A Guinness record at the cost of safety, common sense and probably money-making ?

Recently, there was an attempt to break a Guinness World Record with a Bharatanatyam performance featuring 12,000 participants. The idea of promoting our rich cultural heritage on such a massive scale might seem impressive on paper, but let’s take a step back and think about the absurdity of this. Why are we so obsessed with records for the sake of records? Breaking an existing record of 10,000 participants by adding 2,000 more—what does this achieve other than bragging rights? Was there any deeper cultural value or purpose served, or was it just another exercise in vanity? To make matters worse, the event witnessed a serious safety incident where an MLA suffered a major accident due to an unscientifically constructed stage. This highlights the lack of planning and priority given to basic safety measures. Instead of ensuring that participants and attendees were in a secure environment, the focus seemed to be solely on numbers and headlines. And let’s not ignore the possibility that this could have been a money-making exercise disguised as a cultural event. Think about the registration fees, sponsorship deals, and publicity surrounding such an event. It’s not hard to imagine the organizers cashing in on the hype while cutting corners on things like safety and proper infrastructure. If they truly cared about promoting Bharatanatyam and Kerala’s cultural heritage, couldn’t these resources have been used for more meaningful initiatives—like cultural festivals, workshops, or grants for artists?