Holi

These days I hear different stories as to what is holi, why is it celebrated etc, Infact our office holiday declaration email read 'holiday for holi : festival of colors' :) (sometimes I wonder what the non-Indians would be thinking of the holiday description we give, Diwali-festival of lights, Holi - festival of colors, then maybe festival of food and what not:))

Anyways What I was telling was these days I hear stories about holi and I am curious to relate as to which one could actually be real, but in my childhood I never cared as to why we celebrate holi, I just cared as to I get all the colors in advance, a pitchkari to play with, my set of old clothes (2..just in case) and I've filled up lots of balloons with water (this is my set and they are seperate from my brothers)..a day in advance, and next day all neighbours and friends would get together and color each other, we would pull all the shy faces out and color them..all uncles aunts would just not be recognizable. I now wonder what pleasure i got rather still get to just pull people and color them or pour water on them..but its fun he he he ...i dunno why..but I really enjoy it. this is how I spent my holi past many years.

This year's holi was a little different, (apart from me waking up my neighbours and coloring them in their bed he he he).
These days each festival is so hyped coz of the media..holi now played in clubs and resorts with some ticket charges Rs.300 per person or 500 per couple entry etc etc.Some of my Family friends were inviting me to boat club where they had 'rain dance' and food etc Rs.300 per head(discounted price, since they were boat club members). Me ;acting cheap these days (duh I've bought a house, am next in the EMI driven slaves queue now) says..no no..300 for holi...no way, and i turn the invite down..and was thinking that I will spend this holi maybe at home resting and preparing for the transition or thinking about my new job. The evening before the 'holi' day, another friend calls up and invites me to play holi, I denied..thinking of another club invitation with all the crap and shoo shaa business ..but after hearing the destination, I just said yes readily.

Next morning (after coloring and waking up my neighbours) around 10-15 of us were at Shreevatsa with lots of colors , pitchkaris, some sweets and souls full of enthusiasm. this place (Shreevatsa) is just in the heart of pune i.e near pune station but I never knew of its existence, despite of being in a central location , it was pretty quiet, sonal..who organized the holi went in and called the lady in charge there, as to where are the kids. the lady replied that they are all waiting for you, and she called upon the kids..all kids suddenly from somewhere came out, There were kids from age 2months to 10 years. they were all dressed up and had set up a tub full of water in the middle of the playarea. Soon the music blasted , pitchkaris were out and all the colors found perfect faces for themselves. The kids instantly bonded with us(I think Holi is a real ice breaker)..we were coloring each other, chasing each other..pouring water..shouting ahh oooh and running around there he he ....Chaitrali (one of the kids) was so excited that despite having one of her hand paralyzed she cudn't let her hands off the pitchkari, she was opening the pitchkaris with mouth and filling them up...she just couldnt wait till the time i fill it with water...seeing her excitement I just picked her up and put her in the water, she laughed loudly and then shouting and enjoying....with all the chap chap around , the other kids wanted to get in too..one by one each of them raising their hands up..my turn my turn and we picked them up and they (and us too ;p) had a dip in the tub..(which by now was all colorful). Some kids were so shy that we had to pull them out from their room, and some were chhupa rustoms..they wud splash water on us and just run away or hide and we would keep loopking for them. all of us were drenched and we could barely recognize each other (face wise) here the physical fact of being tall, fat, short made a helping hand to recognize people. Chaitrali..by now started shivering...we asked her caretaker to take her in. Pushkar (he is a brat) was all grinning (with no teeth in his mouth) and we were wondering what he hiding behind..and boo he gets a water pipe and ...well well.. we all were kinda cleaned with it :). Later sides changed and he faced the water pipe :). seeing all this chaitrali came again (this time all dry and with a different dress) and started playing again. all kids were laughing with joy and teasing us with colors ,We all played and played till each of us started shivering.

Later we cleaned up the place, bid them bye and returned home; Each one sharing our experiences with each other and talking to ourselves too.Though I spent more amount (almost 4 times to what I would spend for boat club party), it doesn't matter now, This holi was so much fun, I can still picture the kids giggling and laughing and putting water on us. I slept with some satisfaction and feel good and some food for thought too.

I am glad I got this oppurtunity today, I think each of us..though I think not each of us can adopt children...we should atleast spend some quality time with them or make their life a little more colorful than what they already have in whatever way we can. I think SOFOSH is doing a great job.