My Amazing Holi Experience...
March 13th was observed as the great festival of Holi in India. A religious Festival which has now become the icon of Indian way of celebration all over the world, with vibrant colours, dancing and partying. I used to play with colours as a child but grew up thinking its lame and gross. Now I miss it more then ever. Four years here, and its today that I had a wonderful, enjoyable experience of Holi as a grown up. Of course, its more than just the colours that I would miss, its a combination of missing family and home, amazing food of my mum and our own local ways and customs of playing Holi.
The first Holi in this city, we bought passes to a nice place where some professionals organized a booze party with DJ, which was all very new to me. In my native place, we just play with colours in the morning after a community bonfire last night (called Holika Dahan) and then visit all our neighbours and friends where we are greeted with lots of love and amazing delicious food in the evening. Getting back to our First party here, it was kind of a disaster. There were no water source to play Holi with and we didn't anticipate the need of dry colours so unfortunately we didn't bring any with us. Some times later we started getting over the stupid management and liking the DJ, that's when the police raided the whole compound and evacuated it since the god forsaken management had no permission to sell booze or play loud music in a residential area. So it was a total bust. We friends rode back home, and on our way had this amazing glass of sugarcane juice which was so delicious and refreshing that it almost made me forget the bad day we just had. It was the only good thing to happen that day.
The above event dampened my experience so bad, I decided never to travel far and play Holi with strangers, especially when organised for commercial reasons. The next year I played Holi for a few hours at my friends place during which we defaced there whole bunglow and consequently spent several days to come, in cleaning the whole place up. The lesson we learned- Holi is strictly an outdoor festival. The third time I was over it. I stayed back home- cozy and warm and let the world play Holi in its own weird and stupid ways. My skin stayed unharmed but I sure did miss it.
Now this year, since last 3 days I had a particular hankering of going out and doing something for Holi. Since this is the last year all my class would be together, the Final year of the College. Plus I was home sick as usual with any festival. I asked a lot of people but none of their plans seemed to suit me. So I gave up. There was no chance the last Holi here would be any special. That's until my friends stopped by casually, with lots of colours and their faces beyond recognition. I stepped out remembering the strict outdoor rule and they dumped all kinds of beautiful colours on me, making me nothing but hideous. And then they asked if I would like to roam around with them looking for people we know. I was bored of listening to Nicki Minaj since waking up so I agreed and we started on foot around our campus. We met a few girls and went to this society were half my class stays. They had these amazing setups with water sprinklers from roof, making it look like rain and the DJ was on fire. I met a lot of friends and classmates there and decided to let go of all my inhibitions. I danced and danced and danced, under the rain. OH MY GOD! we were all wet af and breathless but there was no stopping us. Amazing Bollywood music, the cold rain, the colours, the unrecognizable faces and their weird dark smiles- it was the Holi I always wanted. A few minutes extending to hours- I danced my heart out. Oh I had almost forgotten how much I loved doing it.
Recognizable faces would swing by every now and then, with more colours and energy. Some people were good dancers and some weren't but nothing seemed to stop them. Me and some close friend would form a circle and spin and trip and sway and whirl like drunkards. TBH I was one of the better ones at it. :D The water was cold and the breeze flowing through made it colder, but the zeal and music made so much of adrenaline flow through our veins, it didn't matter. Even the people who are a** holes on a regular day felt like friends and sweethearts. And that's the whole point of Holi.
Few hours later, with all the families already left, we left too. All drenched, coloured and tired but with hearts filled with so much of joy. It was hard to walk back home, my legs were sore but it was totally worth it. Reaching home, showered the hell out of my body, ate and slept and realised I might not get to play that kind of Holi again since this is the last year but that's exactly the kind of Holi I want every year now.
The first Holi in this city, we bought passes to a nice place where some professionals organized a booze party with DJ, which was all very new to me. In my native place, we just play with colours in the morning after a community bonfire last night (called Holika Dahan) and then visit all our neighbours and friends where we are greeted with lots of love and amazing delicious food in the evening. Getting back to our First party here, it was kind of a disaster. There were no water source to play Holi with and we didn't anticipate the need of dry colours so unfortunately we didn't bring any with us. Some times later we started getting over the stupid management and liking the DJ, that's when the police raided the whole compound and evacuated it since the god forsaken management had no permission to sell booze or play loud music in a residential area. So it was a total bust. We friends rode back home, and on our way had this amazing glass of sugarcane juice which was so delicious and refreshing that it almost made me forget the bad day we just had. It was the only good thing to happen that day.
The above event dampened my experience so bad, I decided never to travel far and play Holi with strangers, especially when organised for commercial reasons. The next year I played Holi for a few hours at my friends place during which we defaced there whole bunglow and consequently spent several days to come, in cleaning the whole place up. The lesson we learned- Holi is strictly an outdoor festival. The third time I was over it. I stayed back home- cozy and warm and let the world play Holi in its own weird and stupid ways. My skin stayed unharmed but I sure did miss it.
Now this year, since last 3 days I had a particular hankering of going out and doing something for Holi. Since this is the last year all my class would be together, the Final year of the College. Plus I was home sick as usual with any festival. I asked a lot of people but none of their plans seemed to suit me. So I gave up. There was no chance the last Holi here would be any special. That's until my friends stopped by casually, with lots of colours and their faces beyond recognition. I stepped out remembering the strict outdoor rule and they dumped all kinds of beautiful colours on me, making me nothing but hideous. And then they asked if I would like to roam around with them looking for people we know. I was bored of listening to Nicki Minaj since waking up so I agreed and we started on foot around our campus. We met a few girls and went to this society were half my class stays. They had these amazing setups with water sprinklers from roof, making it look like rain and the DJ was on fire. I met a lot of friends and classmates there and decided to let go of all my inhibitions. I danced and danced and danced, under the rain. OH MY GOD! we were all wet af and breathless but there was no stopping us. Amazing Bollywood music, the cold rain, the colours, the unrecognizable faces and their weird dark smiles- it was the Holi I always wanted. A few minutes extending to hours- I danced my heart out. Oh I had almost forgotten how much I loved doing it.
Recognizable faces would swing by every now and then, with more colours and energy. Some people were good dancers and some weren't but nothing seemed to stop them. Me and some close friend would form a circle and spin and trip and sway and whirl like drunkards. TBH I was one of the better ones at it. :D The water was cold and the breeze flowing through made it colder, but the zeal and music made so much of adrenaline flow through our veins, it didn't matter. Even the people who are a** holes on a regular day felt like friends and sweethearts. And that's the whole point of Holi.
Few hours later, with all the families already left, we left too. All drenched, coloured and tired but with hearts filled with so much of joy. It was hard to walk back home, my legs were sore but it was totally worth it. Reaching home, showered the hell out of my body, ate and slept and realised I might not get to play that kind of Holi again since this is the last year but that's exactly the kind of Holi I want every year now.
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