It is not a 'local' festival, but that doesn't stop people in Chennai from celebrating Holi; in fact, the celebrations began early! Because Holi this year fell on a Monday, the fun part began during the week-end itself. After the first round of colours - gulal smeared, coloured water sprayed with pichkaris - it was difficult to figure out who was who (and in the case of the kids, who was whose!)
In north India, Holi marks the killing of the demoness Holika; alternately, it is the celebration of spring's arrival at Vrindavan. For some reason, south India does not have an analogous festival - the spring festivals of the region are rather more prosaic. But that hasn't stopped folks from going around spraying colours or using the occasion to have more than a few swigs of bhang, a cold milk-shake laced with a herbal extract (?!).
And in true traditional style, the colours of the afternoon gave way to some excellent bhang - given its potency, I'm glad that I had just the right quantity of the stuff!
6 comments:
Good one...Holi Re Holi....I heard some goonks in Mumbai encouraged people not to play holi to save water...misplaced conservation by these stupid rootless zealots...we had fun and we will continue to encourage people to play holi...
Hey One (almost) month holiday uh! Happy "Holi"days ....
Great pic and write up :)
Unfortunately we didnt have a holiday on holi day :(
@ Prabhu: Thank you and Susanna for a great evening! (Assume that's you, Prabhu-da:o)
@ Ram: Couldn't let it become a full month.... 'Kelsa' happened in the meantime :)
@ Hobbes: Hope you enjoyed the 'holi'day weekend... or will do so next weekend ;)
Congrats on Kelsa ....
@ Ram: Thank you!
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