Society

No Noise is Good Noise

I was tired after travelling that week. I wanted to get some sleep and rest as I reached my apartment after the journey. But after getting there, I found out the situation was not pleasant. And, of course, I was not able to sleep as I had planned to. My thoughts of having a rest came to naught. There were loud speakers in the four directions of that three-storied house and “bhajan”, hymns with a taste of modern Nepali songs, blared out of them for seven complete days. I would like to thank God that I arrived only on the fourth day of the religious ceremony called Saptaha. I suffered for three days from early in the morning and almost the whole night. Even when there was load-shedding, the speakers continued to produce deafening sounds because they had generators.  

I am sure I was not the only member of society not being able to sleep during those days. It is not our culture to go and complain to the organisers of any event that happens in our society in our day-to-day life. That would, of course, be rude. And society may not give positive gestures in future days while living in the same locality. But would it be a sin to go and complain? Or would it be good in a religious sense for me to tolerate all the music with loud speakers?I am not sure about the sin and virtue sides of such religious rites. Apart from religious ceremonies, there are events in our society where gatherings are organised like parties or other occasions where relatives are present. I have never been against religious ceremonies, and will not be in the future either. I am not even an individual who likes to stay alone without any sort of music or noise from society. We all love gathering and playing music while being together with friends or sometimes with family.

Nevertheless, has any of us thought about these aspects of our daily life and civic sense associated with it? Does holding a Saptaha ceremony mean everyone should not sleep because they live in the same neighbourhood? Isn’t it possible to keep the sound at a level that is loud enough to hear for the number of people present? Just because we are having a party does that mean that everyone in the locality must listen to the songs and dance with us? Some people in the neighborhood may have some work at home or children may have exams. There may be ill people in the place where we are living. We grew up in a culture that teaches tolerance, so we do not speak directly about these matters. We do not have a reporting mechanism either. Do we need to launch a campaign so people will internalise these things? How much better it would be if we think from a personal level and try to be good citizen.