La Tomatina is Not India’s Culture?
Yet again self-elected citizen representatives and their political pawns have decided for the benefit of mankind that Bangalore’s first ever “La Tomatina” fest must not occur.
Ha! I wasn’t going to go anyway. Why would I want to waste my Sunday and blow away Rs. 1199 per ticket just for a free complimentary drink. That’s around 18 bottles of beer, or 6 rum-and-cokes, or 9 plates of Chilli Chicken, or if I still haven’t enticed y0u enough that’s 300 cups of chai at your friendly neighbourhood chaiwalla.
However, I Have Issues
Of course. How else can someone keep writing on a blog? (Haha!). No seriously, the arguments presented to convince the general public (ie, sensationalize the topic and give the news channels something to call breaking news) seem very retarded and full of .. umm .. rotten tomatoes.
Are we that gullible?
Rotten Tomato #1: It’s Not In Our Culture
I’ve harped about this before and I will harp again: who the hell can define and “defend” the “culture” of a diverse nation like ours? Is it in our culture to down-grade Delhi boys to the scum of the earth? Oh wait, no. Umm. Okay just ignore that.
Somehow we’ve forgotten our history books. We are who we are through the amalgamation of so many different cultures and contexts: there’s a little bit of Parsi, Afghani, Bangladeshi, Nepali, and Burmese in all of us. If we consider this festival an “outsider’s” festival, kindly shut down Domino’s pizza. If you can’t do that at least remove the horrible pasta from their menu. That is not very Indian.
Selecting and picking items that define the culture of India goes against the culture of India – that everyone IS invited.
Rotten Tomato #2: Millions of Indians Go Hungry Everyday
I won’t doubt the numerous numeric facts being thrown around like cards. 17 percent of this and 23,000 tonnes of that put India in the bottom of every possible index there is (except the ones where being on top is the worst).
How does one solve hunger? Solve poverty. How does one solve poverty? By cancelling niche fests, getting media hype and feeling smug about oneself. Public distribution schemes and NREGA are so passe, they’re useless methods when compared to the advantage of cancelling La Tomatina.
Once all the hype is over, I will ask once again. How did you help those who went hungry? Will these expensive tomatoes reach their bowls or still continue to be out of their reach?
There is one way that the poor can be adversely affected by this event: purchasing such a large number of tomatoes at one go might increase the price of tomatoes and then became too expensive for the poor.
However the actual metrics make this seem unlikely. The total annual production of tomatoes in India is 10,303,000 tonnes (2008 source) and the fest required 62 tonnes. That’s 0.00006 %. I’m sure Bharti-Wal-Mat buys more tomatoes in a day.
Rotten Tomato #3: Spain is a Developed Country, India Has a Long Way
India is full of contradictions in every corner. Super-luxury bike maker Ducatti opens a shop in Mumbai while, in the same city, the largest slum continues to grow.
Spain can throw a La Tomatina every year because it can afford to? You idjit. They throw it because it’s a tourist attraction. More tourism means higher hotel occupancy, more shopping (more random shopping actually) and a burgeoning tourism industry.
Thank you for killing yet another opportunity for the strangled tourism industry here.
Rotten Tomato #3: Farmer’s Sentiments Are Hurt
Well, that is a valid point. I mean, I agree that farmers have to toil through the year to produce a batch of tomatoes, and to throw it all away seems a little pointless.
Do you waste food? Weird question, I know, but did you ever waste some dal or leave the boring rice on your plate? Did you ever have a breakdown thinking of all the hard work that went wasted?
Or did a mochi suddenly lose heart when his shoe was thrown at George Bush?
And if you’ve suddenly become aware of farmer’s sentiments, please stop eating rice. It’s horrible to grow and requires too much supervision. (Even on Farmville).
Rotten Tomato #4: Organizers Were Not Transparent
They didn’t divulge details of how much profit they would earn and how much they would donate to charity. Well, mister, even Lays doesn’t tell you anything about the chips-to-air ratio of their potato wafers. Yet they make money.
If you think about it, which festival is organized in a completely transparent manner? Do winners of all radio contests actually win something more than a gift hamper? Did you cross-check?
Bloody rotten tomato reasoning.
The Real Tomatoes
Maybe there are some real genuine reasons there. Maybe when you hear about La Tomatina you cringe, but you aren’t able to put it into words. I’ll grant you the benefit of doubt.
What has happened, though, is just horrible.
Tomorrow, the same hogwash reasoning and mindless logic can be applied to something you dearly believe in: like partying late at night.
Oh crap that’s already been done!