Years and years ago when Krishna was a little boy, he used to play with beautiful cowgirls called Gopi. One of them, Rada was his favorite. Krishna was a very good-looking, dark skinned boy. When he was born he was so dark that he was almost navy blue, middle of the night sky blue his mother called him ‘ as dark as the night sky’ =Krishna. Rada was lovely and fair skinned, gorgeous as sunrise and mountain dews. Krishna one day looked at himself and her and asked his mum why Rada was so fair skinned. His mum smiled and suggested him to smear colour on Rada’s face to change the complexion whatever color he wanted it to be. Krishna did the same and celebrations started. People spray water and apply colour to each other.
Another story of the celebration is goes like this: Millions of full moons ago, there was a devil king Hiryankashyap who wanted everybody to worship him, not Narayana (Narayana is another name for Vishnu, the mega God). His own son Prahad did not agree with him and he said he would worship VishnuslashNarayana and nobody else. Blinded by rage at this disobedience and hungry to show off his power, he told his evil sister to teach Prahad a lesson.
Holika though ‘If I show my brother how powerful and blessed I am, when he becomes the ruler of the world, he would give me some juicy lands to put my own throne’. And laughed an evil laugh ‘Mua hah hah!’ God had blessed Holika that fire could not harm her jumped into fire holding Prahad in her arms. She had forgotten that the blessing was only when she jumped into the fire on her own. So she burned to ashes and VishnuslashNarayana saved Prahad . That is why big bonfires are lit on cross roads to show destruction of evil and triumph of goodness.
There you go. This is the myth behind Holi. Yesterday, people made big bonfires at the both end of our street in the evening (we missed it , we were watching TV!) and starting from early in the morning, (the manager of the block of flats came at 9.30 in the morning with a red powder bag in his hand and went away when he saw me in my pjs and told him Nick was still asleep. We went downstairs to see a couple of families around rubber swimming pool, massive water guns and powder paint. We brought our paint with us. Melon colour, bright purple, neon yellow and acid green. The children were shyer, the parents squirted water at us, we powdered them with several colours, they lovingly came and sad ‘happy holi’ and applied powder to our faces, hair, arms. I was trying to protect my camera, and glasses but gave in and joined the fun. When I was soaked I was screaming ‘this means war!’ and the children sprayed me with more water. I ate some sweet biscuits, and popcorn , when my glasses were absolutely covered with paint and my skirt dripping wet went upstairs leaving pink footprints, orange finger marks on the lift buttons and green splash on the floor.
Kitty got changed and went to a friend’s for more celebration. We were told to play safe. This is probably the only celebration where people can drink openly and enjoy ‘bhang’ It is a drink made from cannabis plant. What joy! Bhang and beer as a chaser must be really fun.People hide their cars, drivers have a quiet time probably only this day in the whole year. Maids are not that happy, they had to clean all the paint on the floors, and clothes, and the walls.
We watched the world from our balcony, the colour-covered youth spotted us and aimed water balloons with adult size catapults. We threw laughter and ridicule at them. All day we saw people wandering around covered in pink, orange, maroon, red green powder. They walked in groups, sometimes shouting Holi!, Holi.
Towards the evening the crowds got more condensed in colour. One group of green mass walked this way, Fanta orange group walked that way. The feet started being dragged, children and families got inside to shower and eat more sweets. Kitty came home at 8.00 pm. Tired, showered, changed a couple of times, sun burnt but very happy. She told us stories of being very naughty and throwing eggs at each other and water fights with dads. There is still red colour in her hair, purple under her fingernails.
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