[world-vedic] India's Media Loses Chance of the Millenium

[Guest guest]

Ringing In the Millennium - The

Right WayBy Aditi Chaturvedi

On New

Year's Eve before the big Millennium clock struck twelve, you

were probably one among the millions of people worldwide glued

to their TV sets, watching worldwide Millenium celebrations all

day. All the big networks such as CNN, PBS and ABC had marked

out December 31st, 1999 for 24 hour coverage of global

celebrations

and fests heralding the New Millennium. I too was watching the

TV that day, hoping to catch a glimpse of the celebrations in

India. I was however thoroughly disgusted and angry when the

faces of Indian revelers finally made an appearance on the TV.

Instead of any grand sweeping functions marking the achievements

of what is surely one of the world's oldest and most glorious

cultures, I was rudely jolted by the sight of ill mannered and

loud men prancing around in drunken jigs across the streets of

India. Even the music they were dancing to was not Indian at

all, but some nightmarish old 70's disco beat which seemed

straight

out of the BeeGees Revival album!

To add insult to injury, the repugnant scene was embellished

by the spectacle of some of these drunken, tottering men

brandishing

plastic breasts and imitating women in various advanced stages

of pregnancy. Compare this to the proud Chinese, proclaiming

the festivities celebrating their "Five thousand years of

uninterrupted Chinese civilization" , or the resplendent

scene of Egypt's pyramids illuminated by fireworks and you'll

understand why India's new year's eve party had me cringing.

What the heck were the minister for culture or tourism or

information

and broadcasting doing?? Didn't they think that it was just a

trifle bit important to portray a positive and glorious image

of India on the day that billions of people worldwide were

watching

the Millennium celebrations?

Why for instance did they not arrange for the big networks

to show the beautiful celebrations that took place in Varanasi

that night? Even as the rest of the world heralded the new

millennium

with free flowing alcohol and ostentatious firework displays,

the city of Varanasi was softly aglow with the uplifting lamps

of devotion, prayer and hope for all humankind. This was how

India's holiest of cities greeted the golden dawn of the new

Millennium and this is what the world should have been shown

as a representation of India's style of celebration.

This Week's MediaWatch Star of the week award goes to the

organization which was responsible for this beautiful and moving

celebration, a group by the name of Parmarth Ganga Seva Nidhi.

Three days before the New Year, tens of thousands converged in

Varanasi to participate in the darshan, satsang, sandesh, bhajan,

pravachan, aarti, puja and millennium pledges. From the Dalai

Lama, to Swami Gurusharananand to Swami Chidanand Saraswati ,

dozens of religious leaders came to Varanasi to say their prayer

for the Millenium. They began the festival with as scintillating

and uplifting Maha Aarti to Mother Ganga. At night hundreds of

large, glowing Diyas were lit and set adrift on the silver lap

of Mother Ganga, as an obeisance in order to seek her blessings

for the world.

Even as the first rays of the Millenium's new dawn alighted

on the stone steps of Varanasi's ancient Ghats, all the holy

men assembled by the river, began chanting a singular and

beautiful

world peace prayer, in which they prayed -- on behalf of all

of humanity --for the light of hope, faith and love to grow

brighter

and brighter. At the end of the prayer the entire crowd showered

marigold petals in the air, setting the morning ablaze with

saffron

as the sun blazed to its full glory.

As an indication of their organization's commitment to fill

the future with positive energy and action, all the members of

Parmarth Ganga Seva Nidhi pledged to clean up each and every

one of the 94 Ghats in the holy city of Varanasi, as the first

step to a ``Clean, Green and Serene India`` movement. The Vishwa

Hindu Sanskritik Nigam and industrialist B.K. Modi also

contributed

by helping to make all the arrangements for this Millenium

Celebration.

Cleaning up the pollution in the river Ganga, will be one of

the first items on their agenda.

It is unfortunate that the rest of the world did not have

the chance to view this truly Indian way of celebrating the

arrival

of the New Millennium. It is also truly heartening to see such

a stirring and moving ceremony which focuses our attention on

the mother that deserves to be remembered by all of us at this

juncture; Mother Earth. May such sincere and auspicious prayers

motivate us all to herald a glorious and hope filled future for

all of her children.