Holi - the festival of colours. Like all children holi was my favorite festival of the year as a child. I vividly remember those innocent days. We were not allowed to play with water as kids :( (something which i always revolted against). One packet of 'gulal' and maybe another of my favorite colour (back then mind you!) yellow, was all that i had to make it last the day. When i see the photos that my parents took of us after we were smeared in color, it brings a smile to my face and i cant help but laugh at the smallest kid (me) of the bunch. The intent look in those eyes, the nonchalant way in which he stood with the others who were 5-6 years his senior, he always believed he could hold his own amongst them. A look at his dishevelled state, showed clearly that it was a losing battle. The other guys always used to snatch my color and use it on me! he he he....those were the days eh? This was the beginning of a journey, i dont remember now, but i must've wondered back then, "How cool it will be to grow old!, nobody will forbid me from playing holi with water colors, nobody will snatch my color, hell i'll even let a coupla kids have it good from me if i feel like it!" I couldnt wait to get older!!
Things were going great, last year was by far the best holi i ever celebrated. It was the final year of college and there was no question that this being the last time (for all practical purposes) we were to celebrate together, it would be one helluva blast. And for sure it was! colours, mud, CLOTHES, and few other consumables (yeah right!!) which i cant mention here, were flying all around. It was a sight to see! It was sheer madness, and my pals from college will vouch that the frenzy and the insanity was out of this world. In fact it is impossible to describe the scenes out here without inviting the wrath of the narcotics department, if you know what i mean!
Well back to reality, the beautiful past is just that, it's past...history. Now fast forward to my holi circa 2008. I was oncall and i wouldve had to rush to office on a short notice anytime during the day. I said to myself, i have to be a professional out here and forgave my holi cravings and decided to stay indoors waiting for the inevitable call. I guessed in any case, nothing can top the celebrations of last year. I vowed not to play holi this year.
Well as luck would have it i did have to get to office, and stay there till 8pm. And guess what, it started raining cats and dogs about the same time i was gonna leave office. An hours wait for the rain to stop proved futile and i couldnt believe my rotten luck ( which i have lovingly been calling 'kutte ki kismat' lately), i mean since when did it start raining in may!!...and like this!!?? It all seemed a lost cause, i had no clue what to do...could i put up in the office for the night? Just then i dont know why...the childhood picture flashed in front of my eyes, the little child, the forlorn look, he wanted to play with water didnt he?...that was one reason why he thought it would be fun to be a grown up....
Well, atleast one of those incentives came true, a 20 mins ride on the bike to home, soaked in rain, and shivering with every splash of water, i kept muttering "Happy Holi" to myself for all of the 20 mins. Sure is cool to be growing up...isnt it?