![the writer is a columnist he is also a former editor of the mumbai based english newspaper mid day and the gujarati paper divya bhaskar aakar patel tribune com pk the writer is a columnist he is also a former editor of the mumbai based english newspaper mid day and the gujarati paper divya bhaskar aakar patel tribune com pk](https://i.tribune.com.pk/media/images/651921-AakarPatelNew-1388252972/651921-AakarPatelNew-1388252972.jpg)
I’ve only seen a couple of the mosques around my home in Bangalore, but I know there are five because of the loudspeakers they use to call for prayer. First three go off more or less together, then a fourth and, 15 or so minutes later, the fifth.
Perhaps, it has to do with sects.
Just after the Fajr namaaz call around 5.15am or so every morning, military music strikes up. We share a wall with the 106th infantry battalion and so this music often interrupts my hangovers. Apparently, the thing that soldiers seem to like to march to (or are forced to march to) is “Saare jahan se achcha”.
This is the nationalist poem, original title ‘Tarana-e-Hindi’ that Allama Iqbal wrote before his more radical phase. The drums are muffled, not amplified, and the tune is played through brass, not incompetently.
![photo 3_zpse8980a3b.jpg](http://i888.photobucket.com/albums/ac89/etwebdesk/3_zpse8980a3b.jpg)
During the Eids, a festival, and during Ramazan, the mosques all have special services and these are also broadcast loudly. They have no music, of course, and it all ends most of the time before dusk, again with the exception of call to prayer for Isha, which sound out after 7pm.
Hindu festivals are celebrated, not with talk or lecture, but with music. This is sometimes of the devotional sort, though it is not easy for me to tell because there are many languages involved in my neighbourhood. But most of it is film music with heavy rhythm arrangements that south Indians prefer and north Indians find irritating. And all of it is loud. This music continues into the night and often it is 11 before there is quiet — till dawn, that is, when everything begins again — mosque, military, and then music.
This is Christmas season and I was taken aback to hear loud Tamilian music on the 25th, though I shouldn’t have been, given the pattern of conversions in India.
In Bombay, where I lived most of my life, the midnight mass was something that I anticipated. It came from the church, St Andrew’s, which was next door and because Christian choirs are trained, the quality of the music was high. And it was live and not a recording from a film. When a court banned all loudspeakers after 10pm a few years ago, the mass was forcibly brought forward a couple of hours.
I thought this was an injustice because it denied Christians the release of the moment. It was only once a year and that should have been considered by courts going after something else. There is also the fact that their mass was much less intrusive than the cacophony that religion otherwise brings in India. There was also, of course, the fact that I prefer the Western canon of religious music.
Anyway, I understand the government managed to get a few days of exemption for some religious things, and now it seems as if more or less everything is back to abnormal. India is becoming noisier by the decade as technology becomes affordable and accessible. Festivals and other religious and community occasions are increasingly imposed on all those within earshot. And more people are forced into participating in this through the loudspeaker. I don’t think this a pleasant experience and is going to get worse.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 29th, 2013.
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COMMENTS (10)
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Something new to heard thank u mr patel.
Mr. Patel, consider yourself lucky that you live in the secular democratic nation of India, where you can hear the Azaan five times a day from your nearby mosques. Such privileges are not extended to religious minorities such as Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Ahmedis, etc in your beloved Pakistan. It is not that it is beyond the will or capabilities of the majority Hindus to shut down those loud speakers calling for prayers. We respect your right to profess and practice your faith in our country unlike what your fellow Muslims do in Pakistan.
@sid: We will start calling it 'Mumbai' when I start hearing Mollywood, and not Bollywood. And, I have yet to see a 'Mumbai Bazaar' in India towns around the world. They still have the Bombay Bazaars. Same thing goes for Peking. It will become 'Beijing' when Restaurants start serving 'Beijing Duck' and not Peking Duck. Sorry.
Nicely written piece. On the last point, I think you miss the fundamental reason for why the cacophony continues to rise as time goes by; it's mostly got to do with the (spectacular) increase in our population. Of course, better and cheaper technology acts as an effective multiplier in this equation.
All over Suburban-India numbers of places of worship, chemists stores & wine shops are growing exponentially. The three have a symbiotic relationship.
Its not Bombay.its Mumbai............
Consider yourself lucky, Mr. Patel. In our part of the world, along with the Azaan, are the murderous sounds of suicide bombs, high-explosives, IEDs, AK-47s and miscellaneous small arms. That we be so lucky as to complain of just the loudspeakers. At least the congregation at the mosque, churches and imambaras in your country do not get blown to bits when they go to pray. I will take sore ears and irritation of loudspeakers to losing body parts! P.S. Try earplugs- works well, costs nothing. On our end we of course wish that earplugs would be it. Alas, nothing short of bullet-proof body armor is needed.
Yes, thats what Pakistan needs, more evidence of Indian secularism. I wholeheartedly agree with Pranab Mukherjee when he was home minister, "we should not propagate Indias governance model or structure to anyone." Minding ones own business is the best strategy. Pakistanis had decided their fate in 1947, and its their destiny, whatever they make of it, whichever way possible.
Your apprehensions in the end, of it getting worse is worth worring about. The good thing is that you have recourse to a functioning legal system and the sooner it is resorted to in order to put a stop to this........the better for you.