A Month of Celebrations!

The month of August turned out to be a great one for most of us. I’m not talking about our normal lives, but the lockdown. Well, the lockdown has now become part of our regular life. Some of us enjoyed the lockdown. But I’m sure that if you had to prepare a report card of the lockdown, then the month of August will certainly receive top grades.

If we take a look back at what has happened in the past five and a half months, then there are a lot of things. Good things; bad things; things people don’t care about; normal things and a lot of other stuff too. If you see the other months (March, April, May, June, July) nothing much has happened compared to the stuff that has happened in August; there were a bunch of festivals; a historical moment took place in our motherland India.

In the rest of the months, people kept criticizing the lockdown; watched TV (involves more screen time- mobile phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, etcetera.); learned different kinds of stuff (in short utilized their time properly), and of course, kept thinking when this lockdown will get over.

The first major thing that happened this month, was Raksha Bandhan, on Monday, 3rd August. But this year, it was the other way round. Now, I also observed something new in this festival. People who are unable to meet their sibling or cousins have done something out of the box. They tied virtual Rakhi. People video-called each other and then somebody at the brother’s house tied the Rakhi to him, while the sister pretended to tie it to him. I guess most of you have been part of something like that. It’s really crazy. It’ basically a brother and sister, but I spent most of it blabbering with my brother and didn’t even care if my sisters were around.

The second thing was Friendship Day. It was on Sunday, 2nd August, a day before Raksha Bandhan, but I still think it’s the second major thing that took place in August. The reason behind this is that people didn’t celebrate this day as they always did. It felt like it was just another Sunday. Some people did celebrate this day by reaching out to their friends and enjoyed themselves. Most people didn’t have the enthusiasm to celebrate this day and treated it as just another normal day. I didn’t know it was Friendship day until my friends wished me. So the whole point of celebrating this day with your friends didn’t turn out to be fun at all. I’m glad for people who met their friends and enjoyed the day with them. But I didn’t have that joy. A day meant to be spent with your friends turned out to be yet another quarantine experience.

The third thing that happened was the Independence Day on Saturday, 15th August. Everything was perfect on India’s 74th Independence Day; everybody was looking forward to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at the Red Fort; the whole nation was busy in preparation for the Independence Day and ensured that everything is prepared according to Covid-19’s guidelines. And everything turned out to be just perfect- we enjoyed PM Modi’s speech; children had a holiday from online classes and the rest of the day was just okay. In a normal scenario, this day would have been completely different. I would have gone to school as usual; the morning assembly would have taken place and then of course the Flag Hoisting; we would be doing Shramdan which is cleaning our class and school. The class which turns out to be the cleanest wins the First prize for Shramdan. Most people don’t enjoy Shramdan, but to kill the boredom inside us because of the lockdown, they too would have wanted to get out of their homes and clean the school. But this year, things took a turn, and the only thing we can do is clean our houses and RELAX!

Fun Fact- India is not the only country that celebrates their Independence Day on 15th August; five other countries celebrate it too on 15th August-

· North and South Korea

· Bahrain

· Democratic Republic of Congo

· Liechtenstein (try and pronounce it in one go)

You can always find out more about these countries (There was some serious research involved there).

The fourth major thing that happened was the construction of the historic Ram Mandir Temple in Ayodhya, on 5th August. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the temple on this day to seek blessings and offered his prayers for the day’s event. There were a lot of Vedic rituals performed in the ground breaking ceremony. There was a mosque built there in 1528 by the Mughals, but as it was Lord Ram’s birthplace, Hindu protesters demolished the mosque in 1992. And then I guess about 27 years later, in its 2019 verdict, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Hindus and the Ram Mandir was going to be constructed at the site, whereas the mosque would be allocated at a different site. It was a great deal for the Hindus all around the world, but let’s not go into the details.

Fun Fact- Muslims devotees in Ayodhya who consider Rama as their ancestor also looked forward to the Bhoomi-puja.

The next thing that happened was Janmashtami, on 11th August. It is celebrated as the birthday of Lord Krishna. The day after Janmashtami called Dahi Handi; we all already know what Dahi Handi is. Dahi Handi festival involves the participation of Govindas who form human pyramids to break a pot filled with curd tied at a difficult height. But in order to not breach the rules of social distancing, people could not celebrate Dahi Handi as forming a human pyramid is not very distancing, is it?

Fun Facts- Janmashtami counts as a National Holiday in Bangladesh.

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a prominent organization devoted to Lord Krishna, was founded in New York City. Today, there are more than 150 temples maintained by ISKCON in India. Mayapur in West Bengal serves as its headquarters.

The last thing that took place in August, was Ganesh Chaturthi, on 22nd August. It is the birthday of Lord Ganesh and lasts for nearly 10 days, with the final day being Anant Chaturthi. This festival is widely celebrated in the state of Maharashtra. People conduct events in their neighborhood and many participate enthusiastically in it too. Games, live events, shows, skits, etcetera. take place in a period of 10 days. But again, in order to not breach the rules of social distancing, we were unable to celebrate this festival as we would have liked to.

Well, these were a few festivals that took place, but there is more; Some honorable mentions are- The Quit India Movement Day, Madras Day, National Sports Day and the list goes on. I don’t want to stretch this thing more but of course, you can find about them.

If you have your opinion on this blog, then you’re free to comment in the comments section. And if you do think that the month of August turned out to be better than other months, then a big THUMBS up to you.

And also if you think that August was a great month for you in the lockdown, then I have a small fun activity for all of you. If you seriously enjoyed this month, then I want you to write a short review on the month of August or the lockdown, stating how you spent it and also how you enjoyed it. Also rate it on a scale of 10. It’s an activity for restless people who want to keep themselves occupied but everyone please feel free to participate. You can either comment it in the comments section or mail it to me on aaryantotala2212@gmail.com, which would be better.

P.S- This one is for cricket fans; There was a sad moment for Indian Cricket because Legendary Former India Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and All-Rounder Suresh Raina retired from international cricket. But on lighter news, the IPL 2020 will take place from September. It’s a great deal because no sports events took place in nearly 6 months.

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post because I only talked about all the good things that happened this month and not at all about the negatives at all. I’ll be waiting to see if you’ve taken part in the activity and if you did, I really appreciate your sportsmanship. I’ll take your leave now and until then Stay Safe and Healthy. And don’t forget to participate in the fun activity.