' La Tomatina ' do we need this festival?

Courtesy - google images
La Tomatina is a spanish festival that is held in the Valencian town of Buñol, where participants throw tomatoes at each other. This festival is organized in August month.

Origin
This festival is believed to be originated in 1945, where there was an annual parade which was passing by Buñol. Apparently, youngsters tried to join the parade and accidently knocked one of the giants. This lead to a brawl, where in retaliation youngsters picked up tomatoes from nearby vegetable stand and started using them as weapons. Police intervened and broke the fight. However, in the following year these young people returned and started another tomato fight using their own tomatoes. This subsequently has led to the famous 'La Tomatina' festival.

After reading the description, we know that for whatever reason this is celebrated as a festival in Spain. This was being celebrated since very long time but it has been brought to notice to the Indian public by Zindagi na milegi dobara movie. Indian public has always been influenced by films and media since past. This is another similar incident. This festival has been decided to be hosted first time in India in Bangalore. But the main purpose is not really tomato festival, it includes DJ, rain dance and another attractions. Why???? Why people of India are getting so stupid to find fun in something like this? We have highest number of festivals being celebrated since centuries. Why do you want to include this festival that has no place in our country?

People are tending to adopt western culture so blindly that, all they want is just enjoyment. They are gradually moving to western culture but in a bad way. So, lets ask few questions to these organizers. Why do you want to celebrate a Spanish festival in India? Do you want any alliance with Spanish companies? Or do you want any bilateral relation with Spain? Just because 'La Tomatina' was popularized by a bollywood movie, doesn't mean we need to actually start celebrating it. Moreover, the movie was entirely shot in Spain. So, people grow up and if you really want to mingle with Spanish culture than go to Spain and celebrate their festival just like they do in the movie.

According to the latest estimations, we know that there are several people and kids suffering from Malnutrition and poverty. So, is it advisable to waste tonnes of tomatoes that will be used in this festival? Spain hosts this festival every year because of cultural reasons but India on the other hand doesn't need these kind of festivals. Instead of that why don't u start a group and ask people to donate some tomatoes to the poor in India and call it 'La Tomatina' but with a different objective.

Lot of people have filed protests against this with Karnataka chief minister, in order to ban this festival. Even there is a young Bangalore resident who expressed concern with the wastage of tomatoes and requested government to take action. Today, Karnataka govt declined to permit the tomato festival in Bangalore in response to all these social activist and well wishers. Chief minister mentioned that such events should not be permitted since wasting nutritious food is against Indian ethics. I am glad that there are some young people in India who still belong to India. There is no sense in bringing an absurd western culture in India. India is already dealing with lot of unnecessary westernization. There is a facebook page for La Tomatina festival and surprisingly there were more than 50,000 members who were planning to attend it either in person or online. Such a pity !

7 comments:

  1. I agree, why waste tomatoes. And we have holi, enjoy that festival...Nicely written...

    ReplyDelete
  2. A pity indeed..how can people be so dumb as to appreciate and promote such festivals!
    True..v dont need such unnecessary westernization and infact we r not in a position to afford such westernization!


    sarah

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is it not strange that on one side people are getting averse to our own HOLI festival but eager to adopt this 'Tometina' festival which has no relevance? Why are people getting obsessed with western festivals, instead they can enjoy our festival in a grander manner.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello varsha,

    came across your blog through blog junta, nice blog, and really agree with your post...we don't need any more reasons to celebrate anything, we have way too many...Nice post...

    ReplyDelete
  5. thanks all

    yes i do agree.. we shd celebrate our own festivals in a grand way..

    ReplyDelete
  6. La Tomatina festival in India is such a WANNA-BE event, totally lame and not at all relevant in our country.

    ReplyDelete

Poke your nose here

Profile visits