While girls across Bangalore are busy buying bright coloured rakhi for their dear brothers, boys believe that the festival has lost its essence and is nothing more than just another gimmick today.
While girls across the city are busy buying bright coloured rakhi for their dear brothers, boys believe that the festival has lost its essence and is nothing more than just another gimmick today.
Celebrating raksha bandhan, primarily a North Indian festival, is celebrated on a grand scale in the South Indian states too.
However, the meaning and purpose of tying this sacred thread has been modified in the contemporary culture. While college going girls carry a bunch of red, blue and green rakhis for their male peers in college, boys run as fast as they can from the thread.
“When girls tie a rakhi around a boy’s wrist, it basically means that the two start sharing a sibling relationship with each other. However, I don’t want to make every girl my sister,” said Abeer, student, Jain College.
“I like many girls in my college and I’ll run away from them if they want to tie a rakhi around my wrist,” said Srikanth Kumar, student, T John College.
The girls have varied opinions on the matter though. Some believe in the values of the customs and respect the festival while others believe that it helps them keep those boys at bay who are likely to express their love to them.
Greeshma, a student of Jain College says, “I believe in the values of rakhi and don’t want to make it an instrument to keep boys away from me.”
Rakhi in Central Jail: After a week spent in a hunger strike with agitation, the central prison inmates had a refreshing way to unwind and celebrate on Monday. From Mallika Sherawat to Mallikarjuna Kharge to Jaggesh, a number of public figures were enacted by stand-up comedian Nagaraj Kote while TV actor Sai Praksh entertained the prison inmates. “After coming to jail, we have lost the sanctity of relationships. We don’t even remember which festival comes when, and such events help us in getting some peace of mind,” said a convict Harish.
Apart from the medicine of laughter, Nagaraj Kote also gave some tid-bits to the inmates about the benefits of laughter and how to lead a longer life with the same. The crowd swelled with joy; even the prison staff was rolling on the floor while laughing.
As the show progressed, Nagaraj Kote’s wife Gayathri Kote and daughter Sindhu Chethan tied the holy thread around the inmates’ wrists. Unlike the youngsters outside the prison who dread being tied the rakhi, the inmates were more than happy to have the bright red thread tied around their wrists.
Some of the inmates at Central Jail got emotion too. “I have two brothers who live in Pune. Every year, during raksha bandhan, I miss them immensely. Even this year, I’m missing them and I want to go and tie rakhis around their wrists,” says Sushmita, one of the inmates at the jail.
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