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Holy colours
 “Hey, not me! I'm wearing a white shirt. Please, please, it'll get dirty.”
“Hey Hey, not me! This tee is a Crocodile, it's new and expensive.”
Both the above voices received a bucketful of colour water on them, turning their face red with anger, and then, at the sight of themselves, a childish grin, and suddenly a burst of spontaneous laughter. The colour festival - Holi - was celebrated
'colourfully'.
Traditionally, Holi is supposed to be popular in the north and was not heard of in the south. But this year, as is the trend in the past decade, this festival of colour evoked very good interest among Chennaivasis. The Marina beach was full of people splashing colour on friends, relatives and even unknown people. A friendly wrestling match was held too, with cheers and colour to go with, and it was a fine evening.
The very essence and excitement of Holi lies in the fact that there is no restriction to the fun you can have. People stand in the streets and sprinkle coloured water on anybody who passes by, be he a rich man or a beggar. Everybody on the streets, man and women and children become your close friends during Holi. In this context, it is like April Fool's Day, where anybody can fool anybody.
“It was great. This is the first time I'm celebrating Holi. What excitement we had! Boy, that was fun," said Ramya, clad in a dress that had shades of every colour in it except the original
colour.
When it's Holi, it's mischief time. College and schoolteachers in Chennai were doused in colour and the students enjoyed it. Though reprimanded later, the glint in the teachers' eye told the whole story - they had enjoyed it!
Festivals like Holi have their own spiritual value. Apart from the amusement, they create faith in God if properly observed. They wean man away from sensual pleasures and take him gradually to the spiritual path and divine communion.
From kids demanding colour brushes to computer engineers changing colour styles in project work, colour is something that plays a vital role in everyone's life. And Holi just celebrates this colour.
Srinivasa
Ramanujam
Published on 10th March, 2004
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