Sunday, November 28, 2010

Orchestra pollution



Watch the video that only lasts a few seconds.
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Noise and music, both are poles apart. Yet, Orchestra Parties produce the former in the name of the latter.  More the decibels, grander they think it is. They appear to be tuned to 'noise levels' and are at a loss to perform on 'melodious levels' on a stage.  The hapless neighbourhood has to undergo 'naraka yaatane’ (hell-experience) from noise!

The autorickshaw drivers' group in the locality organizes the annual 'celebration' of Kannada Rajyotsava (invariably mispronounced as 'RajyoS-Tava'!!), on the last Sunday of November.  November 1, 1956 was when Mysore state was expanded with new boundaries. 

A stage and a pandal is erected right on the middle of the busy road.  They make the traffic police give permission to create such a public nuisance!  When asked, they will tell 'just for one day please adjust' (swalpa adjust madkoLLI). Electric power gets drawn from the electric pole (free)!  Such is the deplorable system that rules!

It is a busy road junction, in fact, only about 3 cricket pitches away from our gate.  Signal lights are switched off and traffic is blocked/diverted for the evening.  Later, some ‘chota pudaari’ (politico) inaugurates it with a short speech.  The programme of noise pollution goes on from about 6 pm-11pm.  We pray for a 'power failure' during that time, but they ensure it doesn't happen!  Peace goes to pieces at this time and when it finally gets over, it seems like the end of a severe storm.  

Improved technology provides blaring speakers with thousands of watts of sound power in smallish boxes.  Weirdly enough, louder, harsher, gaudier, seems to be the taste of this ‘movers and shakers’ generation.  They applaud the high-decibel harsh 'noise', standing close to those loud speakers and getting 'entertained'!  These modern loud speakers contribute to the most horrible and intolerable humming sound created by the electronic drums which makes our window panes and door latches dance, esp. to the ‘dham dham dum’s.  We can feel the hum in our lungs also.  Even my newspaper which I was holding to read felt those vicious vibes, not to mention my ear drums, despite being cotton-plugged!   Water in the glass created circles!  I remembered my maternal grandmother, for, she would have heard nothing at all!

There cannot be 'orchestrated melody'! I'm told that the volume of the loud speakers and the number of instruments in 'play' are kept high mainly to absorb or make up for the tonal lacuna [surely there are exceptions] of the singers.

I wonder why celebrations like these and even festivals come to the streets and create a grand public nuisance.  Isn't there any better, useful and peaceful way of celebrating them so that least inconvenience to others is caused if at all it must.  It only exposes the poor taste and culture, which is atypical of Mysore.

6 comments:

Sandhya said...

Dinu...

A similar thing happend to me, last week sometime they were celebrating Kannada rajyoStava! near my place, had to go buy something in nearby shop, shopkeeper couldnt hear what i was asking for,I tried showing signs,symbols...but no use. Finally I had to write it on a paper and show him :)

My Blogs said...

Dear Deenu,

I have written a blog on this same issue of orchestra pollution.

Please have a look once.

Regards,

Venkata Ranga

Dinakar KR said...

Venkat Ranga,
Send the link to your blog to my e-mail, please.

Sandhya,
You know Ramya - our cousin. She is a singer and (was/is) a member of an orchestra party. At their family's house Grihapravesham 2 yrs ago, they had arranged an orchestra for lunch!!!! The locality is congested with many houses and small street. The 1 million watt speakers were making the hearts shake and the pandal vibrate! It was the most annoying lunch I've ever had. Same thing - our spoken words just got mixed away in the cacophony. We had to make gestures to Adige Bhattas. People could not gossip during that time also!! I actually ran away from that place without wasting time. I even told them after that, how ridiculous it was to arrange such a program at such an auspicious occasion. It just cannot be worse!

ER Ramachandran said...

on Quite a few saturdays and sundays, there is an onsluaght of orchestra'music' which drowns everything else right up to midnight. It could be Rajyothsava, Basavanna ,Kanajayanthi or whatever.There is a law banning use of loud speakers beyond 11p.m,but nobody is there to enforce it.There are elderly heart-patients who need to sleep, students studying for their next day exams, but nobody is bothered.Anybody who raises these pertinent points is termed 'unpatriotic' and some times is even harassed.The Police turn a 'Deaf' ear to the whole thing.
As a country we still need to evolve in finer aspects of life such as talking in lowtones, not talking on mobile phones while driving etc. It will take few more eons, I guess!
ERR

Dinakar KR said...

Right Sir ERR. This year's Ayudya Pooja celebrations by our KSRTC was surprisingly silent - they had no loud speakers with 'karkasha' songs, but only chrysanthemums and plantain leaves. It is so odd with Mysore when they do such things! They should be presenting a decent image esp. at that time when tourists flock Mysore. The police too are involved in giving permissions to public nuisance and naturally, people wont complain as you rightly say, for fear of harassment.

YOSEE said...

Big nuisance, no doubt.Civic authorities who give permission for such headaches should be hauled up on PIL suits.
Come any festival pandals sprout all over and the loud speakers start blaring. What kind of "celebration" is this ! The aftermath is "great celebration" for ENT specialists only.