chaotic moments

It was almost 15 years since I played my last Holi … actually last 14 years I wasn’t home during this festival … and that’s why this one was very nostalgic … I could recall a lot of things that used to happen or things I used to do so many years ago … especially after seeing the kids in the neighborhood doing the same stuff … Things have changed … but something haven’t to some extent … the ones that involve children and their innocence …

On the eve of Holi (chhoti holi) we used to do puja of Holika and Druv (made of cow-dung) and later at the community Holika – fire (dahan) … where after the small rituals, we used to get blessings of all the elders and have ‘thandai’ - cold flavored milk (without the bhang) … this ritual haven’t changed a lot … just that I don’t see kids so much enthusiastic about the whole session …

The next day morning used to start by around 8~8:30 am where in first thing we used to do is get ourselves coated with oil (mostly with sunflower oil). We used to prepare a bucket of color (at least one bucket, colors we used to buy a couple of days earlier) and then either through mugs or pichkari (a portable hand held spray pump – now comes in different shapes and sizes and materials) shower colors – from our balcony to all the people walking on the streets passing underneath. The ratio of them getting even a drop of that shower used to be very low (1 out of 5 or 6) … and the amount of happiness we used to get when the target used to achieve was immense … this is something I saw hasn’t change much … except that people are less on the streets … and lot of them are on a vehicle – mostly bikes – zipping around …

It used to be around 9:30 ~ 10 when community people used to come out and the local gathering used to get warmed up … with all the people, we kid also used to get a chance to color the elder people properly along with our age groups … this phenomenon has declined with the age and has taken different shapes … today the community scope got broaden and there are not too many people coming out for it … a reason for this is the way people apply colors to each other and the quality of color itself …

After this community thing … we used to gather with a few friends and walk around the city (and cycles) going to almost every friends’ place – having sweets (esp gujhiya) / namkeen added with either chai or thandai … I have strong feeling about this activity now … as friends have distanced out … not many like to entertain everyone at home … especially when dripping color can create a mess in a clean house … and the relationships are not as strong as they used to be …

There used to be lot of tolis with their bands (drums) which used to go across the town … which is now replaced by a gang of bikers or formation of a DJ based dance floor at every crossing you can say … with good holi music replaced by loud (really loud) music which not only dirty (double meaning – sexually explicit) but irrelevant too … one song though hasn’t lost its tradition is ‘rang barse’ … which is every second song that is being played (though now with added effects – which then destroys the beauty) … people used to hug each other … now the youth has created a tradition of ripping each other’s clothes apart …

As time has progressed, the quality of the colors used has also gone down substantially … they buy colors that doesn’t go easily … leading to the usage of varnish based paints too … not too sure why – but seemingly having a revenge … traditionally Holi was a festival to eliminate animosity, which seemingly has changed its purpose to make an opportunity to take revenge (playfully though) by painting others’ face red/painted … on the other hand, it also reflected who played how much of Holi – an unstated competition!

The worst stage of this event is clean up … loads of shampoo/soap/ other related stuff (like besan with malai …) is used to get back into normal looking human from dark – unrecognizable faces … everything you touch that time is colored in red/green … it takes almost an hour or two and even after so much of washing and cleaning, some amount of color remains … the skin gets really burnt if not dried …

The evening, is relatively better part of the process … where there are places with Holi-Milan samaroh (public meetings/ get-together) happens and people of all class and creed come in their better dressed format and greet each other … some of these have some entertainment stuff organized like hasya kavi sammelan or a local orchestra with loads of thandai being served. This was the time when I used to go around with friends – visiting everyone’s place – having loads of sweets and ending up at this place for final dispersion. This time I did see the cream of the business community gather at the central place – but the rest of the other Milan samaroh was not there … (or at least I was not aware of) …

At the end of the day … it was a mixed feeling … filled with nostalgia … missing those days where some of us friends used to spend hours and hours today … but getting drenched in different colors, I am not too sure if I would like to play again next year … but then next year would be a different issue altogether as I wouldn’t be alone next holi :)

# posted by chaos @ 9:25 AM