Merry Christmas

It was 3:45 pm, I was in my office, as usual scarcely with work.Suddenly the door of my bay (we call here Offshore Development Center-ODC) burst open and a man dressed in the attire of Santa Claus came, saying "Hello everybody, Merry Christmas to all of you !". He was running awkwardly which made me wonder that is he our HR? This guy was followed by our office support staff. This Santa was running from cabin to cabin and workstation to workstation distributing chocolates. We were glad that company "is" giving something apart from salary...

When that guy was gone (He was definitely our HR, and that guy is otherwise very serious), I began to think that in the whole year, lots of festivals and seasons came, but we were never even greeted by anyone so 'formally'. Is this because the company is serving the clients from outside the country and most of the customers are from western countries, that we are supposed to celebrate one particular event so formally?

I come from a city which is not a metro or close to cosmopolitan culture, at least not when I was kid. When I was in school, all I knew was December 25 is a holiday, and Jesus was born on that day and Christmas and Xmas are one and the same thing. I used to wonder what kind of celebration is this? All that I could see was a decorated tree, which we used to refer to as "X for Xmas tree" .There was only one guy in our entire colony outside whose house there used to be a xmas tree decorated on 25th december. It was a nice sight. Though that family was not originally from my home town.

when I came out from my state (Rajasthan) and was introduced to the cosmopolitan India, I saw how much celebration happens on the day of Christmas. It is, but I think, a sign of 'show off'.

I am not against Christmas celebration. Its a festival and we have to celebrate it in the same spirit as we do celebrate other festivals. But India being a conglomeration of several religions and castes, ask yourself, do we celebrate every festival (Lohri/Eid/Baisakhi) with same spirit? 25th December is so extravagantly celebrated because its also a holiday season and close to year end, and can be coupled up with New Year celebration. However, somehow I believe that this behavior is somewhat a hype that we create and that too while not properly respecting a religion. How many of us (non Christians) go to church on Christmas? Do we really try to read and learn about teachings of Jesus on this day?

I remember in good old days, on 25th december Doordarshan used to telecast an English movie (I think used to be dubbed in hindi) on the story of Jesus. We (all kids) used to feel sad watching Jesus being crucified in the end. But what that movies were intended to do was leaving an impact on the kids about teachings of Jesus. That how much pain God takes for mankind, That how much love God has for us. That's the beautiful message of Christmas. And the concept of Santa Claus is an extension to this message. He brings gifts to kids on Christmas. Such a beautiful concept about love and respect towards God.

But while practising our "hype" for such occasions do we really have feeling of spreading this message?

Forget us, our time is gone. And we have already been mould to think in a specific direction. Think about kids. The younger generation, who needs to be taught all good things. Who needs to be believed not in the hype of Santa Claus but the message that Santa Claus' concept brings. I would suggest every kid to watch a movie "Polar Express" on the day of Christmas.

All concepts and rituals related to the Almighty is worth respecting and Christmas is a day to spread love, forgiveness and happiness in the world. If this is the intention of the organizers of events related to Christmas celebration, then hats off to them !

I am eating that chocolate now.... Merry Christmas :)