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The Oldest English Newspaper in South Asia
Founded 4.2.1834
P. O. Box 1217,
35, D.R. Wijewardene Mawatha,
Colombo 10, Sri Lanka.
Telephone: Editor - 94-1-429226; Fax: 94-1-429230

Those musical shows

So the year ends with a bang and not a whimper?

Reversing the post we are not concerned so much with the annual fire crackers (the damage from which we are anyway informed is now very much reduced) as with those ubiquitous musical shows which seem to be an inevitable part of the festive calendar.

Christmas, New Year, Aluth Avurudda - any excuse is good enough for Sri Lankans to have a ‘bajaw’ and anybody who has had to keep up until the early hours of the morning because of the raucous electronic din caused by these musical shows will testify to the fact that these have become among the chief urban torments of our time.Don’t get us wrong.

We are no spoil sports and like to see the young having a good time and if this involves loud music and songs which do not sound very musical who are we to complain? But the point is that when it comes to giving out permits for musical shows in urban areas there must be some standards which are enforced. What happens more often than not is that these musical shows take place in municipal parks, playgrounds or similar locations either as part of a carnival or as separate musical entertainment.

From early evening recorded music is played accompanied by various announcements in a bid to attract an audience. Then comes the group and the vocalists. To begin with things are more or less decorous with the more classical singers keeping to some kind of a code. Things begin to get out of hand, however, close to the witching hour.

At this time what one hears is more akin to an old-fashioned ‘thovil’ ceremony rather than a modern musical entertainment. Come to think of it, there must be something in our collective psyche which makes us hark back to our ancestral roots in our entertainment even if we are using electric guitars and drums to create our music, whereas our ancestors used only the rudimentary drum.

Whatever it is, what is necessary is that when giving out permits for such entertainments the local government authorities must enforce a strict time limit, so that while the young are not deprived of their entertainment the not so young are also not deprived of their beauty sleep.

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