Dhuleti

Day 2 of the festival of Holi!

The day started out like it has every year. Rushing through the morning and coordinating with friends. This year we weren’t just getting together and playing it by the ear.

This time we had a full blown party happening and I was one of the hosts along with Harsh, Viral, Manan and Bunny. We wanted to make sure that all our friends got together at one place, so we could spend the day with all of them and still be together.

Just because we were hosts, we didn’t want to be stuck not having fun, so we decided to have everything professionally taken care of. We had caterers, waiters, a dj, a bar man, the works.

By the time I got to the venue, with some friends in tow, the party was already on. We promptly joined in and in no time I was a pink, blue and yellow.

Now usually every one plays with colored powders that wash of easy. But I do know that a few of my friends have the knack of being sneaky and pulling out colors that hold fast. I was prepared for this, but most weren’t.

Very soon these guys had pulled out their super strong colors. Some of these are metallic looking powders which when wet change color to a brilliant fuchsia or blue or purple. Some colors came out tubes and some powders from little boxes. Suffice to say all these are bound to last more than a few days.

As usual there was a lot of merriment; screaming and shouting, music and dancing, running and chasing and a lot of laughter. The food was yummy and the beverages cold under the hot sun.

Water plays a big part of the day. We would have loved to have a pool that we could all jump into, but that wasn’t possible. The next best thing we could do was set up a complex sprinkler system on the dance floor, creating a so called ‘rain dance’.

I admit I was skeptical about this, but it worked like a dream. We spent hours under the water! Of course this helped rid us of a lot of the color too. What was brilliant was a few of our guests who weren’t playing Holi also got under the showers.

By the time we all got home, none of us remember what was happening around us. I know what an effort it was to have a bath and get the color of me and out of my hair. I had to wash my hair something like 8 times before the water ran clear.

All this was yesterday. Today my whole body is aching and I am still exhausted. But I think the party was a blast. I am so glad we made this day happen, as I am sure are the rest of the hosts of the party!

Holi

The festival of colors is upon us. Today is Holi, a festival of exuberance that marks the end of winter and the advent of spring.

The first day of the festival coincides with the full moon night of Phalguna. In the evening, fires are lit and people walk around the flames with an offering of water and grains as a form of worship.

The story goes that a demon king called Hiranyakasyapu had a son Prahlad, who was a devout follower of Lord Vishnu. This infuriated his father. In spite of many warnings, Prahlad didn’t cease his devotion. The king tried to kill him in many ways and finally called for his sister Holika. She was blessed by the Gods that no fire would hurt her. The king made her take his son on to her lap and sit in a fire. To everyone’s surprise, Holika was burnt and Prahlad remained unscathed.

The burning of Holi commemorates this event and is a symbolization of the triumph of good over evil.

On the second day, that is called ‘Dhuleti’ here in Gujarat; people celebrate by throwing colored powders and water on each other. There is a lot of merriment in the air. Music, dancing and revelry are very much a part of it.

That day is tomorrow. My group (kutumb) and I are hosting a party for about a 100 of our Holi loving friends. It promises to be a wonderful day. Watch this space for more…

Tukkal

The evening of Uttrayan!

The gathering of the friends kind of continues in the evening. For the last 2 years this has been happening at my friends Niral and Pallavi’s house.

After some general merriment, we get down to the serious business of flying the tukkal. This is a heavy kite that is flown with a very strong and sharp thread and after it gathers a decent height, paper lanterns with candles in them are attached at various intervals.

Normally you will see 4 to 8 lanterns on each line. Last year our gang managed to put up 13 lanterns. This year we broke our own record and put up 16 lights. And it was a breathtaking sight.

If you aren’t careful, by the time you get to the last few lanterns, some of the previous ones start to burn, so you can’t afford to take too long about it. If you put them too close together then the kite and string can’t take the weight. So it’s all a matter of moving fast and precisely.

The other thing that you have to be very careful about is predators; people who fly normal kites and attack the tukkal trying to bring it down. To safeguard against this, there are usually at least 2 friends who will fly kites on either side of the tukkal at great heights to get rid of any of these predators, sort of like scouts.

As you can see it is all really good fun.

Makar Sankranti

This is a harvest festival celebrated on the 14th of January across the country. The names vary as do some of the ways of celebrating it.

Translated Makar is ‘Capricorn’ (as in the Zodiac sign) and Sankranti means ‘to change direction’. Put together the name of this festival denotes the transition of the sun into Capricorn. It is an auspicious time for us and also a time for great celebrations.

In Gujarat this day is called Uttrayan and is celebrated as the Kite Flying festival.

From the morning everyone climbs to their roof top terraces and the skies are covered with colorful kites. Music blasts from speakers all over and competition is fierce.

I am not a kite flyer myself, but I love going to my friends’ houses to share in the merriment. For many years’ friends living in the same colony as me used to host this day as an annual event. Sadly they shifted away, and that tradition came to an end.

Then I discovered that another friend, Inderjit, and his family also host this day as an annual event and I have been going there ever since. Being a Sikh family, they always have the most outstanding biryani for lunch. Before that there are snacks and punch and then fudge for dessert. They haven’t tried to change the menu for as long as I remember and thank god for that.

We hang around there for most of the day, going home only to crash out in the late afternoon.

The evening is another tale…

Happy 2006 everybody…

It’s been ages since I posted anything on this blog. But then it’s been a while since I celebrated a festival.

Usually the month of December here in Ahmedabad, means a month of parties and more parties. The weather is the best and the nights are long. Since we have hardly any ‘discos’ to go to, most of these parties are privately held. Those who are well networked into the social fabric of this town get invited to most of these dos. The rest try and wrangle invitations however they can.

This year for some reason I seem to have fallen of the social horizon, or maybe my generation is getting a little on the older side for the people who host parties. Either way, there weren’t too many of these parties to go for. And luckily it didn’t matter, because for a better part of the party month I was sitting sunning myself on the beaches of Goa with my family (will post a travelogue on my other blog soon).

Over the last few years Christmas / New Years has been becoming more and more popular even in the little town of mine. Buildings are lit up. Stores are decorated. There are loads of gifts for Children and Santa Claus is everywhere.

Christmas Eve 2005 I was in Delhi to celebrate my brother’s birthday (24th December) with him. We were all geared up to go party at a place in Noida, but circumstances made us turn back and we brought in Christmas at home watching the 3 Tenors live in Beijing on TV.

New Year’s Eve was much more fun. A friendhad invited me to join their gang at her place for a Barbeque. It was just 11 of us and it turned out to be one of the best parties I have been to in a long time. Thanks Apara for including me last night. There are some pictures but I will have to wait for Visha to send them to me. When she does I will place some here.

I don’t remember the last time I woke up on the 1st of January without a hangover. I take it as a good start to a new year.

Here’s wishing everyone a brilliant 2006!