred. Even some older people now join the celebrations. Various business establishments come out with innovative strategies to sell their products during the so-called Valentine Week. One of the famous fast food joints in the City Beautiful this year came out with an idea of pizza in the shape of a heart and similar other eatables like cakes, biscuits, candies and chocolates to lure customers.

A huge amount of money is spent on buying costly gifts and cards just to say “I love you” either to one’s beloved, lover, wife, husband, mother (in-law), father (in-law), son or daughter (in-law).

Such a way of expressing one’s love amuses me as an Indian. During my recent stay in the USA I did not see even a single festival of our country or even of South Asia being celebrated by Americans. The people there are not even aware of our major festivals like Diwali and Dasehra. I still remember how badly I was trapped along with my senior female colleague at Panjab University on Valentine’s Day three years ago. Cheap remarks were made against her (in her early thirties). I also saw youngsters throwing tomatoes, eggs, etc, on the girls en route near Home Science College and G.C.G. Is this how Valentine’s Day is celebrated abroad? We are adopting Western culture without imbibing its good points.

Panjab University did a commendable job by not allowing the Valentine’s Day celebration at the campus this year. Such steps should also be taken by the government as well as private organisations. We, especially parents, must work hard to discourage youngsters from indulging in such activities as do not fit in with our own culture and traditions.

RAJEEV GOEL
Panchkula

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Conversion is a sin

Peaceful co-existence is possible among equals — be they nations, religions or individuals. It is this concept of equality of all religions and creeds that kept India free of religious strife for centuries before Islamic invasion. Even Al-Baruni noted that the religious controversies were confined to a “fight with words”. Raghuvendra Tanwar in “Not a matter of faith alone” (Jan 24) has completely ignored this necessity for equality among religions and falls back upon the routine policy of appeasing the minority-so very popular with the politicians and the editors alike. Objectivity and logic are the casualties. His “disgust” at the cornering of a “minority which has almost 26 million adherents” is misplaced because it is this minority which is not ready to accept the equality of all religions. The reason clearly lies in that the equality once, admitted, will render all conversions illogical and meaningless.

Indeed, there can be “no greater folly” than to view India “as it was say 1,000 years ago”. This advice is, however, applicable to all communities. These 1,000 years have seen the advent of the printing machine which has made the religious scriptures available to all interested individuals. “Priest” and “missionary” are no longer necessary. Why should one go to a Church for a sermon when a visit to a library on any day will do? It is no longer necessary to embrace Christianity to study Bible just as it is not necessary to become a Hindu to “seek solace from Bhagwadgita”.

In any case our constitution assures equality of all religions and a self-assumed superiority, if professed by any faith, is not only unconstitutional but also illegal. There can be no place for “conversions” in free India. A well-informed person can “find his own way” as Buddha said, and to make use of money-power to force conversion is a sin against constitution and God.

L. R. SHARMA
Solan

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“Lunatic asylum”

There is yearning in every conscientious heart for peace. No religion preaches violence and jealousy for others. Because of the wounds —the rejections - we have received in past relationships, we are frightened by the risks. In our fear, we discount the dream of an authentic community free from all fundamentalists as merely visionary. But there are rules by which people can come back together by which the old wounds are healed. To be tolerant and patient to other’s faith as you want them to be for yours is the key source. It is the mission to teach these rules - to make hope real again - to make the vision actually manifest in a world which has almost forgotten the glory of what it means to be human.

The fundamentalist forces are doing to this world what David Lloyd George rightly said, “The world is becoming a lunatic asylum run by lunatics”. The problem in the so-called free society of ours is that the state tries to administer the affairs of the people and never try to administer justice among people who conduct their affairs. This is the root cause for the failure of the government to control all injustices.

JEETENDRA SAINI
Kurukshetra

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Shameful

Christian missionaries in India have been doing a lot for the welfare of poor, downtrodden, ill and of course for the cause of education but still they are invariably looked upon with suspicion. What a shame! Who can convert whom, forcibly-that is without consent? Instead of finding faults in them we should emulate their example and learn how systematically and happily they live for the uplift of needy and forlorn and that too in a foreign land. The tragic burning of Steines and his two young ones has proved beyond doubt that we are not human beings but beasts and have little value for our own religion and that of others.

SUNIL CHOPRA
Ludhiana