9 days 9 colours

This is the festive season of Navratri. Navratri literally means 9 nights. This festival is celebrated to represent or remember that goddess Durga defeated Mahishasur, she fought with him for 9 consecutive days using 9 different avatars.

Nowadays Navratri celebration has been commercialised. I do not have a problem with that because these festivals generate great revenue. Many communities or even small-medium artist earn a lot from these festivals. Then comes the debate of celebrating Navratri using 9 different colours. In early 2000 one of the newspapers was not profitable. As the sales declined, they came up with a new marketing strategy. They published in their newspaper which colours are to be worn on each day of Navratri. They would not declare all colours at once, rather they would declare which colour is to be worn today and which colour is to be worn tomorrow. This marketing campaign was very successful and the newspaper definitely made good profit from this strategy.

Now after several years there are many experts (so called) still debate whether this nine Colors on 9 days has any cultural or religious significance. The marketing strategy of the newspaper is always discussed. Several people claim that we should not follow these colours because there is no relevance to this. 

Well, there may not be any religious significance, however we cannot deny the cultural significance of this phenomenon. I do agree that before 2000 there was no such concept of wearing 9 different colours on 9 days of Navratri. It probably was introduced by that newspaper, I do not deny that. But ever since the introduction of this phenomenon I do see a cultural impact. This festival is now celebrated with more enthusiasm. The discussion on which colours are to be worn start at least a month before the actual festival. Everyone wants to dress up in the colour which is designated for the day. To me it also has a significance to show our Unity. On these days saying that several people who we do not even know dress up in the same colour shows solidarity. It also shows commitment. Anything that will connect me to another human being is a cultural phenomenon. 

I wholeheartedly except the celebration of 9 days with 9 different colours. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Not a friendly face

Image
I often get told that I do not have a friendly face. Looking at my face, people often tell me that I look very strict. If I don't smile, I appear to be unapproachable. I have been told throughout my career that I look unapproachable. I look strict and that is why I look scary people are afraid to approach me because the way I look. This is purely based on how I look. They don't even bother to interact with me to decide whether I am approachable or I am unfriendly. Based on how I look, I am easily judged as strict unfriendly or unapproachable. The reality is quite contradicting to their judgement. I do not need to say anything in addition to that. That leads me to several questions which are an answer till date. Unapproachable, what does that exactly mean? Unfriendly, what does that mean as well? How do you label somebody as unapproachable or unfriendly just by looking at their face? What happened with "Don't judge the book by its cover"? What happened to "bea...
Read more

The craze of social media

A couple of days ago I came across something very disturbing.   A colleague showed me a social media post. This post was created by my colleague's friend (OP). The post was about an art created by her brother for her daughter. Normal right? Until it isn't. The OP's brother is a painter an artist. The post shows that her brother had small amount of his blood extracted. This blood was taken on to a palette. He has used his blood to create a painting of his niece (OP's daughter). The girl appears to be three or four years old.  He had painted his niece with his own blood on a canvas. This painting was gifted to the niece on her birthday. In this social media post the entire process of creating this painting was shown right from drawing of blood from the painters vein till gifting this painting to his niece on her birthday. The worst part is that the OP had mentioned "I am proud of you brother" as the caption of the post. After seeing this post I was deeply distur...
Read more

Monochromatic style

Image
Minimalistic fashion is currently trending. When we refer to minimalistic fashion, we will often see capsule collection and also monochrome outfits. There is a huge misconception that monochrome outfits only mean, black and white outfits, black with black, white with white, or neutral outfits of same shade. Though these look good, monochrome outfits are not limited inly yo these options. Any colour can be picked for creating a monochromatic outfit. Here is how: 1. Pick a statement piece of the outfit. It could be a shirt, trousers, skirt, blazer, or any piece.  2. Find the complementary piece in the same colour but different shade. 3. Add accessories. Another misconception about monochromatic outfit is that they are boring. Monochromatic outfits can look boring if styled incorrectly. They can be made to look interesting by adding accessories.  Many people also claim that monochromatic outfits make one look old. Absolutely not! Use of same colour never l...
Read more