A day when its time for you to come out and play irrespective of your size or age. This is the day when you forget your grievances and greet friends and foe alike. Let them not escape as you have to drench them in the colors of your love. Let there be smiles all around as colors fly in the air and shouts of Holi Hai resounds in the atmosphere.
Today the children are burdened with copious home work and
loads of books and they find a great relief in this festival of colors that
makes them forget their woes and worries.
Seeing the children scurrying hither and thither with
packets of gulal and water pistols of various shapes and designs I am reminded
of my childhood days.
Our preparations started nearly a week in advance. We got
together in groups and discussed about the holi colors and as to which were the
fastest and would not wash away easily. We knew that other groups of children
were planning the same way. We were ready to face the music as it meant lots of
fun.
We lived in a joint family and had a lot of relatives living
in the same premises. More members meant more action and greater fun. Just
before Holi our home used to become a hub of activity. There was a lot of
coming and going and shopping for colors and gulal was on top priority. Sweets
and namkeen were all prepared by my mother and aunts in huge quantities as a
large number of guests were expected on the Holi day.
With all these hectic activities I and my cousins used to go
frantic with excitement. We waited for the big day to dawn. Huge tubs filled
with yellow flowers called Tesu soaked in water were prepared in advance. Then
platters of sweets and other eatables were kept ready on a table and of course
covered with a cloth to avoid us children from filching a few from them. This
did not mean that we were being ignored. We were also given a huge packet of
eatables to share with our friends. Content with our booty we would arm
ourselves with our water pistols filled with colored water and a bucket of
colored water to replenish our guns or pichkaris. Our first targets were the
relatives and guests coming to greet the family. After this we would move on to
the balcony and target passersby. Our next agenda was to move out on the street
and drench who ever came into view shouting Holi hai. The boys in our group
would dance to the bollywood songs being sung by us the girls. Many stopped to
applaud us and we did not miss this opportunity of drenching them. With the
buckets of water being exhausted we turned back home where a royal repast
awaited us. Fluffy puris and kachories, dahi bhallas and of course the special
Holi treat the juicy gujiyas.
After this it was time to clear the color from our hair,
face and body. It was time consuming but made easy because we had taken care to
oil our hair and face. We purposely kept our arms with color prominent because
we had to show our friends at school the marks of Holi.
Today also the children should not be debarred from their
annual quota of fun and let us all play #KhulKeKheloHoli
“I’m pledging to #KhulKeKheloHoli this year by sharing my Holi memories at BlogAdda in association with Parachute Advansed"
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