You imagine Holi and the bollywood all time favourites start buzzing in your mind. From "Holiya mein Uddee re gulal" to "Do me a favor lets play holi" all compell you to tap your feet!! Colors, food, family, friends, music, dance, all the possible good things in life at one place is definitely a deadly combination.
The longest pichkari and later on the gadgetized pichkari's of different shapes and sizes were the biggest ambition of life as a kid. The lovely gujiya's and snacks Mom made were to die for. The "Lal Odhana", the red traditional stole married women wear while performing pooja on Holi is the most colorful and warm peice of cloth one can wear. And the long sticks which are embedded in every nook and corner of the streets a month before the actual holi day used to intimate us about the grand festival in advance.
Kids used to start celebrating with their water guns 2-3 days before the actual Rang Panchami. The young responsible young guys of the community arranged wood for burning, water cans, water tanks, music and most importantly "DOLCHI". I dont know how many outside MHS know what is DOLCHI!! It is basically like a tumbler made of steel/aluminium with pointed cone like edge. The purpose of DOLCHI is when you throw water with force, it will hit the target hard. Young guys took pride in being the target and hitting the target as hard as they can!!
There are alot of fabulous memories of Holi in my diary of thoughts. Holi played with cousins and family on our terrace. Holi played with colony friends where we knocked at every door and pulled people out and colored them. Holi with 50 family friends arranged at a farm house where the water tanks used for watering the farm was our color pool and after a 5 hr holi, we made hot food on the chulha and had it with fun and laughter. Then Holi with school friends on a friends farm house where we were done with colors, water, food but still our feet refused to stop dancing. And then some quiet holis where I cursed myself of shifting to Bangalore (south India) and missing out on all the fun.
But the most memorable Holi would undoubtebly be the Holi I played in Engineering college Hostel!!
The scene in a college hostel a day before holi was hilarious!! All girls sitting on the stair case and oiling each others hair. The seniors giving tips of saving their beautiful skin to the juniors. Group of girls filling water ballons, some making all snack arrangements so that they dont need to go out of their rooms and escape from the horror of colors and water (read other super enthusiastic girls). Girls cribbing about spoiling their manicures and pedicures. Some even going to the extent of borrowing old clothes from their roommates. The phone booth crowded as those were the days of waiting and queuing on the phone booths.
I had just heard of all the stories about the hostel holi and how rowdy girls can get on the Holi day. I was pretty excited and in full enthusiasm went to the ground floor with colors in my hand. It was that moment I realised that this is not going to be anything like I have played earlier. Girls were in full swing painting each other in red, blue, black, yellow all colors. There were no pleas heard, no forgiveness till your identity is completely lost in colors. There was a tank filled with water and after the face painting was done, I was drowned in it. I felt like a prey and as the circle of life goes, every prey after initial few jhatkaas becomes the predator. I joined the gang and in no time the whole hostel was down colored and crazy!!
The music was especially burnt for this ocassion. Right from the ever green "Mungada" to the "Kajra re" all the item numbers were the hot favourites. The slick and stylish eye candies of the college dancing in the mud without their footware and the after effects on their faces were very funny! After first few hours, the perinneal water shortage crops up and the bullies start pulling all the girls in the mud. One after the other, everybody was drunk with the nasha of Holi and the diversity in unity was lost :). The stained teeth and eyes were the only thing standing out in the colored faces all around!
The major attraction of every holi in our hostel was the distant visit of boys from boys hostel after they had finished playing holi in Boys hostel. And as expected that year too, boys paid a visit from a distant terrace and hooted for their beautiful girlfriends! Looking at their torn clothes it was clear they would have played a much louder (couldnt find a much decent word) holi than the one at girls hostel. Our senior mams were busy tagging the known faces from the bunch of extra terristial species.
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