Happy Holi!!

The color of Riots is here again.

 

Like Diwali, we celebrate Holi for 2 days. Choti Holi and Badi holi. Choti Holi, yesterday starts of with Hanuman Puja during the day and Holika Dahan in the night ( usually late in the night). That is a bonfire made of cow dung cakes with ends of sugarcane burnt by the men in the family. It signifies the death of Holika and the miraculous escape by Prahalad. That sugarcane is then cuts into chunks and everybody exchanges their chunks with Holi wishes, applying Gulal as shagun. Only after this cycle is finished do we start playing . The next day, Badi holi is when we start playing early in the morning till noon. at the end of the day we are black, blue with streaks of gold and silver and dripping wet!

This was imp's second holi. And she totally loved it again. She loved the bonfire, the sugarcnae exchanges and applying color. Though she just watched letting others apply gulal to her face...she finally cane on her own with her nani..gleefully applying color to nani. Sleep be dammed.

Holi has alway been fun. And we have involved our friends and neighbours. One festival which we cousins always got together and had a blast. One instance come to mind... After playing, we all decide to go have some ice cream. We are there at the ice cream palour, and we realise that we are being stared at...getting double looks from everybody. People slowing down, stoppin to look at us...u knw like you would look at an animal in a zoo. And then one guy crashes his bike into the vehicle in front of him, while looking at us.  We were 15 of us, all black with gold and silver straks on our faces and drippin wet. We were suning ourselves in the sun while having our ice cream. We stopped traffic. We caused an accident. We had a Blast, so much so that a friend makes a statement " Man! You North indians have more fun than south indians "

Wish you all a Happy, Safe and colorful Holi !!

Riot!

This is one riot that I absolutely love. The riot of colors! I have begged, pleaded, and fought with all my bosses for 2 days of leave, to come back home to play Holi. And returned the next day back to work all pink and green. My friends who have played with us like forever, have also gone back to work all pink, blue and green.

We have played with colors, crystals, and yes with food stuff too - doused pepsi, splashed kanjii vada's and dahi vada's; a classic food fight. Its the one day of the year that is awaited with excitement. Its also the first thing that is checked when the new Hindi calender arrives, the date is different every year.

Have a Happy, Colorful and a safe Holi!

Holi Hai!

Apprehensive. Excited. Curios. Just before the Holika Puja. Wondering how my angel will react. Will she get scared, or will she enjoy. Or will she Cling?

Every year the puja is held close to midnight, this time the time given was between 8:30pm and 9:30 pm. Suitable time, given that there is no way I could have taken her after she had slept. Its been pre-decided ever since we moved away from our joint family, to gather at one place for Holi. It really is no fun to do this puja all by your self otherwise, is there?

So we met at the appointed hour, performed the puja,and not a squeak from Angel. She was totally engrossed, taking in the new sightings. Keenly observing what we were all up to. Doing Jai when the fire was lit. Once the puja is over, we greet our elders and seek their blessings, wishing them "Happy Holi", exchange sugar cane and apply gulal. Only after we have wished each other do we start playing. In all this Angel too started wishing everybody, doing Jai and of course collecting and not exchanging Sugarcane. Everybody applied gulal tika and she enjoyed it.

Happily posed for photographs and didn't want to leave with no signs of sleep in sight. I was immensely surprised that she was happily mingling with my cousins whom she did not remember, as the last they had seen her was easily 6-8 months back. She has been a clingy child and to see her on her own enjoying was a real delight. She played with her older cousins, was perturbed with color on my face or my bro's. Only the first time when the color was applied on my bro's face was she taken aback for a sec, and then she was very matter of fact about the whole thing.

This holi has been very special. It was Angel's first holi, technically second as she was just 5 months old at the last one.

Happy Holi Everybody! Can't wait for the next year, to see how she will play with all of us.