Let Us Celebrate Poem by Bashyam Narayanan

Celebration means rejoicing
An achievement
An advancement
A successful accomplishment
A commemoration

In all these
There were efforts
Struggles against odds and
Challenges
Greater the effort
Tougher the struggle
Grander the celebration
Examine the celebrations
We launch normally

We celebrate birthdays
Wedding days
Marriages
An elevation in social or professional status
An acquisition of property
Nationally or politically important events
A range of festivals depending on the faiths we tag on

How many of them
Deserve being celebrated

You will come to know
Some of them, if not many
Need no celebration
As there were no efforts of ours
And there were no struggles

Then why do we celebrate
We celebrate because
Others do so or
We can afford to do so

Time has come
Where there is a limitation on resources
Resources here mean
Those we are endowed by nature
Not those that are man made
And available at a price

Many celebrations denude nature
Of its priceless resources
And we consume these non-renewable and
Non-replenishable resources
Just to show we can do that
And in the name of celebrations
Which do not really mark any
Achievement or accomplishment
Following our effort or struggle

Let us celebrate
But let us restrict the number of celebrations
So that the future generations too
Will have something to celebrate