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 Basant aya pala urant - when spring
comes, winter runs off. The first rays of spring touch nature and it springs forth in a
burst of colours. The sun at its rising zenith and the beauty of the flowers and trees
speak an intimate language of the Divine Creator's love. On the full moon day during the
month of Phalgun - sometime in March - comes Holi, a carnival of colours. Celebrated all
over North India, Holi is a time to make merry. People smear each other with coloured
powder. Singing and dancing adds to the gaiety of the occasion. Krishna and the Gopis gave
a special meaning to the festival. He played Holi with so much gusto with a brass syringe
called a pichkari, which was filled with coloured water and sprayed, that even today songs
are sung of the pranks he played on the Gopis. The tesu flowers or flame of the forest
were plucked, dried and when mixed with water gave a beautiful reddish - orange tint. They
were then boiled to make a decoction. It was then mixed with cold water and filled into
buckets from which the pichkaris were filled. Gulal with made up colours are popular but
today spurious dyes are being sold which lead to skin infection.
 The family members meet in a particular house or go round smearing colours. I
remember holi in the Raj Kapoor studios. A huge tub of coloured water was filled and each
one who came there was literally carried and thrown into the tub. A day prior to Holi huge
bonfires are lit. Bonfires take us back to a page in mythology. The asura Hiranyakashyap
was so angry with his son Prahlad, for being a great devotee of Lord Vishnu, that he
ordered his sister Holika to wear a set of clothes which would not catch fire and to hold
Prahlad on her lap, so that he would be burnt by the flames. But Holika being a good soul
quietly put the clothes on Prahlad and got burnt, thus saving Prahlad. To celebrate this
event Holi is celebrated by lighting the bonfire.
 In Anandpur Sahib, the Sikhs celebrate a special festival Hola Mohalla on the day
after Holi. The display of ancient martial arts and mock battles are part of this unique
Sikh festival. The Holi celebrations in Mathura and the small towns of Braj Bhoomi - the
land of Sri Krishna, are spectacular. The Rang Gulal Festival is celebrated for over a
week with exuberant processions, songs and music. Especially famous is the Lathmaar Holi
of Barsana and Nandgaon. In South India it is called Kama dahanam which commemorates the
day the lord of love-Kamadev was burnt to ashes. During springtime, in South India, the
peasants perform what is called Vasanta Atam to celebrate the birth of nature.
 Though essentially a festival celebrated in Northern India, in Chennai too, holi
is being celebrated with great excitement. There was a time when it was celebrated only in
Sowcarpet area, but today it has reached even Mylapore. How do the Chennaites respond to
the festival? "Oh we love to play holi. It is such great fun smearing colour on each
other. We friends get together in the morning and play till noon," says Madhavi.
"I hate it. Sometimes people come and forcefully apply colour. If one does not like
the colour on, they should refrain from doing so," says another. "I hate the
festival because the boys take this as an excuse to paw the girls all over," says
Rupa Krishnamoorthy. " The colours used these days are so bad they don't come off for
days together. We land up with green ears and red necks for days, yet it is fun,"
says Kavitha a school girl. Anyway it is springtime, when the bud blossoms and the air is
filled with the perfume of flowers. The dark, dull winter months are over and mother Earth
bursts forth in joyous colours. It is a time to be merry to celebrate this festival of
colours.
Rani Ananth
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