Mar 17, 2014 – Holi (Festival of colors) – Patansaongi, Maharashtra, India 🎨 🎉🥳

This is in continuation of the last Travel post I made which took place on March 07, 2014. This was one of the two reasons I was visiting home 🏠 from Bangalore.

For those who do not know what Holi is, it is also called as Festival 🥳 of Colors. People following Hindu 🛕 religion celebrate this festival every year in the month of March. People, who are interested in learning why we celebrate this festival, you can find more about this by clicking here. If you want the shorter version – “It marks the end of evil by the hands of God Vishnu.” The God Vishnu took avatar of Narsimha to kill 🩸 the evil King Hiranyakashipu. This is how the Narsimha is portrayed in Indian 🇮🇳 Mythology.

Being an atheist 🙅🏽‍♂️ myself, it was kind of mind-blowing to research about this topic and give you the gist of it. But, enough of it. Let us get started with the Holi celebrations.

Usually, the Holi celebrations begin on the eve of the Holi festival by burning 🔥 up wood to represent the burning of demoness Holika. The day of the festival is spent in playing with the colors – either dry or wet. Most of the urban population in India prefer Holi-themed parties 👯‍♀️👯‍♂️, with music 🎧 and drinks 🍾 to celebrate Holi. Whereas some prefer to follow the traditional “Bhaang”. 🍶

I started my celebration by letting my sisters color me. Obviously, we had to capture those moments in pictures 🌅. They mostly used dry colors, which is both environment friendly and easy to get off from your body ♥️. One thing to know about me- I am extremely lazy when it comes to applying colors to others; Be it Holi or any other Hindu festival involving colors, so I barely color anyone, and here also, I did not color my sisters, which comes across a little controversial when it comes to siblings’ rivalry 🙅🏽‍♂️🙅🏽‍♀️. But, trust me, my laziness is more powerful than this lovely rivalry. 💪🏽
You can see my amusement in the picture below.

One funny thing that I remembered about this picture is that the T-shirt 👕 that I am wearing was given to me by one of my ex-girlfriends in college. Now you will say what is so funny about that, well, the funny part is we were in relationship only for a week or two, before things went downhill; But that story is for some other time.

Now, getting back to the Holi celebrations, there is a tradition at my home to invite friends and other family members for some snacks 🍿 and Indian Masala Tea ☕️. This was the first time in a long time that I was home, so I invited a few of my childhood 🧒🏽 friends home. It turned out to be a bad call for me, because here is what they did to me! 🤣

My friends acted like most friends do. 🤷🏽‍♂️ They ate food at my place and then did not leave without coloring me. They did not even use the dry color or something which will get off quickly. I am sure they deliberately used the harsh color for skin so that it will take at least a week or two to get off. But, hey, that’s what friends are for, right? I do not regret inviting them over to play Holi with me a single bit. 👍🏽

Here I am with my friends.

After they left, the first thing I did was to check if the color could get off quickly and boy, I failed! 👎🏽 So, instead of cursing them, I continued with my day like it was no big deal – which is true for most of us in India, especially during Holi.

I clicked many pictures with my family; Spent much needed quality time with them, as I was about to leave for work in a couple of days. I was so not ready 😐 to bid goodbye 👋🏽 to my family, but had to do it!

Gosh, I miss those simple times so much! It is true, no matter how big you become in life, you are sure to miss the good old days! #nostalgic 😁

Hope it was worth the read! Catch you on the flippity flop.