Festivals deserve more than forwarded messages

As the festival season arrives, my warm greetings to every reader. Festivals in India are not just dates on a calendar. They are reminders to pause, reflect, forgive, and reconnect with others and with ourselves. Festivals like Holi are vibrant not just because of colours, but because they invite us to cleanse our minds of negativity and rediscover joy.

Life itself is like a festival of colours. Every colour represents a different emotion, experience, or phase of life. But there is an interesting observation here. When too many colours are mixed together without thought, they eventually turn dark, sometimes even black. In the same way, when we clutter our lives with too many distractions, noise, and unnecessary engagements, the beauty of individual experiences fades.

Festivals are meant to simplify life for a moment, not complicate it.

Yet, somewhere along the way, the spirit of celebration has been overshadowed by something else, the flood of forwarded messages. Our phones buzz continuously with festival greetings on WhatsApp, email, and social media. Years ago, during the pre-WhatsApp era, SMS carried this burden. Technology has multiplied the speed and volume.

Researchers studying digital behaviour have noticed something interesting. According to a 2023 report by the market research firm Statista, an average smartphone user receives dozens of festival greetings in a single day during major celebrations. At the same time, studies by the American Psychological Association suggest that digital overload can increase stress and reduce our sense of meaningful connection. In simple words, more messages do not always mean more warmth.

Once, a young man named Laddu Pintu told me something amusing during Holi. On that morning, he woke up to nearly 300 festival messages on his phone. Animated gifs, colourful posters, poetic wishes, and long paragraphs about happiness filled his screen. He spent nearly forty minutes scrolling through them. Then he paused and laughed at himself. Instead of stepping outside to enjoy the festival, he had been sitting alone with his phone.

So Laddu Pintu did something different. He put his phone aside, walked out of his house, met his neighbours, and gently applied a small streak of colour on their cheeks. He shared laughter, sweets, and simple conversations. Later in the evening, when he looked at his phone again, the unread messages had crossed 500. But strangely, he did not feel the urge to open them.

“Today I already received the best wishes,” he told me. “They came in the form of smiles.”

That simple moment carries a powerful lesson. Technology is a wonderful tool. It connects people across cities and continents. But relationships grow stronger through presence, not through endless forwards. A personalised message, a thoughtful call, or a warm conversation carries far more emotional value than a hundred copied greetings.

Psychologists often emphasise that meaningful social interaction significantly improves emotional well-being. A well-known study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships found that people who engage in real conversations, even brief ones, experience greater happiness and lower stress than those who rely solely on digital communication.

This is worth reflecting upon during every festival. 

Instead of forwarding dozens of generic greetings, we can choose something simpler and more meaningful. Send a personalised message to someone who truly matters. Call an old friend. Visit a neighbour. Share sweets with family. Or step outside and participate in the celebration around you.

And if you still wish to spread festive cheer digitally, the gentlest way is to post a thoughtful message on your status or social wall rather than flooding dozens of inboxes.

Festivals are not meant to increase the noise in our lives; they are meant to deepen the warmth.

So this season, as colours fill the air and laughter echoes in our streets, let us remember what truly makes a celebration meaningful. Not the number of messages we send, but the number of hearts we genuinely touch.

Because at the end of the day, the brightest colour of any festival is not red, blue, or yellow. It is the colour of human connection, and that colour shines only when we show up in person.

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