KARACHI: The people holding little plastic packets with powder colour and those with spray and water guns spared no one while celebrating Holi, the festival of colours, at the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir on Wednesday evening.

Whoever got colour splashed on them and didn’t look too pleased about it was consoled with an unapologetic grin and the appropriate justification: “Holi hai!” And quite frankly those who were trying to stay away from colours didn’t really belong at the festival. They also needed to be educated about the history and background of the festival.

People laugh and play as they run around drenching one another in colours from evening till dawn

Holi is celebrated at the onset of spring, hence the colours. And it is also a way of celebrating the harvest season. The full moon after the end of February is when Holi is celebrated and people laugh and play as they run around drenching one another in colours from evening till dawn when the moon is no longer visible. The large courtyard behind the Swaminarayan temple is the place to be during this time.

The vendors encourage you to buy all colours. “They only cost Rs10 and Rs20. It’s not any more expensive than the smiles on the faces of the people playing Holi,” said one vendor. He also went on to explain the significance of each colour. “Red and pink are the most popular colours as they signify happiness, yellow signifies hope just like green is associated with prosperity and blue is the colour we are mostly surrounded by as the sky above you is blue as is the sea,” he said, adding that all his colours were easily washable.

These days the trend is also towards gold and silver glitter. Meanwhile, for those who have watched too many Bollywood movies where the actors are shown wearing white, one was informed that white was the colour of mourning. And thus no one at the temple could be seen wearing white.

The celebrations reached a climax after dark when following the prayers carried out by the temple poojari, the Holi Mata, resembling a Native American tepee was set ablaze as the women, especially the newlyweds, and recent mothers engaged in pooja. Of course, the ones throwing colour at each other never stopped to worry about pooja. They kept playing Holi as loud Bollywood music played in the background.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2019