A splash of Holi ambience

Bishaldeep Kakati

(The writer can be reached at deep.kakati99@gmail.com)

Holi Hai! Bura Maat Mano Holi Hai! And when these chants reverberate in the atmosphere, in the windy month of March, we can definitely descry the joyous festival of Holi to be round the corner, and thus with it follows a majestic aura of universal love and brotherhood.

Being very nostalgic, as a juvenile, whenever we heard the word ‘Holi’ the first thing that came to our mind was to greet each and everyone with a handful of different colours or ‘gulal’ (as they say). And probably, this is one such festival in which the bevy of people never mind to beautify themselves with colours that flow from each and every nook and corner.

Even mother nature somehow finds herself to enjoy every single moment of the festival, and that can be definitely deciphered, when suddenly a March month’s zephyr flows, carrying with it the different blend of colours, from east to west and suddenly in a moment of time the nature experiences a rainbow manifested by different blend of colours. And these are some of the actual souvenirs that remain attached to our minds, whenever we confabulate about this jovial festival, which is unique in its own ways.

Holi has a very special distinction among the many festivals celebrated in a diverse country like India. Each and every community or tribe, who celebrate this fiesta, have their own characteristic legends associated with it, as a result of which, they embrace this festival in such an enthusiastic and gleeful way.

In Hindu mythology, legends assert that the festival of Holi was first celebrated when Narashima (a reincarnation form of Lord Vishnu), in a rather freakish way, killed the vicious demon king Hiranyakashipu who was continuously doing horrendous crimes over his own child Pralhada, as the latter was a disciple of Lord Vishnu, and the demon king could never accept his child to be the disciple of the Almighty. However, Lord Vishnu finally killed the demon, to symbolize the victory of good over evil and hence this started the festival of colours in the honour of Lord Vishnu and his follower Pralhada. In another scenario, people believe that the festival started in the Brij region of India, where the Hindu deity Krishna grew up, and the festival was celebrated until Rangapanchami, in commemoration of the divine love of Radha for Krishna. And in this way, the festival has huge number of tales and folklores linked with it.

The festival of Holi also has significant and pivotal importance in the mystic land of Assam as well. A place in lower Assam, known as Barpeta, always becomes a centre of attraction during this festival. The whole aura of Barpeta gets revamped during Holi, as the Barpetians eagerly wait to welcome the ‘Doul Utsav’. The significance of Doul Utsav lies in the fact that it was Mahapurukh Sreemanta Sankardeva who started this festival after his great work ‘Chinhajatra’. Doul Utsav is celebrated for three to five days. The three days Doul is called “Deka Doul’’ and four or five days Doul is called “Bura Doul”, and the latter is organized in the month of “Phagun Purnima’’(full moon) in the same time, when the rest of India celebrates Holi.

During this festival of “Doul Utsav’’, the joy of the people goes beyond limits and they colour themselves in a divine and spiritual way. And this joyous ambience can make any individual to jump, dance and frolic in exhilaration. Not to forget, rhapsodies of praise must also be bestowed upon the “Holigeets’’(that are sung in name of Lord Krishna) simultaneously, that make the atmosphere overall musical and spiritual. Thus the milieu that prevails during the “Doul Utsav’’ days is more of an emotion that is felt, hard to describe with words.

But as the years passed and the days evolved, even this festival of colours has undergone quite drastic changes in terms of its celebration by the burgess, and that probably have come as hindrances to the rich rituals and vintage traditional ways of celebrating it. The modern scenario of Holi that we can discern stepping in to the 21st century is quite disturbing. People, especially in the urban area, have developed a tendency to celebrate this festival in a westernized form, and hence sadly, even this festival has slowly started to experience the perks of globalization. Over the last 5-10 years, especially in the metropolitan cities, it is seen that during this festival many sort of incongruous things are organized that are still baffling the bevy concerned about the need of such bizarre things. And among those, one such thing that has become very popular among some young boys and girls is the “Rain Dance”, where people most of the time are found to wet themselves in a never-to-cease flow of water that the organizers of such events provide and it seems that the people involved in those sort of events are in a complete different planet, with or without their senses, which doesn’t justify a healthy scenario. Even many people believe that the “Rain Dance” is an Indian version of “La Tomatina” of Spain. And because of this, the cases of eve-teasing have also increased considerably. The alcoholic consumptions during this festival have also risen to a higher graph, resulting in violence, accidents among people, which definitely confer a negative attribute to the actual reason of celebrating this festival. Furthermore, the artificially produced chemical and synthetic colours have also led to many skin diseases and rashes among people, which were the unlikely cases, may be a decade or two back. Hence all these factors, have alarmingly put a question as to whether have we really forgotten the real essence of celebrating Holi with each passing year?

However the knowledgeable bevy of people also know that change is indeed inevitable and is bound to occur with time. But then, in the name of change, the main or actual reasons of celebrating a festival should neither be forgotten nor ignored and this stands as the most important issue to be considered, especially while celebrating this festival. Nevertheless, as even for this year’s Holi, the entire people expect the sabotages to reduce, salubrious environment to be created, peace and harmony to prevail, and most importantly to espy a colourful ambience, that will enrich the festival in the longer run.