Celebrating Holi is a
great way to rejuvenate the souls. It is a festival of love, life and happiness.
I just love this festival with all the zeal and fervor. Delicious ‘gujiyas’, ‘crisp mathri’, ‘namak paare’, ‘malpua’,
‘tandai’, it used to be so much fun. But now those colorful spirits and feel
of ‘gulal’ seems to be fading away.
Bygone are those wonderful times when I used to run madly
after my brother with my ‘pichkari’,
we then played Holi in the small courtyard behind my house. My father used to
play Holi with his friends in the porch. My mother played less of Holi due to
skin allergy but she was very fond of preparing snacks for us. She even used to
carefully keep an eye on us when we were busy playing colors. The day then
started early with slight application of coconut oil on skin and hair. We would
move out of the house filling up buckets with different colors and keeping ‘gulal’ on plates. Getting our ‘pichkari’ ready for the day we would
just run, play and compete about who would apply or spray more colors on the
other. Joy and fun would begin with friends visiting. Nothing was better than relishing
‘gujiyas’ and playing colors with
siblings and friends. Evenings used to be equally interesting and exciting with
games, dance and singing competitions in the community hall.
My mother had been very particular with the concept of
sharing happiness; we would visit the orphanage a day before Holi and
distribute sweets and apply ‘gulal’ on
the kids and treasure some smiling moments with them.
Those were indeed the best times. We were safe and
protected. And now I prefer not to move out of my house on Holi, as eggs,
dirt, hard colors and similar stuff has replaced ‘gulal’ to a larger extend. It was last year, a day before Holi, I
was returning home from office in a rickshaw when some boys tried to throw balloons
filled with color on me, by chance it had hit hard the rickshaw puller, he lost
the balance and I fell on the road hurting myself badly. The innocence is
getting lost somewhere amid greed, lust and rowdiness. The festival is losing its
actual charm and craze.
Like all Indian festival Holi welcomes prosperity, brotherhood,
love and togetherness. But why is its colorful warmth disappearing? Why are we
building walls of uneasiness, over consciousness, laziness and stress around
us?
Why don’t we give it a try this Holi and break all walls of
inhibitions that surrounds our lives.
"With happiness and smiles let’s splash the color yellow and grow
the flowers of Friendship,
With enthusiasm and well being let’s apply the color green and
welcome Prosperity,
With goodwill and amity around let’s sprinkle the color blue and
grow
Harmony,
With feeling of innocence let’s touch hearts with color pink and
grow
Love"
“I’m pledging to #KhulKeKheloHoli this year by sharing my
Holi memories at BlogAdda in association
with Parachute Advansed.”
