Khelo Bachpan Wali Holi:HAPPY HOLI!

HOLI ! Whenever that time of the year comes, I am overjoyed and wish the celebration never ends. I Don't even remember a time when I haven't celebrated this festival. 

Yes there is a story behind this, There was once a very cruel king called Hirnakashyap who had a son called Prahlad. Prahlad was very good and always prayed to the god Vishnu, which made his father very angry. The King tried very hard to make his son give up his belief in Vishnu.So the King ordered his sister Holika to take Prahlad in her arms and for both of them to walk into the burning fire. The plan was that Prahlad would die and Holika would be saved because she was protected by the gods of flames. What the King did not know was that the gods' charm over Holika didn't work for one hour during the day. The hour chosen for lighting the fire just happened to be that very hour. When the flames came up, Holika died and Prahlad was saved by Vishnu.

Prahlad was so sorry for Holika that he promised to name a festival after her. So now we have the festival of Holi. 

BUT, what excites me the most is the next day of the 'holika dahan' when we celebrate it with colors. As Kids , we used to have a gang and would roam about in our neighborhood throwing colors at every passerby and drenching them with water. I confess that we used to put those dangerous,chemical colors mixed with water which takes many days to come off and harms the skin. As years passed by ,our parents made us stay away from those chemicals and forced us into playing with Gulal or herbal powders which are not harmful and guess what? the fun remains the same.! 

Me with my roommates in Hostel Holi

I remember the preparation we used to do before we jump into the field with our weapons of Pichkaris filled with colored water and a bag with lots of gulal pouches. To make the color not stick to the skin for long, we used to rub our whole body with Parachute oil. it was the best color repellent and not only helped in removing off the colors from our body but kept it moisturized too. Our hair would be remain the same even though it was filled with color.

The whole colony would be  divided into several teams and we used to strategize our moves and who would  target whom.no one would be spared, not even the elders or the aunties and big sisters who make a fuss about getting colored or skin issues. There is a saying that we used to shout all the way while coloring people “Bura na mano holi hai’ It was so much fun.

Foes became friends and  elders became children again.

After about 4-5 hours, tired and all colored we would rush into our houses to feast on the delicacies of the day, The yummy gujjias, the fried papads and chips, the chole-bathuras and what not.

Having The Holi Fun OUR way!

 I remember a particular incident when while coming out of my house, I carefully locked the door and instead of giving it to my mother , I swung the key inside my home through the window. I have no idea why I did that stupid thing and I could see my siblings eyes glaring at me. But there was no time to curse and we just forgot about it and went put to play HOLI. later that afternoon, exhausted, as we made our way to the house, we remembered the morning incident. Now came the tough part and I was the center of attraction. what made matters worse was that two of my neighbors kids had put their home keys in my house only and now since the my key was gone ,theirs was too. I got the bullets and had to listen to everyone with a guilty smile on my face.all were hungry and no one had the patience to shout on me more and thus we decided to get the key back.we could see the key lying on the floor through our window. Then all the brilliant minds came together and by taking the help of our infamous Jugaad, we decided,would take every long thing we see, tie them together and attach a wire, turned into a hook to the end and try to lift the key with it.After an hour of struggle, and improvising our methods, we finally got the key out. There was a cheer of victory as we rushed inside and went directly into the kitchen  where the delicious food was awaiting us.

The end was amazing and I still laugh when I remember this incident. Holi is indeed the best festival where you can have lots of fun with family, friends and even strangers. 

Just add a dose of color,stay away from harmful permanent colors, play dry and safe Holi. Protect your eyes and DO NOT COLOR ANIMALS.

 Let you self loose for the day and remember your days of childhood. Happy Holi everyone!

 “I’m pledging to #KhulKeKheloHoli this year by sharing my Holi memories at BlogAdda in association with Parachute Advansed.”

Book Review of Arjun By Dr Shinde Sweety

Title: Arjun Without A Doubt

Publication: Leadstart Publishing Pvt. Ltd

Pages: 306

Price: 145

Author: Dr. Sweety Shinde

Arjun: Without A Doubt tells the story of Epic Mahabharata from Arjun and Draupadi’s standpoint. I loved how the author has glorified Arjun through Draupadi's eyes and vice versa. The language is perfect. I liked the movement of the novels. It is not a twisted version of Mahabharata. Mahabharatha is not just a book of wars but also a book of true love and relationships. Arjun is pretty much what we expect him to be: a champion warrior. The language of this book is elevated, without being difficult. The language brings alive the emotions of the characters. The bond between Draupadi and Abhimanyu has been captured so beautifully by the author. The book breaks some myths and describes the characters in new light especially draupadi and arjuna. The symbolization has been done pleasingly; the arrow representing Arjun, the peacock plume signifying Krishna, the blue lotus and, flames portraying the quintessence of Draupadi. The construction of paragraphs is at times confusing. Krishn is shown as a normal human being who was pretty good in strategy with excellent understanding.

Few lines which I liked from the book:

1. No person is great in isolation. It takes many hands to shape a life. Denial would mean conceit, and conceit is not the same as self-respect.
2. Power does not justify sin. Power is not virtue. Virtue is that which lasts inspite of power.
3. Don't underestimate your triumphs. Leave it to the enemy.
4. Religion is nothing but a series of conveniently placed loopholes.
5. Passion is a feeling born to bear pain. Bear it, or let go.
6. Deserts come out of volcanoes. Oceans come out of earthquakes. Nature has its own violent way of balancing its elements. We are just trying to imitate Nature in human form.
7. Absence of questions is not proof of answers.
   and the best one is the below quote which Krishn says to Arjun
8. Failure is always an orphan.
   

We get a glimpse of the hardships he had to undertake to achieve what arjuna did. As war approaches, we see these doubts surfacing, which finally leads Krishna to answer his questions about why the war must be fought. With a lot of focus thrown on just the two of them, who seem centric to the epic, Sweety manages to retell the happenings of Mahabharata with great ease. 

I lost track at a couple of places. Sometimes I had to read two or three paragraphs to understand whether it was Draupadi's Point of View or Arjun's. The author has done such a good job capturing his emotions in the rest of the story, I would have loved to have read more here. The author has done a marvelous job in clarifying those doubts by saying almost everything about Arjuna. If you’re a Mahabharat fan, I would highly recommend you read this book. Go grab your copy now. Totally worth it. I would like to thank Blogadda and Dr .Sweety Shinde for the excellent book.

I would rate 4/5