Lately I was not into celebrating Holi much. First because of my rotation and then too old(am I?) now to take part!
Only one thing brought my interest back in Holi and that was idea of celebrating it in my Village. This year being in India it was possible to attend it and see how it actually takes place there. Mahesh and Sanjay joined me. Others also wanted to join but their job prevented them. We could not get confirmed tickets but somehow managed to board the train and reach malvan katta. Nana and Balu joined us in the same evening. We were previously told there is lot of fun like cutting mango tree, dragging it to the burning place etc. We were so excited to see all that. Our Holi did not kick off until late evening. We all got so bored. Anyway we got a chance to see our neighboring Holi. They brought a very long straight mango tree and put it straight up in the soil. That was very interesting to see. When they put a fire everybody started to revolve around the Holi. People offered coconut and prayed for their well being. Suddenly from nowhere rain started pouring. It was surprising to all of us to see rain in March. All villagers who were waiting for their mangoes to ripe were tensed.
We were then relaxing and somebody told that our village people are bringing the mango tree. We quickly jumped and ran to see that. We dragged the tree to some distance. Enjoyed that. It was all dark and very less could be seen. I managed to take few snaps. Villagers believe that on Holi day if somebody gives us "Sh*t" is a good sign. So they were all saying some bad things about each other very loudly and nobody was replying badly. That was quite funny. It was nearly 12 in the midnight when we finished everything.
Next day Ranga Panchami which was more fun. All small kids were colored red. Good thing about it was there was no chemical color, only natural gulal. We took part in coloring others and it was quite fun day.
I think it is not a bad idea to become kids and celebrate Holi. Lets play it next year.
