I remember vivid and colorful scenes of Lathmar Holi from my childhood. My mother would find the most outdated and rejected cloths, a night before. In the morning, we would wear those cloths and put lot of oil on our whole body so that colors won't stick to our skin.
The earliest memory is of our courtyard and open area. I live in functionally disjointed but structurally unified family. In plain English, all siblings of my father live in adjacent to each other but we all have separate houses. So it was a large joint family of nearly 60-70 people. In the morning, everyone would gather in courtyard and we used to have lot of fun. The whole courtyard would turn colorful and every one would pour water over each other.
In the evening, my elder cousins would get a VCR on rent and whole family would watch movies in the open theatre that would go till 3 in the morning.
Our houses were interconnected through backdoor thus making it a perfect maze for hide and seek. We kids used to play for hours. Though I was kid at that age but I could claim myself as veteran in the game. I had discovered most unique places of hiding. For example cooler or water tank or even wheat trunk.
In the later years, we would go from street to street and put color on neighbors and strangers alike. It was often prefixed with phrase "uncle bura na mano, holi hai". And if ever we encounter any angry young man, we would disperse in a flick of second before other person could figure out who has put color on him.
We used to have balloon wars with neighbors and among each others. I would use all my cricketing skills to hit the target precisely.
Most of the afternoon was spent in the bathroom scratching the whole body to get rid of color spots from all the reachable and unreachable parts ( back ) of the body.
All the ladies would gather a few days before to help each other in making sweet items (Gunjiya). All the visitors were served thandai (a home made syrup) and Gunjiya on that day. Overall it was fun.
This time I had chance to be at home on Holi after so many years. I thought the excitement would have increased over the years but I witnessed a completely opposite picture. All the enthusiasm had evaporated. There were hardly any color or water bath on road. Most of the family members have dispersed so no noise or crowd occurred on the day. Everyone was at home.
I was never a fervent Holi enthusiast but I was always an interested observer who would relish the colorful scenes, playful bantering and mischievous teasing. It was strange and dis-interesting to see Holi becoming hollow in all this time.
Festivals are one of the three important pillar of our economy. Other being marriage and religion. Moreover Agra, being in close proximity of Mathura is flag bearer of Brij culture. Such festivals are unique opportunity to build a healthier and harmonious community. We can not afford to loose their fun, excitement and spirit in the land which is already facing dearth of entertainment avenues.
I wish a colorful holi for the next year. It is always good to connect with one's childhood and going back to past while moving forward in the future.
The earliest memory is of our courtyard and open area. I live in functionally disjointed but structurally unified family. In plain English, all siblings of my father live in adjacent to each other but we all have separate houses. So it was a large joint family of nearly 60-70 people. In the morning, everyone would gather in courtyard and we used to have lot of fun. The whole courtyard would turn colorful and every one would pour water over each other.
In the evening, my elder cousins would get a VCR on rent and whole family would watch movies in the open theatre that would go till 3 in the morning.
Our houses were interconnected through backdoor thus making it a perfect maze for hide and seek. We kids used to play for hours. Though I was kid at that age but I could claim myself as veteran in the game. I had discovered most unique places of hiding. For example cooler or water tank or even wheat trunk.
In the later years, we would go from street to street and put color on neighbors and strangers alike. It was often prefixed with phrase "uncle bura na mano, holi hai". And if ever we encounter any angry young man, we would disperse in a flick of second before other person could figure out who has put color on him.
We used to have balloon wars with neighbors and among each others. I would use all my cricketing skills to hit the target precisely.
Most of the afternoon was spent in the bathroom scratching the whole body to get rid of color spots from all the reachable and unreachable parts ( back ) of the body.
All the ladies would gather a few days before to help each other in making sweet items (Gunjiya). All the visitors were served thandai (a home made syrup) and Gunjiya on that day. Overall it was fun.
This time I had chance to be at home on Holi after so many years. I thought the excitement would have increased over the years but I witnessed a completely opposite picture. All the enthusiasm had evaporated. There were hardly any color or water bath on road. Most of the family members have dispersed so no noise or crowd occurred on the day. Everyone was at home.
I was never a fervent Holi enthusiast but I was always an interested observer who would relish the colorful scenes, playful bantering and mischievous teasing. It was strange and dis-interesting to see Holi becoming hollow in all this time.
Festivals are one of the three important pillar of our economy. Other being marriage and religion. Moreover Agra, being in close proximity of Mathura is flag bearer of Brij culture. Such festivals are unique opportunity to build a healthier and harmonious community. We can not afford to loose their fun, excitement and spirit in the land which is already facing dearth of entertainment avenues.
I wish a colorful holi for the next year. It is always good to connect with one's childhood and going back to past while moving forward in the future.
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