In August fall the auspicious months of Sravan and Bhadrapada, having beautiful weather and full of festivities, and Crescent was immersed in celebrations for the whole month. Sravan is the month of Lord Shiva. The month had Shravan Shivratri, on 02 August. Other Hindu religious and cultural festivals were Haryali Teej on 07 August, Nag Panchami on 09th, Raksha bandhan on 19th and Krishna Janmashthmi on 26 August. Our National festival, Independence Day, fell on 15 August.
Teej day this year started with rainy showers, forcing the Crescent Management Committee to shift the venue of celebrations from the open central park to Crescent Club House. Crescent ladies and young girls all arrived in colorful traditional attires, mehndi decorated hands and beautiful accessories. The evening started with dance and song performances. Septuagenarian, Asha Mathur, brought in the nostalgia of yesteryears with her song number “Mausam hai ashiqana”. Young Vardhini, Shubhrata, Prisha, Mahika and Gayatri left everyone spellbound with their dances. The musical drama of Kalpana, Vandana, Preeti, Rita, Prachi and Babita was an innovative and amusing performance based on sweet couple squabbles. Vanita Raina and Neha Solanki mesmerized with their solo singing and solo dance respectively. Sweta–Nidhi Jain’s enchanting dance and Meeta Vashisht–Shailja Rana’s enthralling dance performance bewitched the audience. There were paid food stalls by vendors and residents. Tambola had a twist – there were handmade Tambola tickets in Monsoon theme, with very unconventional prizes. The ticket had numbers in Rainbow, Tapri ki Chai, different colored handles, and prizes were also peculiar based on the concept. The competition for Teej Queen was based on various tough marking questions regarding attires and accessories worn by shortlisted candidates; and, finally, Rinku Kalra was adjudged the “Teej Queen” of the year. She was felicitated by last year’s queen Shikha Rastogi.
The Independence Day celebrations were full of patriotism and nationalist feelings. After the traditional flag hoisting and national anthem, the stage was set for performances by the youngsters who came up with songs, dances, drama and poetry on devotion to the nation, and stories based on Indian freedom struggle. Solo drama and dance were from Aatisha and Samridhi, respectively. Vatsal and Aariket did solo singing and poetry, respectively. Kavyansh–Kushagra and Mihika–Ishita duos gave dance performances. Group-drama performance, by Verdhini, Gayatri, Prisha, Mihika and Aniket, was based on freedom struggle. There were also chorus by Crescent ladies and kids, which reverberated through the society.
The month of August brought lots of gaiety and memories to cherish for many days. As David Binder rightly said: “Festivals promote diversity, they bring neighbors into dialogue, they increase creativity, they offer opportunities for civic pride, they improve our general psychological well-being. In short, they make cities better places to live.”
