Colors colors every where...

Well the very first line of my latest blog (yes im finally writing one after ages) bring back some very vivid memories of this festival during my childhood. Since my dad has had a transferable job, and no im not an army kid but daughter of a geologist, i happened to have got the oppurtunity of experiencing it in its very heartland - UP, lucknow to be more specific. Holi in the whole of north India and with a special mention to Uttar Pradesh is celebrated with loads of gusto and fervour. Its a big festival here and thus given a special treatment.

Having living there there was no way i could have not tasted the flavor of holi in UP. No matter wat excuses i gave, at the end of the day i would bee seen scrubbing besan, oil, soap and almost everything suggested to get the color off my body. But it was all so much fun, nevertheless. The preperation for the big day would start weeks in advance. The sign of holi related props being sold on streets would fill us with excitement and we would start badgering our parents to buy us balloons and pichkaris.The children in the neighbourhood would gang up to chalk out plans and stratergies on how to attack innocent people walking on roads with water balloons.Some would hide on the terrace of some building some someplace else, it was the time of the year when each and every kid would resolve his/her differences with one another and would work as a team towards one aim...making gullible passerbys victim of balloon attack. Every target met was applauded with cheers in unision, afterall its not easy to hit bulls eye in dark and that too when u r nothing more than 3"7' tall. But since it was all done in harmless spirit so no one really bothered.

Mummy would get irritated with my requests to make yummy ghujias, as the market ones are something which i have not been able to relish till date. Constant badgering from my side would make her heart melt and she would ultimately suffice.Helping mom in preparing ghujia n other snacks were the high point of the festival as my sister and i would smuggle tasty tit bits while mom was at it in the kitchen.Dad would happily become a member of our food raiding mafia and the three of us would polish of plates after plates of the yummy delicacies that mum would prepare...this goes without saying what a wonderful cook she is!! Mom would lose temper on our rustic eating habits but i know she still can't stop blushing over the fact that our eating spree was a silent compliment we paid her on her marvellous cooking skills. I love your food mom!

The day of the holi was eagerly awaited. The night before it would get impossible to sleep for the fear of over sleeping the next day would force us to keep our eyes wide open. At the crack of the dawn the newly bought pichkaris and vibrant colors would be taken out n diluted in the the water tank so that anyone who came visiting us that day would be dunk in it atleast ones.We would fill up or pichkars and rush to our friends houses to smear them with colors first only to discover that even before we could enter their place we had already been theown a bucket full of colored water by them from the balcony...damn!! Why did i evertime time became a victim of the same old boring trap?

Mom dad would get busy with their set of friends while my sister and i would equal it out with our respective friends. Eggs, paint, charcol, mud and everything dirty was used to smear each other and seriously no one woul mind as they say, "bura na mano holi hai". Bhaang in various variety would be served and as kids i would say it was our first enconter with alcohol in its most rustic form. Mom would not scold us for tasting it as she herself would be high on it. It was the time when everyone was allowed to make merry and have fun.It was the time when the music would play loud and people would let themselves loose.

Though things have changed a bit since we moved to delhi but the love for the festival still remains the same. Holi is just round the corner and mom,dad and i would be visiting my sister's to celebrate it with her and my brother-in-law once again in the heartland of the festival UP (Meerut). And as the sense of deja vu sets in i just can't resist badgering my mom once again to make ghujias for me.

Happy Holi to all my friends, family and to everyone who would read it!!!