On this Holi

'Okay, go to sleep now and dont forget to send me pics of you drenched in colors' she said with a giggle. 'well thats not gonna happen, no colors this time, i have to catch my flight to US just the day after tomorrow and i dont want immigration officer to throw me out.'
'oops, i married a boring guy' she laughed.
'yes you did'

I see children running on the street with colors, water balloons and felt i should have postponed my travel. when friends called, gave it on their face, 'dude i have to travel tomorrow'. people all around were colored and i was busy shining my teeth. i saw my father sitting and watching TV. Well, i joined him with a cup of tea in my hand.

'i guess i am growing old' i told my cousin who was already unrecognizable, asked why i was not going out with my friends to play Holi.

Then out of sudden something changed. i started shouting half sentences like 'bloody, its a new jeans' 'tomorrow travel...' not the fucking face...' and so damn on. bunch of my friends were already on me. colors everywhere, the one which takes at least 5 days to lighten. In few minutes i was in front of my house, in a condition, if my mom sees she would give me a rupee coin and some rice for my children.

After exchange of few cuss words we all were sitting on the road, eating gujhiya which my cousin bought from inside. 'now lets go to Amit's house, he was also saying he wont come'. we all laughed and careless of my travel, i was already on my way with them.

'you are not old at all' shouted my cousin. and i saw me and the gang of my friends. it was true. half of them were married, few of them were fathers, but none was old. we were celebrating Holi same as we celebrated when we were in primary school, carefree.

And when i sent this pic to her, 'you are so damn unpredictable' was the reply. Without any exceptions Holi remains my favorite festival of all. Happy Holi.
   

Halloween !!

First of all, being an Indian i do not understand the concept. I mean celebrating ghosts are something contrasts to our mentality. you see we don't be happy to see ghosts. from childhood on wards my grandma kept saying, 'khana kha le varna bhoot aayega' and naive i was to eat the food like all others my Indian brothers and sisters. Here it was different. children were happy to see ghosts.

I never was intended to attend any such party but i did. you can face a ghost but a lady INSISTING to accompany her. i wrote insisting in caps if you missed to notice. So here i was, on a Friday evening sharp 8, dressed like a waiter, black business suit on a white shirt. i was told not to wear any tie. she came in her shiny red KIA and waved. I was already doomed to see her in a red dress with red horns on her head. red gloves were covering her arms till shoulders. a big pointy red colored rod in the back seat was popping out. suddenly i started doubting my own vision. was there blood in my eyes or there are really red objects all over.

'what are you?'
'devil'
'I bet'

she jumped to pick the rod and only stopped when i added 'just kidding' at the end. we reached the
venue and it was already crowded. all kind of ghosts, funny of course were roaming around, eating, drinking and eating more. she took me in a corner and added a red color big collar to my blazer. it was like a half ice-cream cone around my neck, then a red colored cloth was added on my shoulders like superman.    

'whats with red color?' i asked almost sure of not getting any answer and i didn't.
'Now you look like a vampire.'
'wow! can i bite you on your neck?'
'not now, later' she said and pulled me into the party. the party was in her society so she knew few creeps here and there. she introduced me to them. well only one i remember was wearing a crocodile mask, i mean really creepy.

Rest of the party was spent drinking blood. i mean these guys are really obsessed with red. even the lights were red. making even water look like blood. i am not saying that i drank only water. by the time it was midnight hall was so full that there was no space to walk. i miss Mumbai local trains in such times.

I looked around for the lady devil who accompanied me here and there she was.

'party's over'
'yeah lets head back'

and the night was over. moral of the story. Halloween is nothing but a fancy dress party, where you have very limited options after all our fancy dress consists of doctors, politicians, beggars, vegetables, flowers, rajnikant and so on...less creative these Americans are.
  

Holi hai !!!

It’s not about why? It’s about how? That means I am not here to explain why we celebrate it, reason being no solid evidence of fact. Some might tell a story of Prahlaad and Holika (most popular belief) others might argue with connection to Krishna in the city of Braj. We already have enough stuff on the topic in the world of internet.

So I was talking about ‘how?’ Now this ‘How’ does not deal with the kind of ‘How’ we are dealing with on the TV or celebrity talks and news channels, like save water, use organic colors, protect your eyes, don’t throw people in gutter, do not use cow dung and so on… I mean we all know and must adhere to those suggestions and concerns; after all those are for our own safety purpose.

But here ‘How’ is different. Here I am talking about the way Holi is celebrated out of its birthplace, like a foreign tour. Being in Chicago, today I attended one of those ‘Indian communities Holi Celebration’. First of all you have to pay, that too in advance, buts it’s not a big deal if you are getting a chance play holi out of India. As Soon as I entered I realized that it is going to be a completely different experience. I mean there was a set up for bonfire, ‘Prahlaad, sitting on a bonfire with Holika’ sounds funny to me but yes that was exactly what those America born Indian Kids knew. I don’t know, we simply call it Holika. Anyway, unlike in India where muhurt is given by the priest from the temple, here start time was given by the owner of the place, from 8 PM CST to 11 PM CST. Exactly 8 PM, bonfire was lit, music started, husky voice of Mr. Amitabh Bachchan started floating in the air shouting, ‘holi khele raghubeera…’ and it went on playing many bollywood holi songs, in addition to that there were some latest Ranbir Kappor songs too, I could see this guy has really big fan following over here. I mean you should have seen those moves by half Indian girls on ‘baddtameez dil…’  

I thought of capturing those in my camera but then I had paid for better reasons. Next moment, I, with my friends were the part of the crowd, already dancing running around the bonfire and throwing colors on each other, everyone was given a bag full of colors to be used and bottles filled with gold colored liquid were a reasonable replacement for bhang, that’s it, Next three hours, it was just colors, music and dance.  

When I reached home, unlike in India, my clothes were not wet, they were not torn and there was no need to sit in the bathroom for an hour taking off the color from the skin. Just a quick shower and I were like before, clean and clear. Overall it was fun. Though I missed my family, my friends, all those relatives and neighbors who will come to home for Holi Milan, I missed the gujhia, bhang Kulfi with friends, I missed waking up in the morning and going to still burning holika to purify newly grown grains in the fields. There are many small small acts and rituals which makes it the festival of Holi.

So to all those of you, who, this Holi, are with their friends and family, make the fullest of it. Wishing you all a very happy Holi….Holi hai !!!