It has been ages since I played Holi. I don’t know how it happened but somewhere along the way, I have completely stopped playing Holi. Like this time, I did not go anywhere near the colors.
Only at office we had a small get together. There too I kept standing quietly. Only when one of the senior professors put colors on our foreheads I too reciprocated. Some of the color sticked to my hands and instead of properly putting it on someone’s face (there were four people sitting next to me) I was looking for something to wipe it off! I politely asked a young colleague who was wearing a white shirt that was already colored, “can I wipe my hands on your shirt?” He let me do that!
Next time at Holi, I am going to relive one of my wilder years (not that I was really wild ever) and play Holi like my nephew and niece are doing above.
I stopped playing too, while I was still at school, many years ago.Happy Holi to you and your readers! 🙂
Sidhu any plans of playing Holi again? A very happy Holi to you.Alka I deleted your comment. I was changing the typo while your comment sneaked in, Holi hai …
Happy Holi to you Mridula.I too not playing Holi since long. I mean Holi full of colors/waters and lot of pranks. globalisation is taking its toll on our celebrating festivals. away from our homes, we do not have friends who will pull us into all these. missing those good old Holi.
Nilesh, I actually was musing about the kind of Holi you mentioned, the kind I am missing too.
True spirit of Indian festivals is still alive, but in smaller towns and cities. Thanks to globalization; and easy access to internet and Hollywood movies V.D. (Valentine’s Day) and Christmas have become more popular in bigger cities (esp. in educated class). Arsa beet gaya hai Holi khele huye, but I vividly remember those wild and colorful Holis of Lucknow and Allahabad.
Atul, in my locality in NCR Holi is still robust, it is I who somehow stopped playing. But I agree, that big cities generally fare poorer in this regard.