ऐ! बिखरे हुए फूलों को बटोरने वाले, बिखरे दिल को बटोरने का हुनर बता। I write this article about the losing "Identity of Ram Lila". This is just a part of that article, I will be sharing remaining parts in the caption of subsequent quotes. Today when I went to watch Ramlila, performed every year in the month of Kartik to show the inspiring life of Shri Rama based on Ram Charit Manas by Tulsi Das, Memories of my childhood flooded in afresh in my mind when I too used to participate in the procession and many a people not just only of the village but also of nearby villages used to come to watch. But now a days very few come and don't even show their interest in the fact behind this holy tradition and watch unattentively. They just come for mere entertainment and leave without incorporating anything from the great characters of Ramayana. Why? The age-old tradition of performing Ram Lila is losing all its charm despite regular serious efforts from the sincerely interested older people for the last couple of years. This continuous decline in the popularity of Ram Lila is a worrying trend from both religious and social perspective. Lack of interest for social cause in youths, can easily be associated with the changing socio-economic situation of the country where their life is limited only to consume 1.5 GB internet data per day without worrying about anything at all. The life of nearly 90% of the youth is locked in the mobile screen. Life beyond the screen is real, satisfactory and beautiful than that of virtual and augmented-reality world. The walls of a garden are way beautiful than the Facebook Wall. Distracted youth fuelled by record unemployment is an attractive market for social-business tycoon. But in all this, we are losing our own identity without creating anything new at all. Let us go back in the 1970s when microphone system had just reached to the village along with electricity and literacy, it was the beginning of a major revolution which culminated into much bigger and gamechanger tool to change India and her identity. Inspired from the big cities’ tradition of Ram Lila, villages too set up the committees to perform Ram Lila at their own and literate youth of that time were inducted for acting which itself was a very impressive experiment of linking daily life with idealistic way of living by developing and practising skills like acting, public speaking, singing and watching too. Many interested in all these skills got motivation for studying so that they can depict the poetry-based roles of different characters of Ram Charit Manas. The importance of this is beyond physical comprehension because people started incorporating the ideals in their life because it was the major source of entertainment and art in their daily life that too only for around half a month. Men and Women, however orthodox used to come to watch the Lila and used to listen cordial way. Part 1....To be continued.
