Party I love, Noise I Don't

On the No Honking day, I was having coffee with one of my friend discussing, how effective the silence can be and how we as a society make a lot of noise that can be easily avoided. I don't know whether I said it wrong or what, but he did not like my idea. He singled out the instance of playing loud music during the festive season (may be because he had read my post on power of silence) and he was of feeling that it's very important for us as a society to get together and enjoy these festivals. He said the music is played out loud so that everyone gets to know that such a thing is going on and they should also join. He was also of opinion that if the majority of people are enjoying at a event they have every right to play loud music.

I am not denying that we need to come together as a society and enjoy all our festivals, that will surely make us more united. I am just saying that we should enjoy all this at a reasonable decibel level so that no one is getting affected because of it. I was recently watching Apocalypto and there is a scene in the movie where the whole group of villagers are sitting together and celebrating the good catch they had. They were playing music, they were dancing, they were enjoying and they were surely united. We can have our celebrations in similar style, keep the music to a level so that everyone at the celebration enjoys it and those who are not there are not getting bothered. May be then we will also get to hear some wise words. As for the points made by my friend that music is loud so that everyone knows about the party, foolish idea. Tell everyone about the party in advance if someone is not interested he will never come no matter how loud music you play. The later point that he made if majority at party are ok with loud music they have the right to do that. This is a rather bigger and difficult issue to tackle as this is a wrong way to think. Just because some/lot of people like it they should not compromise others comfort. This mentality has to change and we as a society need to start respecting others comforts and their personal space. I am not against getting together and having a party or celebration I love that but at the same time I would not like others to suffer because of that.

Tarun Chandel
Life, Learning and Technology