Fond of playing the pepa with the bihu orchestra group, Dhiran Kalita never thought that one day he would have to move away from his village Raha and settle in Guwahati city. Performing bihu dance and playing the pepa still excites him. But he finds a tremendous change occurring among the young children today. He sees that his own children are not interested in enjoying the traditional bihu dance and the music. Today for many young boys and girls like Kalita’s children bihu is just a ‘local holiday’ to relax and reconcile at home and play computer games.
Bihu is the most integral part of the Assamese society. The colourful bihu dance creates a magical atmosphere with the melodies of traditional bihu songs and music. “I still remember my school days, when I used to quickly put on the mekhela chadar of my mother and rush towards my school field to participate in the mukoli bihu competitions (open bihu dance) in all the Bohags,” says Namita Saikia. She further adds, “It is indeed very surprising and sad to see my children not being able to pick up any single bihu dance steps”.
The lack of interest among the youth about their culture is the main reason behind the change which is gradually taking place in our culture today. ‘We must encourage our children to learn about the age old tradition. This is the only way to keep them associated with bihu," says Namita Saikia.
“I was very surprised to see home made sweets in one of my friend’s place when she had invited us for tea,” says Mayuri Hazarika. "Due to the fast moving urban life we are hardly into doing something traditional, we rather prefer to adopt faster ways of getting things done by simply picking up ready made sweets which are easily available in the super markets, departmental stores," adds Namita Saikia. With the fast moving of urban life the traditional and cultural way of life is slowly degrading and in the near future the people of Assam will soon loose their tradition.
Soma Karmakar, a designer who originally hails from Shillong has showcased many traditional types of attire in various fashion shows held in Guwahati and other parts of the Northeast states. “As the spring season hits the state I expected to get more orders for muga and paat mekhelas chadars but instead I find that masimum people looked for either dresses or salwar kameez,” says Karmakar. With the passage of time people have gradually changed their taste regarding the traditional attires. They are looking for a reformation in the traditional mekhelas too.
“I was very excited to go and watch Zubeen Garg’s performance in the Latasil field on the 14th evening and while I was on the way I received a call from my friend who was enjoying the the same performance by sitting at home,” says Poonam Pegu. "I missed his performance because I was stuck in a massive traffic jam and I only wished if I could watch the performance when I’m back in home. Due to the fast moving of life, now a day’s people prefer to sit at home and enjoy the glimpse of the bihu festival by watching it on the television. People have become so lethargic to even drive down to the nearest field to watch the bihu functions."
Rongali bihu is the most loved festival of Assam but with the passage of time the concept of bihu has truly changed. Right from the bihu songs to the bihu sweets we experience a mix of modern and traditional concepts. These interesting changes have truly revolutionaries our old traditional customs. More changes are expected in the years to come as we move more ahead with our age. And hope we will be able to retain back little things from our age old culture.