I have always found myself admiring my good old Indian traditions, culture, festivals and of course even the superstitious believes that I used to follow in school time. None of these were introduced without a reason and not all of them are meaningless. To convince a crowd and to make them carry these traditions for thousands of years is definitely not a joke. But for me it’s the fun part of my culture that makes more sense.
“Holi”, a festival name that I hear about every year and have seen in a dozen Hindi movies. But I have never been part of one in all these years. Just got lucky this year coz I spent it in Mumbai. What can I say to express my childhood feelings? It’s a different trip and high all together. The trip meant for colours and the high meant for Bhang. The day started with a bucket of colour water on my head straight out of my bed. I can’t even scream “WHAAAAT THE FUUUUCCCCKKKKK” coz they are all my cousins and relatives shouting happyyyyyyyy holiiiiiiiii… I walk outside the room and find all followers of some colour cult or something. Peep outside the balcony I find 100s of them all kids and oldies chucking water and spraying colours on each other and kids in gang, kick all the doors in the appartment and shout paani..paani..paani and the people from inside the hose open the door and splash water on thoses kids and chase them. Just an amazing site it is. Couldn’t stop myself, so got in the groove and was part of the celebration the whole day.
The busy business city is dead throughout the day. Anywhere you turn you can only find unidentified human in crazy colours all over their face walking on the road and running from the water balloon bombs that fall from the sky (Stupid kids from the terrace). The next best thing is the bhang on the house. I never new drugs come in the form ice creams until that day. A cup of ice cream or a glass of Bhang-dham milk sorry Badham milk will keep you going for the next 12 hours. It’s trippy, just like the Floyd way.
Effects of bhang on me that cracked me up and laughed my wits out:
- Bike ride at speed of 10 kmph but the riding style is like a grand prix racer.
- Stopped the bike to laugh in middle of a highway and dropped it flat very slowly thinking that my side stand wan on.
- Spoke in Hindi (alien language for me) to few hundred people. Wha wha la jawhab…thaliya thaliya
- Ate 4 jamuns, 2 kitkats, 1 glass rose milk, 1 black forest and hogged lunch after all these.
- Sat in the balcony and listened to a full CD of unknown artists.
- Spoke on the phone for 3 minutes and figured out it was a wrong number.
- Gave speech on Quantum physics and “Law of attraction”. (I still can’t believe this).
To sum it up, this was one hell of a day. Nope, one heaven of a day that I enjoyed since a very long time ( I would say since my 1999 Diwali ). That’s why I always feel good to say “I love my Colourful Culture”.
