HOLI

Holi…hmm...lots of memories attached to this day.  Have seen these happy holi messages on Facebook last night and immediately wanted to write on it. It was so hard to control my anxiety. If I started writing then itself, I knew I would end up waking really late and screw up next day morning. However, I neither slept well nor started writing. Have to do something about this anxiety disorder..Let’s get into that later.

            So, where did holi start first in my life? Let me rewind the reel to the good olden days of Khammam. Growing up in Khammam is the best part of my life. It’s neither Andhra nor Telangana. Right on the border. We celebrated holi without discrimination of any kind. Thanks to my family who let us play equally bad with boys. 

          As everyone did, we would also wear our old clothes and get them as dirty as possible. We would not go to the extremes of breaking eggs or putting the silver paint. Holi had a big break when I entered my 11^th & 12^th grades. (Inter). I was studying at my uncle’s place in Rajahmundry where people did not celebrate holi. Sikh migrants from Punjab lived in huts at the corner of our street. They would play holi to the fullest. You should see my face on that day on both the years. My eyes were almost filled with tears of disappointment.

            Now, comes the real holi I celebrated with my totti gang of friends from college. Had great fun in first year of college. But the second year is the one which remains colorful forever. It started with me going and waking up the laziest cat of our class, Priya Gopalan who slept till 12:00 PM. Banging her door at 8:30 or 9:00 AM was like waking her up at midnight…hahaha..(Priye, don’t make a grrr face now..you can it take it out later on me). I rushed her to brush her teeth. Then the duo goes to Vineela’s place. Pack her along with us and keep running around houses messing with everyone.

Then we go to another classmate Vijaya Lakshmi’s home. That poor girl just washed her head, hanging her hair loose and I donno which dumbo would wear a white chudidaar on holi and was nicely relaxing in her front room watching TV. She totally freaked out on seeing us and pleaded,  please no..please no.. I said, oh ya, we won’t do anything..Can you please get me a glass of water? She ran inside thinking that I was really thirsty. OK, take your guess now as of what must have happened? I just turned around for a quick second, mixed the color in my hands into the glass and dumped on her head…hahahahaa…what a sadistic idiot I must be? Hehehe..that’s what I was and that’s what Holi means..:) And I think she got a nice lecture from her elder brother later. Ofcourse, that’s what elder brothers are for..I didn’t have one. So, no worries.. :-)

            The next victim is Leela. Knocked on her door, gave her a mini heart attack, she knew there was no escape. Hands full of color and water. At the end, her brain worked like mercury and asked, where did u girls get the water from? You did not ask me for some? All the eyes looked at each other bewildered. (That was a pretension..okay!) I then pointed to the puddle in front of her house. (It was formed by god knows what? Rain or keep your guesses going on). Now, comes the holler of the day…poor Leela. Sorry re..hahaha

            The trip goes on and on, door after door, home after home. We touched the untouchables (I mean the good kids like Ushalatha who are pretty studious and decent you know) too..Who all did we mess up with? Lakshmi Madhuri, Kavitha. Just not recollecting if my darling Sushma was with me or not that day? Ammo, she will kill me if she was there…గుర్తు లేదే, ఉంటే గనక క్షమించేసేయ్. Finally it’s noon and we end up in Neeraja’s home. It was a big gang. One by one, we started realizing how muddy and soiled we were. Some of the girls wanted to shower afraid to go home the way they looked. It then struck me, what’s my plight going to be if I am home?

            Even the guys are home by 12:00 at noon. And girls are not yet home..Oh, it’s a big thing!! Huh!! Priya happened to call her home and her mom informed that my mom called. I reached home past noon. (Don’t remember what time though). I managed to talk to my sister discreetly who informed that my mom was enraged due to my delayed arrival. By god’s grace, she was tired and sleeping. I quietly cleaned up myself and crept to sleep. Of course, I had my dosage later part of that day. Rest is history, but not a Mystery!!
                    And don't ask me about the Holis after that. Never had any. The one or half I had were never like before.

P.S: Girls, if any one of you happen to read this and don’t find your names, excuse me. My memory is like that of Ghajini’s these days. If your name is there, then feel free to leave your curses!