Holi 2021

Quite honestly, I thought that a year on, Covid would be on it’s way out. Far from it. With over 62,000 daily new cases, we seem to be racing towards the peak of last September.

Recycling flowers for Holi

With the festival of Holi a fortnight away, the balloon battles had begun. These days, they’re not balloons but small Made-in-China plastic packets filled with water. Not even the COVID-19 is a deterrent. Fill, twirl, knot, aim and throw with all your might to hit the target with enough force so that the balloon bursts on impact. It’s a lot of fun, but if executed well, it could be a most painful sting that could last a while. And if the balloon lands on an unintended target, well, God save everyone!

The children of Riviera Tower and Alica Nagar (in Lokhandwala Township, Kandivali East) are separated by a weld-mesh fence that provided just the right battleground. Things were getting out of hand. Balloons were confiscated and there were firm orders to call a truce. With this entertainment snatched away, the adults at Riviera were looking for something productive that could engage the children.

Just another Holi day

For people like me, brought up in the “south” in a southern populated neighbourhood, Holi is just another day. In our school days in Bangalore, Holi was a working day, so the question of colouring each other never did arise. At best it was a smattering of haldi and kum kum on the forehead. Only those children from the traditional “north”, for whom it was a big celebration, would miss school, and when they returned we would be awe struck by their pink and purple faces.

These days, in an effort to save myself from what I find a totally unnecessary and wasteful mess, it is a day when I don’t need to step out of the doors of my home. It is not that I am anti-Holi. Just anti-the-way-Holi-is-celebrated-today. Several days before the actual day, one finds children “having fun”, filling up plastic packets with water and throwing them at each other. By the time Holi actually arrives, we’ve generated thousands of plastic bags, and spent thousands of litres of water, when people around the world are fighting to reduce garbage and are desperate for water.

Splash of pink

Happy Holi folks!

If there is one colour that can be called the ‘colour of holi’, it would surely be pink. Back in our old school-going days, Holi was not a holiday. It probably still is not in many schools in the south of India. Everyone knew, though, that those who celebrated the festival of colour, would not come to school on the day, and the next day, they would appear in class, looking like dyed story-book creatures with ears and necks a bright mithai pink.

It seems that pink continues to dominate!

I must admit here that I totally avoid getting any colour on myself, pink or any other. Holi has never been among my favourite festivals, but of course, it is a time when one cannot but notice nature’s way of celebrating… with vibrant pink!

Pink bougainvillea on the Mahindra sidewalk, Akurli Road, Kandivali