If NDTV news sources are to be believed, the La Tomatina festival which was supposed to be held in Bangalore as well as Delhi has been cancelled. Well, personally, I am pretty happy with the news!
The people who know me know that I am not a big fan of wastage of any kinds of resources, be it, food, water, electricity, paper or for that matter petrol. I find it very disturbing when I see educated people who are well aware of issues like global warming, hunger, famine and petrol exhaustion waste the resources available to them without a second thought. And if one walks up and asks them what they think about such issues, they’ll be all supportive and say profound things and what not. Hypocritical!!
Anyways, coming back to the topic in question. The La Tomatina festival should never have been proposed to be held in a country like India in the first place. Considering the poverty levels in India, when most of the population here does not get to eat a full stomach leave alone eat healthy, indulging in a sport of this sort where people throw tomatoes at each other for fun is sheer wastage of good food! Imagine how many people can be fed with those tomatoes.
I was very happy to see so many people opposing this festival, and am truly happy that it has been canceled. Finally people have started publicly opposing things which are so obviously wrong and thank God the voices of and petitions made by so many NGOs and people have been heard by the government. It really is high time all of us stood up for issues like these and at least voiced our opinions! See… it does work!
There are so many more things we should no longer sit quietly and endure or simply be indifferent to. Anna Hazare, though so hugely over popularized and hyped i agree, has actually managed to prove a point. That the government cannot forcefully impose anything on an entire nation without their will… not any more at least! There are ways to put your point across, non-violent, logical ways.. and they do work. All we need is the right kind of motivation.
Way to go people. Hats off to all of those who opposed the La Tomatina festival with all their might and made their voices heard. A big thank you to all the NGOs and social activists who took up this cause. Do continue the good work guys, we need more organizations like you.
Read more about La Tomatina in India cancellation here -