Developing aesthetic sense

Nilratan Halder | Published: February 11, 2017 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Of the many festivities and social events held during the winter, flower show is one. Cities and even a few towns -not only the capital - now arrange flower shows. They pull a large crowd. Not necessarily all who visit such shows are flower-lovers. A large number simply attend such shows only to while away their time. All because, there are few options for recreation and entertainment in the urban life of today's Bangladesh.
However, there are people with genuine love for Nature. Some are born with it, others acquire it under the influence of family, friends and the surrounding environment. The wonders of creation are so multifarious and mellifluous that the most imaginative of minds cannot quite grasp the diversity. Lessons from Nature stay with people and acquired knowledge demands continuous practice.
Music is yet another enlightening element that some receive as a gift from heaven. Others have to cultivate this extraordinary elevating experience in order to exploit its resources. A sense of beauty forms in one's heart only to take a permanent shape. Thus people become a singer, a musician who plays an instrument or instruments according to his/her liking. The classical music of the East and the West is of different genres. But both seek to appeal to the innermost core of human heart. Symphonies are the masterpieces of great musicians of the West. Similarly, ragas of the Indian classical music are the apex of human expression through human voice and instruments.
Then there are the ballets where music and dance have a fusion at their highest. In the Oriental cultural experience, dance and drama have not combined together to reach the height of ballet. But of course, the Indian dance forms have reached perfection on account of aestheticism.
Sure enough, love for flowers and for that matter classical songs and music or symphony and ballet is on the wane now. This is despite the fact that Bangladesh has been arranging the world's largest classical music festival for some years now, courtesy of a business conglomerate, Bengal Group. The other influences of what can be called sky culture and internet infiltration have been so overpowering that refinement of tastes simply does not hold. Promotion of violence and sex has been so explicit, thanks to commercial cinemas and porno sites, that healthy entertainment and pursuance of knowledge for the majority have become tough. Not all can resist the temptation of the prurient.
The kind of education now imparted has overlooked the aspect of preparing mind for aesthetic appreciation. Now the English Department of Dhaka University has to take the responsibility of initiating freshers into some finest specimens of Bangla literature. Clearly, it is aimed at creating the ground for appreciation of life in the true sense of the term. Many of the learners have come to study literature with a tunnel vision they were heir to because of the curricula at the school and college levels.
When cable television was yet to be a reality and computer and smart phones with internet or WiFi connection were a wild dream, classics written by the finest writers were most students' refuge during spare times. Many had the opportunity to go through some of those much before they became adult. Did they really develop an insight into the core meaning of those classics? Most likely not, but still their effort did not go in vain. They were endeavouring with some ideas, sense, feeling and emotion that did not quite allow them to get into the meaning and yet did not desert them too. They were within an ambience -one they could have a fleeting idea or feeling.
As they grew old, the students gradually developed a deep sense of insight and introspection which most learners today miss. All because, the current type of entertainment is all about visual effect. Little is left to the imagination. It is exactly where the deficiencies of modern education and entertainment get woefully exposed. The unsaid and unexpressed at times become more effective than the bared all.
Flower shows are a good attempt to bring people to Nature. But it is too little to fill up the mental vacuum. Let the young ones develop the ear and mind for the finest music, not the rock-n-roll. Let them appreciate classics, paintings and all the finest creations of human minds. This proves an imperative for society to elevate itself to a higher plane.