Holi - the festival of colours.

We say, "Whats in a name?" ... whats in a size either?...Does it matter really?

Holi is round the corner and the children in the neighbourhood are walking around with their pichkaris (waterguns). They are of all sizes some resemble the rocket launchers, some are hand held and some are the backpack variety and  pichkari in the form of rifles throwing huge water streams. Children start the festival atleast a week in advance and it goes on until a couple of days later.

My kids wanted the new pichkaris too even though the last year ones are still good and they sure can last another season or two but they insisted on the new ones ofcourse much larger as well. They were in constant touch with their grandfather letting him know what they liked, giving all the specifications for the new possession that they were longing for. The elder one who is 6 years old wanted a backpack type with dual tanks and a large gun spray with it. When their grandfather asked the  younger one what he wanted, he echoed his elder brother. I was around that time and told him that he was too small to handle that huge pichkari, to that my 3 year old snapped, "Mumma, I can surely handle that I want my pichkari to be just like Bhaiya's". It saves getting two things identical for the boys otherwise, theres a war waiting to break everytime one doesn't get what the other has. So everything is bought by the twos!

The shops are full of different pichkaris right from the tiny spiderman kinds to the huge cylindrical backpack vacuum cleaner types. There are all the cartoon characters right from Mickey mouse to Shinchan and Doremon, Ben 10 to Power rangers. Children influence a large number of purchases in a household indeed! The new design this year, as the shopkeeper puts it, is in the form of a Saxophone, one can play on it, fill it with water and it doubles up as the pichkari.

This episode of the huge, colourful pichkaris took me back to our own childhood days and the festivals of  Holi. It  was more a festival of colours, meeting people and having a great festive time.

The festival would begin with the Chhoti Holi (which is the previous day of the full moon), Holi in the month of March. Legend has it that Demon king Hiranyakashyap wanted everyone in his kingdom to worship him but his son who was a devotee of Lord Vishnu didn't worship him or supported his evil ways. Hiranyakashyap wanted his son to be killed, he gave this job to his sister Holika as she had the boon that fire wouldn't harm her, she would be immune to the flames. So Holika sat in the blazing fire with Prahlad on her lap. But she was burnt to ashes and Prahlad was saved by Lord Vishnu himself. Legend has it that Holika's boon would work when she'd enter the fire alone. Since that time, people light a bonfire called Holika on the eve of Holi festival  also known as Holika Dahan and celebrate the victory of good over evil. The next morning the actual festival of  Holi is celerated.

It is a festival celebrated all over India with some local flavours in the different regions. The Holi of Vrindavan, Braj ki Holi and Barsane ki Holi are very famous. In Vrandavan they play Holi with flowers whereas Barsane ki Holi has the women hitting the men with huge sticks. Each of the style carrying its own legend. Hasya Kavi Sammelans are often the flavour of this festival. People play all types of pranks on each other, Political satire are often televised on different channels.
In the olden days Gulal was used but now the markets have everything available mostly synthetic, harmful colours, colours that are permanent and toxic. There are also organic colours available which some people who are sensitive enough do buy but majority of them pick what is available in the market. Its time we really think about the safety of everyone, specially our children. So much of water is wasted in the name of the festival, when there is drought in some states.

One must celebrate and enjoy the festival but not move too much from its tradition. People used to celebrate the festival of Holi with flowers, gulal, singing and merry making. Homes would make special delicacies such as Gujias, chakli, namkeens and sweets. People also had thandai and some people enjoyed bhang as well just to break inhibitions as its a day of fun and festivity. Celebrate the festival with song and dance and loads of fun with some classic Holi songs from the hindi movies, 'Rang barse bheege chunarwali' from Silsila being a personal favorite.

Wishing everyone a happy, safe, funfilled and colourful Holi!

Pictures have been taken from various websites for illustrations, if anyone has an objection to their use they'd be promptly removed