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It was a regular Monday morning. Birds were chirping, people were getting ready for their weekly routine after spending a quiet, lazy weekend and social media was filled with tweets and statuses about Sunday’s IPL game. In a nutshell, it was all calm and breezy.
Until Sonu Nigam was woken up with the voice of the morning ‘azaan’ and all hell broke loose.
Sonu’s rant on ‘forced religiousness’ took no time in sparking an outrage. Bollywood got divided with Pooja Bhatt and Wajid Khan thrashing Sonu for his opinion and he received mixed reactions from the general public as well. However, seems like we finally have a sensible comment on the incident.
Last night, Renuka Shahane took to Facebook to pen a rational statement on the whole fiasco. Citing her experiences with loudspeakers at religious places, she makes a strong point.
As a kid growing up in Hyderabad, right in front of my house was a temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu (Lord Venkateshwara). Every morning at exactly 5 am the Lord & us would be woken up with M S Subbulaxmi’s magical rendition of “Sri Venkatesa Suprabhatam”. There were many around us who were disturbed by the volume of the loudspeaker because it was truly loud. But for kids like us who had school very early in the morning, it did the job of our alarm clock. I still listen to it (now privately on my headphone) while walking in the morning. Personally, I am very tolerant to high decibels. As Indians, I feel we are happiest when we are noisy. Check our festivals, weddings, celebrations, victories; they are not complete without noise and frankly, without causing some amount of inconvenience to others. So blocking the road for a baraat, firecrackers being burst in front of the terrified mare on whom the bridegroom is ensconced with scores of cars honking behind the baraat knowing full well that उनके कानों पे जू नही रेंगती; and uncles & aunties dancing breathlessly as the out of breath trumpetwala tries to produce some notes हवा में से. All in all, it’s not a happy onslaught on the ears or any other sensory organ but the baraat has a life of its own. वे उन पलों के लिये इस दुनिया के नहीं होते. The baraatis are also confident of your भलमनसाहत। All the rest of us can do is either enjoy the baraat or listen to FM on one’s own personal car radio or sigh & look down at our most trusted companion these days, our smartphones. Some good samaritan might just appear out of nowhere to regulate the cars that are piling up behind the baraat. This is a typical day in the life of us Indians. This is India, beauty in chaos, multiculturism, acceptance, noise!
Where I live, a Church close by has started playing the church bells on the loudspeaker, every morning at 6 am and evening at 7 pm. There are many senior citizens in our society who are genuinely disturbed by their loudness. Sometimes there’s a clash between the notes of the church bells and the muezzin’s call at the nearby Masjid. The Sai and Ganesh Mandir comes alive usually during festivals like Ganesh Utsav, Ram Navmi & Navratri. Many people living around these places of worship I’m sure must be very disturbed by the noise levels. If you ask me we do not need to use loudspeakers at all.
God can hear even our silences.
But then how will we prove how much we love God without making a noise & show of it?
When we have very important things to do which require waking up very early, do we wake up the whole building? No! We set an alarm and wake up without disturbing even the other members of our family. Isn’t praying very important for all those offering prayers at determined times of the day? Is it so difficult to set an alarm for that time? It isn’t! If one wants to be civil & civic one doesn’t need any loudspeakers for any celebration.
But our Indianness is not complete unless we make a loud show off everything.
We, as a nation, have to decide what is important for us. If we are to adhere to the civic norms & decibel guidelines then it should be uniform for each and every prayer, festival, Shaadi, celebration etc.
If we are to retain our ethos and the kind of people we are, we must learn to indulge all occasions of noise & invest in Bose headphones that cut the noise completely ( just kidding); just a good old pillow on the ears in the morning or cotton wool in the ears to plug out the noise will do. But if you can hear only loud noise in even the music of religions other than yours & if the cacophony of your own religion is music to your ears, then it is more a problem related to the ill-feelings in your heart rather than the decibels in your ears!
For me, since I love music and I believe in the adage “Live & let live” these musical (sometimes cacophonous)notes in the morning are most welcome if they are legal.
I would definitely exhort the authorities to be strict with any noise pollution that is illegal. I do not condone anything that is illegal. Because if we don’t follow rules, the next step would be anarchy. There can be no harmony in anarchy.
Here’s a request to all the people who pray early in the morning, let’s not make prayers a contentious issue where politicians & the regular right, left & centrewalas gain publicity & votes on the basis of this. Prayers are very personal, aren’t they? Let’s use them to build bridges rather than create gaps.
As far as Sonu Nigam is concerned, he has every right to voice his opinions, why is there such an outrage about anything anyone says these days? Yes, I didn’t agree with what he said but I respect his right to have a different opinion than mine. Though I must say, the tone & manner of saying it was not very nice. It could perhaps be the only false note in Sonu’s entire rich musical career! Or maybe he’s trying to hit the ‘right’ note?? उपरवाला जाने
As Renuka Shahane said, “God can hear even our silences.”
You can read the original post here.
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