Commoditised Christmas

Christmas is in the air in London...when the sun sets at around 3 in the afternoon...the streets and homes light up with brightly decorated christmas trees and blinking stars...hanging santa claus from the windows, crowded last moment shoppers in virtually every high street shops...and the chilly subzero winter...all this seems so wonderfully set for the biggest festive season of the year...chirstmas..followed shortly by new year. I am really a part of all this merry making and am deriving pleasure from the 'happiness particles' flying in the air. I don't envy the wide-spread universality of x-mas..which is meant to be a christian festival....thanks to media, thanks to stronger money and military...and most importantly...thanks to education...those who celebrate x-mas have transformed 'their' festival to 'everyones' festival...my hats off to them. So successful they have been that countries like even India..with its majority Hindu population...dress up in red and white..to be a part of this bandwagon....hindi movie heros and heroines don't elope and get married in temples any more...in front of the holy idol..rather they do that in churches...in front of the holy son....they don't also say 'hey bhagwaan' when they are shocked or astonished...they say 'jesus!!!'...again I restate that I am not envious of what somebody else is doing.....as I believe in 'constructive competition'...so that we end in a positive-sum game......I was just wondering that a festival like Eid...is celebrated in such a sombre low profile mood....nobody even knows or cares or notices what that is...and who are celebrating it.....I know why this is so...will talk about it some time later...but for the time being..it goes without saying that christmas has truly become the global festival...for practising Christians...for families..for businessmen...for shoppers...for free-lance fun-seekers like me...and I think its all right to say that it has been commoditised to some extent...which is good for those who care.