ANYTIME GUP-SHUPS

How We Played OUR HOLI :D

on March 21, 2016

I was brought up in northern part of India somewhere close to Lucknow where Holi is one of the important festivals. Going by our history and mythology there will be umpteen reasons as to why and when we celebrate Holi but for me this festival always used to come when I had my final examination in school.

Today , I actually don’t remember when was the last time I played Holi with my friends and family. Mere thought of this four letter word gave me flume of childhood happy memories. If I dig deeper into my memory tank,  I always wondered why our school purposefully kept exams clashing Holi! Inspite of the draconian ideas our school had to deter the kids from playing Holi, me and my friends always had a plan.

So today I will tell you about how we played Our Holi. The first day is Holika Dahan where we have to put a fire in the evening to burn the devil Holika. In a group of around 6-7 kids, the task was divided. The big ones of the group would collect big logs , the medium ones would collect the small logs and take care of the bigger logs collected because the other group people may come and snatch it anytime and the little ones would collect the fallen dry leaves, newspaper, junks and some money from neighbours showing their cute puppy faces for the prasad. In the evening we all with our parents merrily burn the devil Holika , celebrate over the waste collection we did as a team, feel proud that our flare was taller and brighter than others and happily munch on the prasad with a hope we will do great in our exams.

Now the next day and the best one because parents were not going to shout that why are we so dirty! What a relief it was. We started our day with wearing old cloths, greasing our hair and body with coconut oil and then move out with fighting weapons, the pichkaris.  As soon as you move out the game of colours begin. The only rule was colour your friends as much as you can. When colour can make no difference on our appearance, it was time to attack the other group as a team. The motive was to win , no idea what we won. Unfortunately, if we ran out of our water colours or  pichkari got blocked with colour then we borrowed some gulal from elder ones but that can not make us win the game. So the wet mud balls!  Finally if either a team has won the game or parents had somehow recognised their rainbow coloured kids then we were taken to home. Well I do not have a picture of our gang but we would have looked something like the below picture by the end(random google image).

village-children-playing-with-colours-in-colour-festival-holi-233

Random Google Image Just For Description

After bath  we would eagerly wait to go out in the evening and check out our friends. Most of us would be pink even after multiple baths and if you are in no colour that evening then it means you have not played your Holi well. It was a disgrace! Whatever it was we would happily munch on sweet gujiyas, play, laugh, giggle and again hope that we do well in our exams.

Don’t remember how many of us actually did well in the school exam but we all are living a great life now and whenever we meet somewhere the Holi memories are still a topic to be discussed in the gang. We all have passed the test of friendship and learnt the value of working as team.

Thankyou BlogAdda and Parachute Advance for giving me an opportunity to share my great Holi memories with all. I’m pledging #KhulKeKheloHoli this year by sharing my Holi memories at BlogAdda in association with Parachute Advansed. The video below has made me all the more nostalgic and I request my readers to watch it !


2 responses to “How We Played OUR HOLI :D

  1. Pooja says:

    Just like you, I spent many of my growing up years in North India where Holi was a festival we looked forward to so eagerly. That was the one holiday that we didn’t waking up early for. Mum and Dad oiled us well, I used to get my Mother to tie up my hair nice and well and we were ready for the onslaught of colours, water, mud, sometimes eggs as well. We did play quite the rough Holi and we loved every minute of it!

    Since we moved to the a city in South India, Holi has never been the same. I don’t think it is the city to blame, but growing up also has a lot to do with it. No longer are we going out of our way to play Holi. No longer are we taking pride in how long we stay ‘coloured’ after the festival. On the upside however, we can have the Bhang and parents cannot say anything. Haha!

    Holi is one festival that really brings out the child in you. Thanks for writing such a lovely post that took me back to my younger days of celebrating the festival.

    Holi Hai!
    🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    • Kriti says:

      Thank you Pooja for such a lovely comment. I completely agree with every bit you said. Hope we change ourselves this time and play holi like we used to. Wish you and your loved ones a very happy and colourful holi. 😃

      Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment