I find it utterly ridiculous that every year young men are dying or are getting paralyzed for life during the Dahi Handi celebrations. During my school days, my school friends and I used to go from street to street watching the Govindas form human pyramids to break the Dahi Handi to retrieve the cash reward. As they climbed upon one another to form the pyramid, people from adjoining buildings would throw water on them as well as bombard them with water balloons. Many a time this would disorient the Govindas and a half-formed pyramid would come crashing down. I have seen some of them getting injured as well as suffering from fractures.
Now, I have two points to make. Firstly, can’t they be allowed to make the pyramid without people throwing water on them. This would increase the safety factor. I don’t think anybody was throwing water on the young Lord Krishna when he would climb on his friend’s shoulders to steal the curds from the pot which his mother hung high to try to prevent her mischievous son from stealing.
Secondly, the young Lord Krishna would only climb onto the shoulders of his friend to reach up to the curds. He didn’t have to make three and four and five tiers of his friends to reach the pot of curds.
Finally, a similar custom of making multi-tiered human pyramids is followed in a town in Spain but it is done in totally dry conditions where the participants do not slip and fall.
When I asked my late father as to why the state was allowing such life threatening type of activities he told me that since it was a religious festivity the authorities would turn a blind eye to the unsafe practice.
Now there is newspaper news that a person suffered major spinal fracture after two weeks of that incident. It is a pity that such daredevil activities finally meet with death. Another daredevil activity is the Jallikattu sport in Tamil Nadu.
People from other states are not thrilled much about the most dangerous sport of Tamil Nadu. Jallikattu, one of the oldest exciting and dangerous sports is a bull taming sport performed in the villages during Pongal celebrations. Jallikattu or Manju Virattu is a bull taming game and deaths are common in this sport. A wrong hit of a bull on the wrong part of the human body results in death or injures the participants or the onlookers rather seriously.
This is one of the oldest dwelling sports glimpsed in the modern era. The fighters have to jump on the running bull, try to grip on to its bulge and move along with the animal without falling or getting injured. It needs a quick reflex and a fleet foot to tame the recalcitrant bull, which will try to get away, shake off the fighter and, at times, stamp or gore the fallen participants. It is time to ban the sport. Why did Kolaveri to do such silly sports for the sake of winning a bounty?
JAYANTHY SUBRAMANIAM
SANPADA NAVI MUMBAI
