 Holi in the National Academy of Administration
May 1973
 The festival of Holi is always celebrated with great gusto and fervour in all parts of India. This festival celebrates the oneness of mankind. In caste and class ridden India, it brings everyone together. The rich and the poor, the high and the low, men and the women can smear each other with colors forgetting their distinctions. They can sing and dance and eat and drink Bhang (a type of intoxicating herbal drink) together. On this occasion, they can enter into anybody’s house and splash him or her with
colours.
For one day all differences are forgotten and men and women relate to each other from the inner core of their heart. It is also a day of freedom for women who are otherwise confined to their secluded existence. In the villages of Rajasthan and UP, women not only throw colour on men but also beat them with sticks to get even with them. The men take the beatings, gladly, at least for one day in the year.
The festival has been widely romanticised in the lore of gopikas and Krishna. The holi played in Mathura, Brindavan and Barsana (the native place of Yashodara) is world famous. Thousands of wall paintings and miniature paintings in India have been dedicated to the theme of Radha and Krishna playing holi with gopis and
gopikas.
 To me this has always been a festival of catharsis when all what is banned could be done. A festival highly needed in a closed inward looking society like India.
There is much jubilation and generation of goodwill. The quarrels with the neighbours are forgotten and long lost friendships are re-established.
In the National Academy of Administration, Holi has always been an important festival as no one is willing to forgo an opportunity to throw colour on lady officers. During 1973 when I was in the Academy, there was a large contingent of officers from UP and Bihar who were leading the celebration. At the head of them all was A.K. Singh, a fellow officer from UP, creating a riot of
colours.
 We twenty odd girls were too scared of playing colours with two hundred odd men so we decided to stay put in the ladies block and spend a quiet morning in our rooms. But what we had not anticipated was that Mr. A.K. Singh and Co. would break the gates of the Ladies Block and enter ‘royally’ accompanied with the beating of drums.
After the ladies hostel was raided in this fashion, we girls did come out to join the fun, which ended with drinking enormous quantities of Bhang and watching a hilarious cultural
programme.
I will always remember it as a great day when the director and faculty members, office staff, servants and trainee officers all mingled, sang and danced together. It was also the first time I tasted Bhang
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