Holi: the festival which makes me nostalgic

The early 20s are all about learning through the mistakes you had been making during teenage or shall I say the entire childhood.

But some way or the other you also want to cherish each day you feel you’ve lived as a moron.

I feel older when I say this and I do make mistakes every now and then. So no age is barred!

At a place like Old Delhi in India, we start prepping for festivals about 10 or 12 days before the occasion and this time it’s ‘Holi’ so the celebration is on.

I have been observing the kids around my residential area for a week now having fun in little gangs.

Throwing water balloons at the locals on the streets, screaming, laughing and enjoying together.

My first reaction was that they shouldn’t tease the people walking or running around for work and there are so many better things they could do in their lives. On the other hand, watching them from a distance just made me nostalgic.

Holi is all about celebrating happiness, love, and togetherness with lots of colors, sweets, and beverages.

I remember how I and my younger brother used to argue with my mom to let us play with water balloons after we finish our homework. A week before Holi, my father used to take me and my brother to the market to buy colors, balloons and water guns.

Water guns are the real tool. If you don’t have the coolest water gun you would be treated as the poorest kid in your gang.

We would always end up buying cheap ones because the type of water guns we used to dream about having in our hands, was not affordable. But I would feel happy anyway as my father made me understand that it’s gonna do the same job and you would ask for a new one in the next year.

Being a kid, you always want to buy the entire shop so that you get rid of arguing with your parents for every little thing.

Golden days were those when we used to live our lives at the fullest with little things.

We were only two kids in the family of eight members so we had enough people to flaunt our water guns and have fun. I and my brother used to play with each other all day and in the evening we would go back to our moms with wet clothes. She used to scold us a little but end up changing our clothes and make us sleep. A night or two before the festival, my entire family would make ‘Gujiya’ (the traditional sweet for the occasion which is basically deep-fried dumpling with the filling of dry fruits and castor sugar or sugar syrup) once we sleep. 

Sometimes we would visit my aunt with my parents and brother before ‘Holi’ to double the enjoyment. There I have four cousins so we would become six siblings.

The celebration would remain the pretty much same except for the sweet making night.

You are free to customize your sleeping hours at your relatives’ place because your cousins would always be supportive and your aunts and uncles would be there to pamper you.

This is how I used to make my parents helpless!

My mom would never let me and my siblings touch the stuff she used to arrange to make the sweets. So we would keep watching her through a distance.

On the day of Holi, we (me and my cousins) would wake up at 7 or 8 in the morning do the scheduled things.

Brush our teeth.

Rush towards the washroom to get free as soon as possible.

Slip into the oldest and the dullest looking pajamas.

Go the terrace with the hand full of colors, balloons and our water guns.

We would start playing Holi with each other first and then throwing colors and water balloons at the people in the streets.

In between, we would keep visiting the kitchen with all colorful faces (mostly black or green) and wet clothes to fill our stomach in intervals.

My aunt and mom used to recognize us with our heights, hair and the patterns on our clothes.

In the late evening hours, we would fight each other on who goes first to take a shower. Whoever found their cleaned clothes from the cupboard first would win the race.

The real struggle was not occupying the bathroom first but to take off all the color you had let people put on your face and hair so that you don’t end up looking like an alien when you go to school next morning.

I had been celebrating ‘Holi’ the same way for 6 to 7 years as a lot of changes have taken place.

Now it’s a family of four people and we don’t visit my aunt anymore.

All six siblings have grown up and now have priorities.

The actual process is the same but with fewer people.

We do make Gujiyas but in lesser quantity.

In place of a hand full of colors, we only have a pinch full of ‘Gulal’ (the traditional name of the color red)

No more screaming but laughter on video calls while exchanging greetings.

I will wake up in the morning at the same time.

Will perform the important rituals to celebrate the festival

and get back to work or sleep. 

but won’t play or roam around with a colorful face or wet clothes all day long.