The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : When entertainment was a temple festival

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Saturday, Jul 19, 2008
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Kerala - Kochi

When entertainment was a temple festival

K. A. Martin

The net-savvy youth of today is spoilt for choice

The rising income levels and an explosion of job opportunities have put money into the hands of youngsters.

KOCHI: A game of Rummy in a crowded toddy shop, gypsy circus shows, good old ‘Kathaprasangam’ at a temple festival, 1982 Asiad on Doordarshan, jam-packed gaming stores, overflowing Internet cafes and social networking on Orkut are just some of the stages through which public entertainment and social communications have evolved over the last three decades.

It would be difficult to explain to a Net savvy 20-year-old how the humble card game on a summer afternoon or a Sunday matinee at the thatched village cinema held absolute sway over every other spheres of social activity about three decades ago.

Time and space are no more at the core of entertainment. Enter a Net café or a gaming centre, and you are in for a magic carpet ride. Shammi is a 26-year-old call centre operator who takes his Saturdays and Sundays seriously. These are the only days he gets out of his otherwise tight work schedule.

Discotheques, films, catching up with his Internet friends and visiting places are what he likes best to relax.

For Ajesh, 22, the Internet is the world.

Though he continues to be the village boy from Idukki he has cultivated a lot of friends on the Internet from Venenzuela to Korea with whom he spends time discussing a variety of topics from the latest development on the software front to the upcoming Beijing Olympics.

But for an old-timer like Abbas, an employee with a Government agency, the greatest adventure in his time was to steal to an afternoon cinema show.

He still has a lot of time to listen to old songs, especially from the dramas he saw in his village near Thiruvananthapuram. There were so many local drama production groups vying for honours and recognition in those days, he says as he points out how the culture of drama production had gone down with the onslaught of the cinema and television.

Those were the days when temple and church festivals offered one big stage for meeting and entertainment. The choice today is greater and most people tend to get more individualistic in their pursuit of entertainment or relaxation, he adds.

The rising income levels and an explosion of job opportunities have put money into the hands of youngsters. They seek out the best entertainment that money can buy.

And in all these, rapidly improving technology is creating new avenues both for entertainment and social networking.

Using these new opportunities with discretion and intelligence alone can ensure the growth of a healthy society, says Mr. Abbas.

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