Often I remember the old days when the way of celebrating every festival or occasion was different than the ones we see today. The festival of Holi also reminded me of some old memories of my childhood. Children have their own ways of celebrating festivals with all their innocence and soul, pure and untouched. But, as an adult we miss that child in us sometimes which leads us to think about our old days when our lives were much more simple and devoid of technical gadgets, when we actually had a group of friends and relatives with whom we celebrated every occasion, when our lives were still not touched by what we call a virtual network today.
I remember the day of holi on which my mom and all of my friends mums used to take out old clothes which were not in use and which were supposed to be disposed off later after playing with colours.
The special instructions from parents to apply coconut oil all over the body so that colours would wash off easily.
Running behind each other with hands full of colours in the entire society, ignoring hunger or pain or tiredness.
One or two crying children could be seen at every nook and corner of the society. However the laughing faces everywhere would outnumber them.
The long discussions of holi celebration planning with school mates which would begin a week before.
Greeting friends with a bucket full of colored water the moment they enter the gates early in the morning. These days, greeting on FB or other social media has become more important than anything else.
Planning to prepare a strong color mix for those friends who were intended to be kept busy for washing out their colors for long or for those who were not very favorite ones. ;-)
The preparation of traditional gujiyas, mathris, namkeen, papdi, dahi-vada and other mouth-watering snacks which kept our mums involved in the kitchen for almost the whole week.
Those were the days when we could splash endless water on each other without any guilt as there were not much instructions for not wasting water on holi. Probably, being children in those days, we were not as conscious about preserving natural resources as the ones who are today.
The next day at school when the colors at one's hands would prove how hardly he/she played holi. How many of us purposefully left colors in our hands so that we could show them to our fellow mates next day at school ? ;-)
Though I never experienced tasting bhaang on holi, but got to hear it from few folks.Must have been an awesome experience.
Thinking about the fun and frolic at the end of the day would bring an immense satisfaction though we would hardly capture any pictures to view later or post on social media as there were no smartphones or DSLRs during that time.
Those were our good old days which are left behind in the past, only to be cherished by us in the future. How many of you were drifted back in your childhood while reading this??
