If there is one specific happy takeaway from the Ganesh festival, which ends today, it is the fact that pandals have become billboards for worthy causes
If there is one specific happy takeaway from the Ganesh festival, which ends today, it is the fact that pandals have become billboards for worthy causes. While the commercial aspect cannot be ignored — with corporates using the mammoth 10-day window for visibility — it’s the causes that are particularly heartening. The same needs to be continued with even more fervour in the upcoming festivals.
Pandals across the city were espousing a number of causes. While one pandal has been pushing for organ donation, some others have been using posters to promote Save The Girl initiatives. Posters based on the theme of anti-terrorism have been put up across another pandal. Besides offering tips to people on the event of an emergency, this series of posters calls attention to ‘suspicious’ factors to keep an eye out for and lists helpline numbers too. Some posters are also zoom in on dengue and chikungunya menace. Devotees may not pay specific attention to these posters, but subliminally at least, these messages are going to be absorbed by the masses.
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Organisers should take up such initiatives during upcoming festivals to spread awareness about pertinent issues. As the city braces for a plethora of commercial hoardings and banners, we will also have those ubiquitous banners of politicians wishing people a happy this and a happy that. Instead, political parties would do well to spread responsible messages on such ‘big’ platforms.
The common man has become openly contemptuous of politicians’ mug shots plastered all over the citycape. It would be better to use the festive window for good causes with legal banners that can be removed post festivities. A celebration with a social touch is a two-pronged one — for with great joy, comes great responsibility.
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